Symbolism In Elie Wiesel's Night

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“Never shall I forget the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed, and seven times sealed” (Wiesel 32). As portrayed in this passage from Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, “night” is used numerous times as a central symbol. The nonfiction novel takes place during the Holocaust throughout several concentration camps. The word “night” literally means the period of darkness in each twenty-four hours; the time from sunset to sunrise, but symbolically it commonly represents sadness, fear, and negative commendations. The evil and death of camp life is one of the ways “night” is used as a symbol many times over such as when Wiesel first learns people are literally burned alive in crematoria. “We stayed motionless,