The use of symbols and themes within the story serve the purpose to further analysis and to give a more complete understanding to the reading audience. Symbols and themes often complement one another to articulate the author’s purpose. In Elie Weisel’s “Night”, Elie uses both symbolism and theme to develop the story as it progresses. The use of symbolism throughout the story range from the constant reference of fire, the rising of smoke from the chimneys and even the presence of night itself.
Before they arrive at an unknown destination, the Jews from Sighet are crammed tightly together in a cattle train. In the middle of the night, Mrs. Schachter starts to weep and hysterically shouts that she sees a fire and furnace up ahead. Every other passenger on the train thought the lady was mad and tried to calm her down, but she just constantly repeated the same words. It got to the point that she had to be beat to be kept quiet. What the people on the train didn’t realize was that Mrs. Schachter might just have been predicting the fate of all of the Jewish people the whole time. This foreshadows the death of the Jews. Fire and flames are constantly referenced to throughout the story. The whole story is built around the Holocaust itself; in which holocaust directly classifies to ‘deceased in mass by fire.’ After the Jews were killed, their bodies were burned with fire, mainly so the Nazi’s could hide the evidence of what was left of their bodies. Fire appears throughout this story as a symbol of death or the presence of death. When the Jews first arrive at the concentration camp, they realize what Mrs. Scachter was talking about as they witness the life threatening crematories and the scent of burnt flesh. That gives the Jewish an idea ...
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...ies of many being burnt away. During his nights at the camp, he just observes the worst kinds of inhumanity possible: the punishing, beating and murders of innocent people all around him. Another major theme portrayed in Night is how inhumanity towards others slowly builds. Although it’s also no secret the Nazis themselves were full of darkness and cruelty, Elie also refers to how he feels a darkness enter into his soul after inspecting the flames. Here, he again questions challenged his faith in God.
In Night, Elie Weisel incorporates many different symbols. Symbolism works throughout a story to define the themes and major points in the story. The way the reader may interpret the symbols in are up to them, but either way, themes and symbolism work together for a better understanding of the story.
Works Cited
Weisel, Elie. Night. N.p.: Hill & Wang, 1960. Print.
When the Holocaust happened there were many Jews killed due to gas chambers and fires that hid their remains. The book Night is about Elie wiesel (a survivor of the Holocaust) and what had happened to him in auschwitz. Elie wiesel is an actual survivor of the holocaust who wrote this book to show the horrors of auschwitz. He was very changed after he came out of the concentration camp known as Auschwitz(the biggest concentration camp during the holocaust). In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, was affected by the events in the book because he didn't care if he died, he wasn't mournful over death, and he was psychologically affected.
The injustices and positively atrocious treatment of Elie and the other Jews became a clear corollary to Elie’s understanding of justice. His knowledge, as the author and protagonist, shapes the entire basis of his memoir Night. As Elie worked to survive Birkenau, Auschwitz, and Burma his view of justice changed the perspective he had on life. This understanding and viewpoint influences a reader’s comprehension and analyzation of Night. As Elie matures, his concept of justice and his understanding of the lack of equity shown by Hitler and the Nazi leaders towards the Jews matures greatly, causing him successfully to find the injustice in the concentration camps.
Night was an effort to open one’s eyes to what happened in the concentration camp in hope of preventing it from happening again. He devoted his life ensuring that the murder of six million Jews would never be forgotten and that history would not be repeated. Night was a dedication to accurately narrate what happened to the dead and share what they cannot. In the very end Elie achieves his purposes with a pen, paper and a
All forms of literature consist of patterns that can be discovered through critical and analytical reading, observing and comparing. Many patterns are discussed in the novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster. Among these patterns, he discusses the use of symbolism and the representation something can have for a different, underlying aspect of a piece of literature. These symbols tend to have multiple meanings and endless interpretations depending on who is reading and analyzing them. No matter
In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie goes through many changes, as a character, while he was in Auschwitz. Before Elie was sent to Auschwitz, he was just a small child that new little of the world. He made poor decisions and questioned everything. Elie was a religious boy before he
Those who were separated earlier on would experience hallucination resembling “Look at this fire, this terrible fire, have mercy on me”(25). Ms.Schacter experienced these hallucinations as a result of being separated from her husband and two older sons. The separation “shattered her”(24) causing her to become a prophet and foreshadow the flames to come. Elie the main character of Night after arriving to the camp notices dark smoke smelling like corpses coming out of chimneys in the camps. He soon realizes the truth that “the world is not interest in [them], [that] today anything is possible including the crematorium(33). Experiencing the atrocities first hand gives Elie ethos allowing him to realize the truly there alone, and abandoned by humanity. Later on Elie see’s “children [being] thrown into the fire”(33). This is the breaking point where Elie’s “soul had been invaded- and devoured-by a black flame”(37). The world allowing these actions to happen caused many to experience traumatizing scenes and resulting is loss of innocence as Elie did as a result of
During the Holocaust many people were severely tortured and murdered. The holocaust caused the death of six million Jewish people, as well as the death of 5 million non-Jewish people. All of the people, who died during this time, died because of the Nazis’: a large hate group composed of extremely Ignoble, licentious, and rapacious people. They caused the prisoners to suffer physically and mentally; thus, causing them to lose all hope of ever being rescued. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie went through so much depression, and it caused him to struggle with surviving everyday life in a concentration camp. While Elie stayed in the concentration camp, he saw so many people get executed, abused, and even tortured. Eventually, Elie lost all hope of surviving, but he still managed to survive. This novel is a perfect example of hopelessness: it does not offer any hope. There are so many pieces of evidence that support this claim throughout the entire novel. First of all, many people lost everything that had value in their life; many people lost the faith in their own religion; and the tone of the story is very depressing.
