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Symbolism In Night And The Book Thief

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Synthesis Essay

A symbol is a thing that represent or stand for itself or something beyond itself as well. A symbol can be a color, a book, or a person. For example, Melissa de la Cruz used symbols when she stated that “Black is the color of night. White is the true color of death.” In Night by Elie Wiesel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and the movie Swing Kid, symbolism found in music is a common theme that they all convey. Music symbolizes peace, comfort and freedom in the two novels and the movie.

In Night by Elie Wiesel, Juliek playing the violin in the crowded barracks is a symbol of peace, safety, hope and Juliek himself. Throughout the book, Elie mentions how dark and silent the night is, emphasizing the prisoners’ fear of the nightmares the darkness brings. However, as Juliek recognizes that …show more content…

In the movie, a group of teenagers dance to swing music at night, something that is forbidden in Nazi Germany. However, the swing kids still do it secretly because they enjoy dancing and it expresses their displeasure of the suppression of the Nazis by saying things like,; “Swing Heil! Swing Heil, Peter! Swing Heil!’(Carter, 1993). Dancing to swing music is a way for the swing kids to protest their denial of freedom, and fight against the oppression of the Nazis. One of the swing kids, Thomas, joins the Nazis and believes that he can be both a Nazi and a swing dancer at once. However, the swing dancers represent the opposite of what the Nazis stand for, and Thomas cannot be both an advocate for freedom and a part of a fascist regime.. Arvid says to Thomas that he“ would rather belong to any one... ANYONE, than belong to the Nazis like you do”(Carter, 1993). Thomas still thinks that he is not a Nazi, but he actually is brainwashed by the Nazis. He does not dance to swing music anymore, which represents the loss of his appreciation of the swing musics and his friendship with the other

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He eventually moves to Alaska and wants to run the Iditarod. He tells his stories and explains his relationships with the dogs. He explains the struggles using the literary concepts of symbols, theme, and metaphors to expand the reader’s understanding or the text. Symbol is an object representing something else. It is a concept or idea that uses something else to show it.

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and he had to miss a Jewish tradition for a game. Later on his background have been discovered, which lead his team to harm him. For what I’ve seen in both films, i thought that the movie “School Ties” was a better film because of the fact that anti-semitism was showed more in the film. Another thing is that in the film “Swing Kids” the only jews shown was only when the Gestapo was taking away a Jewish person’s thing from her house. And in the movie “School Ties” the main character is actually a Jew.

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Many books have the same themes and even some books have the same setting, ideas, or characters. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Night by Elie Wiesel, both Liesel from The Book Thief and Elie for Night both share a common theme: suffering. Both Liesel and Elie suffer from the loss of their family. It is very hard on them since they have almost no one to depend on; they are by themselves essentially. Suffering is a major problem that both Liesel and Elie have to endure with in order to survive.

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What is a symbol? In literature a symbol is an object, person, place or an idea that has a real meaning in itself and also a deeper and profound meaning . Many examples of symbols can be found in the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story of the book takes place in the roaring 1920’s and within the story Fitzgerald uses a lot of symbols as objects and physical location. The physical locations such as valley of ashes, Gatsby’s mansion , Nick’s house , the green light located in the Buchanan residents’ dock are not only places or locations that the author mentions, they symbolize emotions, feelings and other significant information.

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Throughout the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer seems to be able to get through the holocaust with much, if not all of his humanity intact. Although not the boy he once was, and although after his father dies he seems not to care about anything but food, he still wants to live and he wants to make it out alive: “ ‘Go back to your block. The germans plan to shoot you. Go back and don’t move.’ We returned to the block” (Wiesel 114).

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The motif hero in the book night doesn 't appear often, the word actually only shows up one time. The consonsept of heroes is what is tossed around. The guy in the beginning of the book that tells Elie and his father that they are age 18 and 40 so they won 't go to the crematorium. This guy is a hero because he saved Elie’s and his father’s life and maybe others well risking himself.

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The second “kiss” from God Elie received was in the Rabbi’s words. When his life began to progressively become worse in the camps moments like the ones in the ghettos were not common; he began to become more despair. The book Night states, “He was the only rabbi whom nobody ever failed to address as "Rabbi" in Buna. He looked like one of those prophets of old, always in the midst of his people when they needed to be consoled. And, strangely, his words never provoked anyone.

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It was in Auschwitz during 1944, at the time of arrival about midnight when the smell of burning flesh saturated the air. There was an unimaginable nightmare of a truck unloading small children and babies thrown into the flames. This is only one event in its entirety of endless events to be remembered in order to understand how deeply literal and symbolic the book entitled Night by Elie Wiesel is. The novel brings light to the reader about what the Jews faced while in fire, hell and night; nonetheless, the author portrays each and every day during this year as a night in hell of conflagration. "Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes."

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NIGHT In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when he said “The jews were ordered to get off and onto waiting trucks. The trucks headed toward a forest. There everybody was ordered to get out. They were forced to dig huge trenches.

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Also a symbol can mean something in real life. Could be a person or an object. In this story there were a lot of different symbols with different

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A symbol, a word by definition means, a material object representing something immaterial. The character Jack Merridew, in Lord of The Flies symbolizes chaos, insanity, and ego. In Lord of The Flies Jack Merridew symbolizes chaos by demanding, “’ We want meat’” (51).

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The use of symbolism in literary writing is essential. In this case, Wiesel uses the symbolism of “night” to strengthen his novel Night. He uses the significance of “night” to address the turning point for Elie, to show important events that occur during the night and to emphasize the importance of his life span. First, “night” addresses the turning point for Eliezer.

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“Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.” Symbols can add a deeper meaning than just an object itself that the author is trying to make. Symbols can also foreshadow what is yet to come. The audience can interpret a symbol in many ways it depends on their experience. In Southside Chicago the Younger family is struggling to have hope as they are always facing society.

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Symbolism in general is the building blocks to all sources of literature and can shape a piece of writing in many ways. Symbols in general can portray what something or someone represents, giving a deeper and metaphorical meaning to a symbol. Symbolism is often used within poetry, literature, music, or even art. This is how an author conveys a different meaning to the audience. For example artists may use the color “red” not only because of the color theory, but to convey love, passion, and maybe even health.

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Why is the book called “Night”? “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. ”(p. 34) Never shall I forget that smoke.(p. 34) That night, the soup tasted of corpses.

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