Figurative Diction In Night

“One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live” (Wiesel, 109). Night described the horrific events of the holocaust from a first hand experience. In chapter 6 of Night, written by Elie Wiesel in 2006, he emphasized that hatred fuels our instinct to survive. Wiesel used figurative diction to create an unsettling tone. For example, while the prisoners were forcibly walking from one camp to another in frigid temperatures, Wiesel wrote, “Chilled to the bone, our throats parched, famished, out of breath, we pressed on” (Wiesel 87). Within this passage, the author’s purpose is to inform the reader of the fatalistic atmosphere. Furthermore, Elie’s desiderium juxtaposed with the poem “Fire and Ice” reveals that if humanity

Elie described this as, “We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, doomed and rootless, nothing but numbers,” (Wiesel, 87). The coldness of their surroundings coincided with their will to survive. After enduring months of torment, it is now stated that they are stronger than the “cold”. Coldness is something that can’t be controlled, and being able to be stronger than something uncontrollable, shows how you are able to transcend natural human nature and lead to destruction. Through the lens of the poem, being stronger than the cold coincides with being stronger than the hate. So, not only is he transcending nature he is also exceeding the hate thrown at him. When Elie was cold the hatred encompassing him only fueled him to keep going and to be something more than just a prisoner. They became another number in a crowd of even more faceless people. The snow that enveloped him was what was keeping him alive. As described in the book, “I shivered with every step. Just a few more meters and it will be over. I’ll fall. A small red flame…A shot…Death enveloped me, it suffocated me” (Wiesel 86). This showed the complexity of both themes: fire and ice. The ice in this case represented the colder they were, the closer to death the person became. The snow that represented hatred did not only surround him, it became a part of him. But after he felt that coldness, it was described as “a small red flame” and coupled with the poem, “Fire and Ice”, where fire represents desire. The flame in this case represented the want to die. With death quite literally getting closer by the second. Elie went back and forth between finding a reason to not succumb to his desires to die and allowed the hatred around him to charge his will to survive. The push-pull between hot and cold as shown in “Fire and Ice” showed an