Why did Elie let it happen? What could Elie really have done as an alternative to save his father from dying? He could not have helped his father from being beaten up by the SS guards but he did try to help him from being attacked by his own men in his sleeping barracks. Elie really wanted his father to live. Elie does everything possible to help his father unless it would do harm to himself.
When Elie loses faith, darkness becomes an increasingly dominant piece of imagery in Night. Darkness reflects Elie’s sullen mood and dreary outlook on life. Nighttime entails fear and death, two things that Elie has become greatly accustomed to in Auschwitz.
...e has to deal with the death of his family, the death of his innocence, and the death of his God at the very young age of fifteen. He retells the horrors of the concentration camp, of starvation, beatings, torture, illness, and hard labor. He comes to question how God could let this happen and to redefine the existence of God in the concentration camp. This book is also filled with acts of kindness and compassion amid the degradation and violence. It seems that for every act of violence that is committed, Elie counteracts with some act of compassion. Night is a reflection on goodness and evil, on responsibility to family and community, on the struggle to forge identity and to maintain faith. It shows one boy's transformation from spiritual idealism to spiritual death via his journey through the Nazi's failed attempt to conquer and erase a people and their faith.
Having faith in something can help one with survival in tough times. Elie and his family were taken from their home to the concentration camp Auschwitz. His mother and sisters are killed and he and his father go to labor camp. They get little food and are transported to many camps. Elie undergoes operation for a foot injury. In the end his father dies of a sickness and he is liberated. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience - first believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
Fire is used to symbolizes horror and death. One example takes place when they are on the train going to the concentration camp. A lady named Madame Schachter was separated from her family and was losing her mind. The fear and dehydration caused her to become delirious and hallucinate a fire. She screamed many time, this is shown when Wiesel states, “She continued to scream and sob fitfully. Jews, listen to me…I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames” (302). These screams were also foreshadowing the crematoria and the flames that were burning human bodies.
In conclusion, in the novel Night, the Germens had so much force and power that no minority (Jewish individuals) could stop them. As a result, the Germans took advantage of the power they had and killed a lot of Jews in very unpleasant ways, thus illustrating inhumanity. The Germans had no feelings or sympathy for their actions and through the two quotations provided, it is evident of how the Jewish society lived in fear and helplessness. Elie will never forget what he saw the first night he was at camp and this was the build up of fear, also how the Germens executed the child shows that they are heartless by making the innocent suffer. These examples were very brutal and inhumane ways of dealing with the Jews, as a result the Germans took advantage of their power in the wrong way, abused it by doing whatever they desire.
Symbolism is commonly used by authors that make short stories. Guin is a prime example of how much symbolism is used in short stories such as “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and “Sur.” In both of these stories Guin uses symbolism to show hidden meanings and ideas. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” there is a perfect Utopian city, yet in this perfect city there is a child locked in a broom closet and it is never let out. A few people leave the city when they find out about the child, but most people stay. Furthermore, in “Sur” there is a group of girls that travel to the South Pole and reach it before anyone else, yet they leave no sign or marker at the South Pole. Guin’s stories are very farfetched and use many symbols. Both “Sur” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” have many symbols such as colors, characters, objects, and weather. The four types of symbols that Guin uses help the readers understand the themes in her short stories. Although her stories are farfetched, they need symbolism in them or the reader would not understand the theme; therefore the symbols make Guin’s stories much more enjoyable.
Symbolism “acts as webbing between theme and story. Themes alone can sound preachy, and stories alone can sound shallow. Symbolism weaves the two together” (Hall). Symbolism uses the story to convey the theme. Darkness is used in the novel to show the secrecy and lies that the story has. The whole story involves secrecy among two women and a man. Without symbolism the story would just have a very dark house and two very mysterious and disturbed women. Instead there is a feel of secrecy right from the beginning. Symbolism gives the story excitement, while also providing the reader with a good read. The author can read the first few pages and determine the story is not a happy