Elie Wiesel’s touching memoir, Night, shares intimate details about the cruelty of World War Two concentration camps and the horrors that occurred within them. Concentration camps were spread throughout Germany and Poland from 1933-1945 as the result of strong anti-Semitic views radiating from the President and Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler. In the memoir, Night, Wiesel shares of the time that he and his father endured being held captive in several concentration camps, and the battle to escape death, day after day. In the memoir, the significance of night was used throughout the piece to draw connections and emotions from the reader. In Night, night was used both literally and symbolically to portray the unknown, pain, and the end of a journey.
Night, a memoir by Elie Wiesel, is a moving and powerful account of the Holocaust. The book provides a first-hand account of the horrors of the concentration camps and the impact they had on the author’s life. In order to convey the emotional impact of his experiences, Wiesel uses imagery to evoke pathos, the appeal to emotion, causing the readers to feel sad but also hopeful. A way that Wiesel uses pathos in Night in order to create a sense of dread and sadness for his audience is by using vivid imagery of the horrible crimes he witnessed. “A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children.
Elie Wiesel's memoir Night is a deeply moving and haunting account of his experiences as a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust. In his writing, Wiesel employs a range of rhetorical strategies to convey the emotional impact of the Holocaust on the reader. Two of the most powerful strategies he uses are tone and imagery. Through his tone of sadness, anger, and despair, Wiesel creates a connection between the reader and the horrors of the Holocaust. Meanwhile, his use of vivid and haunting imagery works to create a visceral and unforgettable image of life in the concentration camps.
What can a person do if their language is tainted with malevolent intentions towards others, how about after sixty millions of their own people are inhumanly slaughtered with little to no respect? Nothing can ease a person’s trauma and torment, attempting to explain an event of such horrific context is extremely for a survivor of said event. However, another problem arises, how one thoroughly explains an event that they desperately do not want to relive. Many Holocaust survivors, who are literary geniuses, use a variety of methods in order to express their opinions and experiences to the reader. Elie Wiesel’s use of repetition, Art Spiegelman’s use of a bizarre genre to create symbolism while explaining euphemisms, and many survivors opening up to the younger generation at Holocaust themed museums.
Through Wiesel’s journey through all the concentration camps, the reader learns about Wiesel’s horrifying memories of the camps, the death of his family, friends, and himself as a Jew during the height of World War 2. Through imagery, Wiesel shows the brutal treatment given to the prisoners, showing the emotional trauma prisoners had to endure. By choosing between staying silent or speaking out during horrific events, Wiesel shows how the choice someone makes, either will stop suffering or let it continue. The first way,
Loss damages humans emotionally and sometimes spiritually but it is loss that makes us grow as members of a society. The need to prevent others from suffering as well overwhelms us and we become advocated against whatever has hurt us so much. In Elie Wiesel’s autobiographical novel Night, he suffers along with his family through the Holocaust. He watches people suffer and wither away, including his father. During his time of just under a year in concentration camps, Wiesel grew into a very mature and emotionally strong person.
By using such heavy emotions, both authors were able to articulate their experiences with the Holocaust and those around them. The two authors also successfully managed to capture an audience that appeals outside of the works timeframe. With an event as memorable as the Holocaust, it’s not difficult to focus plenty of attention on the event, but both authors managed to appeal to people who could not possibly have any real insight on the happenings of the Holocaust. The
Elie Wiesel, an American Jewish holocaust survivor, that was also a political activist, writer, and professional speaks a heartfelt speech to get across his message about the people who died in the Holocaust by using rhetorical techniques By using logos, Wiesel reiterates what it looked like to be a child and live through the holocaust that affected everyone around him. As a child, he was not able to thoroughly understand what it was like being a child when the Nazis made all Jewish citizens go to ghettos, using sealed cattle cars, which paints a logical picture. “A young Jewish boy discovers the kingdom of night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish.”
(101). This heart-wrenching scene highlights the emotional impact of the Holocaust on families and loved ones. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel struggles with his faith and belief in God, as he is forced to witness the atrocities that humans are capable of committing against one another. His candid and emotionally charged writing provides readers with a window into the psychological trauma that the survivors of the Holocaust endured. Lastly, Wiesel uses symbolism to depict the loss of humanity that occurred during the Holocaust.
Throughout Night, Wiesel depicts a situation in which the Jews were stripped of all emotion, as it transformed into an excess burden that was too strenuous to retain. Despite the fact that the victims of the Holocaust once lived joyous, genuine lives, they were leached of anything worth living for until they became hollowed shells whose only emotion was the lack of any emotion. In the end, the denial of their doom led to their dense apathy which coexisted with a plethora of fragments, which once formed their humanity, that were
“For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences” (Wiesel 114). The Holocaust caused many hardships for different groups of people. One way this is demonstrated in the literature department is through Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. While some may argue that topics surrounding Night and the Holocaust are too heavy, it is important to learn about the struggle that daily life in the camps pressed on people, how unethical the boxcar and cattle cars treated everyone, and the negative impact Dr. Mengele (The Angel of Death) had on the prisoners inside the camps. One way the Holocaust affected people was the daily life in the camps.
The Holocaust was a traumatic experience for millions of people, each with their own perspective. However, a common thread runs through all of their stories. For example, Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, said in the preface, “Was it to leave behind a legacy of words, of memories, to help prevent history from repeating itself?” to the new translations that his purpose in writing was not to forget his experiences, but rather to leave behind a legacy of words and memories that would help prevent history from repeating itself. Despite facing many hardships and death multiple times, Elie has found the strength to relive his experiences through writing and ensure that his story is told and remembered.
The book leaves me wanting more, leaves me heartbroken, and leaves me seeking answers. When reflecting on this book, I can also reflect on other Holocaust survivors and their stories.
Wiesel wrote “Our senses were numbed, and everything was fading into a fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us” (Wiesel 36) It shows the identity loss of the prisoners as they give in to the conditions of the concentration camp. It highlights the dehumanizing nature of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was an immoral machination orchestrated by the Nazi’s to eliminate any person who did not meet their criteria of a human. Millions were interned in camps all around Europe. Each person who survived the Holocaust has a different story. Within Elie Wiesel’s Night (2006) and the movie “Life is Beautiful” (2000) two different perspectives on the Holocaust are presented to audiences both however deal with the analogous subjects faced by prisoners. Inside both works you can find the general mood of sadness.
