Night Rhetorical Analysis

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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. In this essay, the usage tone and imagery in Night will be shown as these rhetorical strategies work together to create a powerful and emotional account of the Holocaust. …show more content…

Throughout the book, Wiesel's tone is consistently one of sadness and despair, reflecting the horror of the Holocaust."Behind me, I heard [the SS man] asking his comrade for a stick of wood. 'Isn't there a village nearby?' 'Yes, in the direction of Buna. But it's three kilometers from here.' 'Too far,' said the first. They consulted each other in undertones. The taller of the two took a few steps in my direction. I bit my lips so that my father would not hear my teeth chattering. We were face to face with the Angel of Death." (Wiesel 41). In this passage, the chilling tone of fear and despair is conveyed through the narrator's description of his encounter with the SS man, who is referred to as the "Angel of Death." The use of this metaphorical language creates a powerful and haunting image of the inhumanity and brutality of the concentration camps. The imagery of the teeth chattering also emphasizes the physical and emotional toll of the prisoners' experiences. By using tone and imagery together in this way, Wiesel is able to convey the overwhelming sense of horror and helplessness that characterized life in the camps. Overall, Wiesel's use of tone and imagery in Night is a masterful example of how language-based devices can be used to convey the emotional impact of a powerful and tragic