A Literary Analysis Of Elie Wiesel's Night

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Night Literary Analysis Many people have written about their horrific experiences during the Holocaust, as there are many different stories to be told. But when Elie Wiesel wrote Night, he did not hold back on many details. He was very vivid with his grave memories. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses metaphors, repetition, and symbolism to indicate the unmeasurable amount of unnecessary pain, suffering, fear, and horror that had taken place. He wanted to exhibit that during this time, he was witness to many unspeakable crimes and horrors. Wiesel uses a variety of metaphors to display the suffering and pain that he and his family, along with many others, endured. Using metaphors makes it easier for people who did not live through something to imagine …show more content…

When Elie and his father were loading diesel motors onto freight cars, they were being watched by Idek. Idek was a Kapo, or a prisoner put in charge by the SS to watch over the other prisoners. He was in a bad mood, and took his rage out on his father. “And he began beating him with an iron bar. At first, my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning” (54). Not only was his father feeling pain, but it pained Elie that his father was letting it happen. Elie even felt anger towards his father for just simply taking the blows. But he knew that that was part of the pain in the camps, and there was not anything that could be done about it. Another incident was when Elie's father was laying down and didn't want to get up. Elie was arguing with his father saying that he would die if he continued to lay there. “I knew that I was no longer arguing with him, but with death itself, with death that he had already chosen.” (105) He compared his father to death, a symbol of giving up. He knew that everyone was given the choice; Keep pushing and straining to live, or give up and die. Elie’s father had chosen the second option at that moment. He had already lived through so much pain in such a short amount of time, that he could no longer go on. His father did not feel as if he had the strength to do so anymore. He was so set on resting that it was almost as if he just wanted to