In both texts, a key concept is implemented: ‘Despair.’ Despair is presented in both poems through the oppression of the Jewish People; in both poems they manage to create a feeling of alienation in conjunction with isolation through manipulating their imagery and tone. ‘Refugee Blues’ is rooted in the 1930′s pre-second world war, when the Jewish communities were being punished for countless mistakes they had not even made. If we break down the title of both texts we can already begin to interpret the different tones, as well as emotions that will be in the pieces. ‘Refugee’ comes from the word refuge, which means safety, safety for the people who have been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. It is almost ironic how Auden uses this as his title as the Jews were anything but ‘Safe.’ ‘Blues’ is a music genre; typically it offers a slow, calm rhythm yet creates an uplifting vibe. Developed by the African-American communities, originating in the 19th century, around the ‘Deep South’ of the United States. Furthermore, in ‘The Last Night’ is set in France during World War Two, when the Nazis occupied and controlled France. If we begin to break down ‘The Last Night,’ we can immediately pick up yet again that the poem is going to involve death, or the end of someone/something. If we look at the second line of the poem, ‘deportees might write a final message,’ the word ‘final’ already gives us a clue that this may be the deportees final chance to write a message before they die.
In ‘Refugee Blues’ it is hard to interpret exactly who is talking to who, but at the end of every stanza a key phrase is said: ‘My Dear.’ This suggests that there is a man possibly addressing his wife or a love...
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...wards the end as they are being sent away to the concentration camp. Another, meaningful contrast is where we see, “the homely thudding of a Parisian bus. Five white-and-green municipal buses had come in through the main entrance.” Faulks manages to make one of the most devastating events in history, sound like just another day in France, when the locals catch the bus in the morning. The ‘Five white-and-green municipal buses’ are made to sound ordinary, when actually these vehicles would be transporting thousands of Jews to their deaths, and for most of them, it would be their final journey. Faulks also writes ‘now stood trembling in the wired-off corner.’ ‘Trembling,’ is a human action, which is caused by emotional pain or distress, which is also a form of suffering, as well the trembling of the buses also ironically applies to the Jews and how they are feeling.
This poem is telling a story, perhaps of someone grieving over the loss of someone lose to them, with no happiness nor hope left to have. “Here you sit beside me, Our shadows have outgrown us. The lamp goes out, The joy already came, already went. Our heart will grieve, We’ll sit here melancholy, Like children greatly punished. Here you sit beside me, Our shadows have outgrown us” Earlier within the poem it states “The joy already came, already went” which is meaning there is no joy left as it was once there, just sadness and sorrow left behind. This poem shows that he, and other people he was with, went through a great amount of sadness and loss because the Holocaust took loved ones and family members away and he may have felt as if he didn't have hope left any chance of happiness.
Throughout his novel, Night, Wiesel’s use of figurative language paints a picture of the emotional impact on the Jews to help the reader visualize how traumatizing the Holocaust is for the prisoners. One type of figurative language Wiesel uses throughout this novel are metaphors. The first example is during the trip the trip to the concentration camps of Auschwitz on the cattle cars. Aboard the car that Wiesel is also on is an old lady named Mrs. Schächter. Wiesel establishes that Mrs. Schächter is becoming mad, when she shouts, “‘Jews, listen to me,’ she cried. ‘I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!’ It was as though she were possessed by some evil spirit” (Wiesel 25). Wiesel uses a metaphor here to help the reader visualize how mad she
It is reported that over 6 million Jews were brutally murdered in the Holocaust, but there were a very few who were able to reach the liberation, and escape alive. There were many important events that occurred in Elie Wiesel’s Night, and for each and every event, I was equally, if not more disturbed than the one before. The first extremely disturbing event became a reality when Eliezer comprehended that there were trucks filled with babies that the Nazi’s were throwing the children into the crematorium. Unfortunately, the sad truth of the murdering babies was clearly presented through, “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there, […] babies”, (Wiesel, Night, 32). This was one of the most disturbing events of the narrative for myself and truly explained the cruelty and torture of the Holocaust.
...g their own graves and being shot in them. He then talked about being surrounded by death with no escape. He was foreshadowing the Nazis coming to Sighet. The part about death being around you with no escape meant everyone will lose someone or be around a lot of death, there is no escaping it. He added this because he wanted to show throughout the book they had chances to of escaped. The next example of foreshadowing is when the Mother had a “premonition of evil” and saw two unfamiliar faces in the ghetto. This foreshadowed the evil to come from the Nazis. The two people were SS Officers and the Gestapo (Secret German Police). The final example is on the train to Auschwitz and Madame Schachter has visions of fire. She says she sees “great fire” in the distance. She is foretelling of the crematorium in Auschwitz where Jewish people are being burned.
