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.
Millions of Jews forced out of their homes and are either killed immediately or forced to work until bodies gave up on them and died. Night focuses on the aspect of inhumanity a lot. The Nazi’s practically dehumanized the Jews and caused them to suffer each day, which is evident in Night. In the book, however, the Nazi’s are not the only ones subject to inhumanity; the Jews are a part of it also. Due to the harsh treatment, many of the Jew lose a sense of empathy. For example, when Eliezer’s father was practically dead the other prisoners beat him just because he didn’t deserve to live any more. The author is ultimately trying to argue that under the right conditions we may all lose our
In the 1930s-1940s, the Nazis took millions of Jews into their death camps. They exterminated children, families, and even babies. Elie Wiesel was one of the few who managed to live through the war. However, his life was forever scarred by things he witnessed in these camps. The book Night explained many of the harsh feelings that Elie Wiesel experienced in his time in various German concentration camps.
Elie’s loss of innocence and childhood lifestyle is very pronounced within the book, Night. This book, written by the main character, Elie Wiesel, tells the readers about the experiences of Mr. Wiesel during the Holocaust. The book starts off by describing Elie’s life in his hometown, Sighet, with his family and friends. As fascism takes over Hungary, Elie and his family are sent north, to Auschwitz concentration camp. Elie stays with his father and speaks of his life during this time. Later, after many stories of the horrors and dehumanizing acts of the camp, Elie and his father make the treacherous march towards Gliewitz. Then they are hauled to Buchenwald by way of cattle cars in extremely deplorable conditions, even by Holocaust standards. The book ends as Elie’s father is now dead and the American army has liberated them. As Elie is recovering in the hospital he gazes at himself in a mirror, he subtly notes he much he has changed. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie loses his innocence and demeanour because he was traumatized by what he saw in the camps, his loss of faith in a God who stood idly by while his people suffered, and becoming selfish as he is forced to become selfish in the death camps to survive.
Night by Elie Wiesel was a memoir on one of the worst things to happen in human history, the Holocaust. A terrible time where the Nazi German empire started to take control of eastern Europe during WWII. This book tells of the terrible things that happened to the many Jewish people of that time. This time could easily change grown men, and just as easily a boy of 13. Elie’s relationship with God and his father have been changed forever thanks to the many atrocities committed at that time.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
...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.
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.
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
“Even in darkness, it is possible to create light”(Wiesel). In Night, a memoir by Elie Wiesel, the author, as a young boy who profoundly believed in his religion, experiences the life of a prisoner in the Holocaust. He struggles to stay with his father while trying to survive. Through his experience, he witnesses the changes in his people as they fight each other for themselves. He himself also notices the change within himself. In Night, it is discovered that atrocities and cruel treatment can make decent people into brutes. Elie himself also shows signs of becoming a brute for his survival, but escapes this fate, which is shown through his interactions with his father.
Elie goes to Auschwitz at an innocent, young stage in his life. Due to his experiences at this concentration camp, he loses his faith, his bond with his father, and his innocence. Situations as horrendous as the Holocaust will drastically change people, no matter what they were like before the event, and this is evident with Elie's enormous change throughout the memoir Night.
Did you know you could kill 6,000,000, and capture about 1 million people in one lifetime? In “Night” Elie Wiesel talks about the life of one of those 7 million people, going into detail about the living conditions, and also talking about the experiences in the book that happened to him. The book explains how it felt to be in a concentration camp, and how it changed a person so much you couldn’t tell the difference between the dead and the living. Elie Wiesel is the author and he was only around 15 when this story happened, so this is his story and how the events in the story changed him. So in the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, “Elie,” is affected by the events in the book such as losing faith, becoming immune to death, and emotionally changing throughout the course of the book.
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.
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.
The ground is frozen, parents sob over their children, stomachs growl, stiff bodies huddle together to stay slightly warm. This was a recurrent scene during World War II. Night is a literary memoir of Elie Wiesel’s tenure in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel created a character reminiscent of himself with Eliezer. Eliezer experienced cruelty, stress, fear, and inhumanity at a very young age, fifteen. Through this, he struggled to maintain his Jewish faith, survive with his father, and endure the hardships placed on his body and mind.
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.