Imagery in Night by Elie Wiesel “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them for a second time”(Elie Wiesel). 1986 Nobel Prize Winner, Elie Wiesel, narrates his Holocaust experiences in the memoir Night to ensure that people do not forget. Night is based on the childhood experiences of Elie Wiesel during the Holocaust. Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania before the start of the second world war. In 1944 Wiesel and the rest of the Jews in Sighet are sent to Auschwitz the infamous Nazi death camp. Wiesel describes his time in Auschwitz by using nightmarish, gruesome, and horrific imagery. All this, in turn, helps make a personal connection with the reader.
Elie Wiesel describes his unorthodox arrival at Auschwitz by using nightmarish
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After sending young children, women, and the elderly away, men and older boys were gathered to be inspected. The Schutzstaffel (S.S.) picked the able-bodied men and older boys who could work and sent the rest to the crematory. Wiesel and his father lie about their ages in order to clear the first “selection”. On their way, to the barracks, Elie Wiesel witnesses a horrific scene “A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load-little children. Babies! Yes I-saw it with my own eyes…those children in the flames. Is it surprising that I could not sleep after that?” (30). Just after entering Auschwitz to flames and the smell of burning flesh Wiesel encounters a second appalling event. The line “Is it surprising that I could not sleep after that?” (30) is a piece of imagery which makes the event more notorious. This event strikes a different cord in most people as it involves small children which helps to invoke empathy from the reader. Elie Wiesel 's use of imagery to describe children being burnt is so gruesome and horribly sad. This in turn, sparks empathy from the reader for Wiesel’s