In Night, Elie Wiesel descriptively portrays the Holocaust and the experiences he has in each part of his survival. From the ghettos to the Death March and liberation, Elie Wiesel shares his story of sadness and suffering. Specifically Wiesel speaks about his short experience in the Sighet ghetto, a historically accurate recount illustrating the poor living conditions, the Judenrat and Jewish life in the ghetto as well as the design and purpose of the two Sighet ghettos. Wiesel’s description of the Sighet ghettos demonstrates the similar characteristics between the Sighet ghetto and other ghettos in Germany and in German-annexed territories.
The victims of the Holocaust lose sight of who they are during this time and begin to live their life by playing a part they believe they were because of their race. Loman discussed the irony behind the cat-and-mouse metaphor that Spiegelman uses in his graphic novel in his article titled “’Well Intended Liberal Slop’: Allegories of Race in Spiegelman’s Maus”. In his article he states,
Blues is one of the most captivating genres of music. The genre was originated in the late 1800’s as a method used by African American slaves to express the circumstances as well as to put emphasis on their feelings and emotions. In order to create these feelings in this music, blues artists incorporate many of the same techniques used to write poetry. One of the most easily identifiable songs in which it is easy to see the relation between poetic elements and blues music is the song “Empty Bed Blues” by Bessie Smith.
The train comes squealing to a stop at the station. Hundreds of Jews with all the belongings that they can fit into a suitcase with them exit a tightly packed train car. Immediately they are sorted into two groups. One heads into the heart of the camp to start a life of hard labor. The other goes to ‘disinfecting’. They are happy, cheerful, and suspect nothing as they approach the ‘showers’ for disinfecting. After they have rid themselves of their clothes, jewelry, and belongings, they enter the showers and are immediately locked in. They begin to feel suspicious and afraid, but by now, it is far too late for them to do anything. As the small pellets rain down from the roof, the terror builds to an unspeakable level. They try anything they can think of to get out. Screaming, clawing, praying, or pounding, anything goes. Slowly they begin to die. After about twenty minutes, it is all over. Sadly, this was a daily event at many concentration camps during the Holocaust. At Auschwitz, an occurrence such as this happened multiple times every day. Auschwitz was a designated death factory, killing thousands every day. Although there were many concentration camps during the Holocaust, the most notorious camp was Auschwitz.
Some take life for granted, while others suffer. The novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, contains heart-wrenching as well as traumatic themes. The novel unfolds through the eyes of a Jewish boy named Eliezer, who incurs the true satanic nature of the Nazis. As the Nazis continue to commit inhumane acts of discrimination, three powerful themes arise: religion, night, and memory.
A story of a young boy and his father as they are stolen from their home in Transylvania and taken through the most brutal event in human history describes the setting. This boy not only survived the tragedy, but went on to produce literature, in order to better educate society on the truth of the Holocaust. In Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, uses imagery, diction, and foreshadowing to describe and define the inhumanity he experienced during the Holocaust.
The holocaust is known for the great number of deaths; including the six million Jews. Ida fink is a writer that captures this time period in her works. In “The Key Game” she appeals to pathos because of imagery used, connections to your own family, and dialog used by both the father and mother. Through her fiction stories, she tells tales that relate to what could have been and probably what was. Ida Fink is known for telling her stories in a journalist like tone with very little color. In her stories, she does not like to tell you how to feel she instead leaves that up to the reader. Fink does place some hints of emotion just by writing the story alone. The interpretation of her works is left up to the reader. As you read through her stories some will find more emotion, some will find more logic, and some may see more ethics. At the moment, we will be looking more on the side of emotions within this story.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
You are/as any other sad man here/american" (Baraka 33-40). These lines describe how blacks are only familiar with the poor treatment they receive in the U.S and are oblivious to what lies in Africa. The tone of this poem is resentful and the theme is that people who are segregated feel distress, which is a clear relation to "Fatherhood Poem No.1."
The author’s purpose is to also allow the audience to understand the way the guards and superintendent felt towards the prisoners. We see this when the superintendent is upset because the execution is running late, and says, “For God’s sake hurry up, Francis.” And “The man ought to have been dead by this time.” This allows the reader to see the disrespect the authority has towards the prisoners.
...urvivors crawling towards me, clawing at my soul. The guilt of the world had been literally placed on my shoulders as I closed the book and reflected on the morbid events I had just read. As the sun set that night, I found no joy in its vastness and splendor, for I was still blinded by the sins of those before me. The sound of my tears crashing to the icy floor sang me to sleep. Just kidding. But seriously, here’s the rest. Upon reading of the narrators’ brief excerpt of his experience, I was overcome with empathy for both the victims and persecutors. The everlasting effect of the holocaust is not only among those who lost families÷, friends,