In the memoir Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, tells his story about his life during the Holocaust. He talks about his experience in the concentration camps and the traumatic events that occurred. This is all to show a few different meanings. Firstly, the title itself represents the darkness and anguish the Jews experienced. One way Wiesel expresses this meaning is through figurative language, for example, “The days resembled the nights, and the nights left in our souls the dregs of their darkness (Wiesel 94).”
In "Night” by Elie Wisel, there are numerous examples of figurative language. One of the most prominent uses of figurative language is imagery. In Chapter 4 of this memoir, Elie Wisel successfully illustrates an unsettling picture with imagery, "In no time, the camp had the look of an abandoned ship," (59). This symbolic imagery transports the reader to a world of desolation and abandonment, comparing the camp to a forsaken ship adrift at sea. Furthermore, the quote lays the groundwork for a scene rooted in emptiness and despair.
As he does so, he states, “For, despite all my attempts to articulate the unspeakable ‘it’ is still not right.” His use of the word “it” to describe his story is an interesting note; and this quote is vital as it helps portray his purpose for writing his book, which is to speak for the souls that no longer could and to help him cope with his experiences, but no matter how hard he tried he could never find the right word to describe the tragedy he had undergone. Tone is also an important factor when reading Night, tone helps the reader understand what the person is feeling, thinking, and going
This excerpt uses the night to symbolize the horrendous events of the Holocaust. The claim that the night was never ending indicates the loss of optimism within Wiesel. As a result, it demonstrates he does not care about when or where he dies. This is the outcome of the Holocaust already affecting him profoundly. By symbolically representing night as the Holocaust, Wiesel shows how appalling situations cause a loss of hope within
In the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, there are many parallels to other parts of the novel. In two passages provided, both of the situations involve terrible conditions and the detachment of the characters former lives. In the first excerpt provided, the people were so close together that they couldn't “...all sit down” (Wiesel). This is also true in the second excerpt, where the passengers on the train were excited to throughout the corpses because “they would have more room” (Wiesel). These two passages show how the people had such cramped living conditions on the train and they had to live with it, as well as a lack of food and proper nourishment.
The word “Night” is related to various imaginations and emotions. For example, night can be related to moon and stars, which are only seen at night. In this case, night seems to be mysterious and romantic. However, night can also be related to darkness and horror, so loneliness and fear accompanies one into the night as a result. Robert Frost chooses the night to be the theme of one of his poems “Acquainted With The Night”, and shapes a narrator who is acquainted with the night.
The flags are “scarlet” and “snowy white,” they have not been dirtied or scarred by battles unlike the men. The way they wave is also different with the way the soldiers are mounted. In the end, it is up to the reader’s discretion to think where the flags are acting an image that unifies, or as a completely different thing from the horses, river, and the soldiers. In Robert Frost’s Acquainted With The Night, he uses symbols and images to set a tone of not only seclusion but also silence and loneliness.
This creates in the former a sense of community and in the latter a sense of isolation. Isolation is a prevalent theme in Acquainted With The Night. Much of the imagery in that poem - the speaker walking past the watchman with his head down, the moon all alone in the sky- serves to reinforce this sense of isolation. To Frost, the night symbolizes loneliness. Conversely, Dickinson’s poem, through diction such as “we,” and “our,” gives the impression that all of humanity is in the darkness together.
In the poem, “The Onset”, the diction and attitude gives off a depressing sensation. Throughout the poem there is constant references to death and life, evil and good, and human limitations, which develop the concept that Frost has accepted the idea of death and that it’s apart of human nature. In the first stanza, Frost mentions the season of winter and giving up to let death fall, which ties in the theme of nature by letting it describe the writer’s emotions being still and useless. It forces the reader to sense that this season of winter characterizes and conveys an image of despair. Frost implements the use of poetic devices and diction to have the reader understand the moral of the poem.
Through all this, the poet seems to ultimately suggest that night in the city is not a period of darkness; it is a smothering blanket separating us from one another. The speaker establishes the central thought of the poem in the first line, in the titular phrase indicating he is familiar with the night. His use of the word ‘acquainted’ here indicated it is a temporary but known aloneness. In the next lines, he establishes how far he’s traveled to shake off this isolation, but to no avail.
This poem by Robert Frost may not be as well revered as ‘The Road Not Taken’ or ‘Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening’,but that does not mean this poem is less in any way. His works intertwined both universally faced human problems and dilemmas with the natural world. The setting of the poem “Acquainted with the Night” is set in a raining city at night, a place where the human made light is difficult to escape. Man and the natural world seems to be a frequent theme throughout Frosts pieces. Lines such as “I have outwalked the furthest city light”(Line 3), portrays how the narrator has experienced freedom from the views of society by escaping to the true natural world and wishes to share that with the reader.
This way of writing keeps the attention of the reader and the poem is comprised of 14 stanzas and 7 sentences. The initial tone the reader receives from Acquainted with night by Robert Frost is loneliness, sadness and empathy for the writer. Frost emphasizes this by using the first-person term “I” anaphorically, in the beginning of the first 5 sentences which accentuates the point of how he is feeling isolated. The repetitious nature of that word makes a fine point to the reader.
The imagery in Robert Frosts poem “Acquainted with the Night” paints the description of loneliness and uncomfortability with his surroundings. The fate of his character’s loneliness and solidarity is dependent on his ability to acquainting himself with society. Robert Frosts description of the “Acquainted with the Night” presents an atmosphere and setting that is isolated and dark. The statement “I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain”, is a common theme in individuals who are going through depression. The narrator’s inability to make eye contact indicates that he is unable to interact in society.
The phrases and words that frost uses set a gloomy mood throughout the poem with words such as unwilling, cry, unearthly, saddest, and dropped. Frost’s “use of “one” signifies a single person with a lone consciousness” (Kent 2) while also exemplifying the isolation he feels with being alone. The poet says “I have walked down the saddest city lane”
In “Acquainted with the Night”, poet Robert Frost examines the inner workings of a lonely, depressed mentality. Through his extensive use of symbolism, Frost demonstrates exactly how confined and flustered someone in that conditions feels. There are two specific symbols that, if analyzed, unravel the meaning behind the poem: the symbol of darkness, the symbol of walking, and the symbol of large distances. Darkness is a perpetually popular symbol, and in this poem, it is certainly prominent/ Historically, darkness has been used to symbolize malice, evil, sadness — generally, anything adverse.
