Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

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." (Wiesel 20). Through Wiesel's

Thereafter, was when hell grew and Wiesel and his father were now in a deeper hell at Block 36. "...I suffer hell in my soul and flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God's mercy? Where's God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?" (Wiesel 75). At this moment Jews were being swept away from their beliefs and convinced that they were in hell. This employed symbolism of hell as never ending agony. Unexpectedly, knowing how bad their destination could be influenced Jews to question God himself. Wiesel thought for a moment that maybe God would not have any place far worse than hell as it is conceived to be. Every block was thought to be a hell of barracks, death chambers, and savagery. In the beginning of the novel, their actions of hell come to light; babies are thrown in fire. The camps were the mines of hell and everything that was unimaginable came to life. Essentially, Wiesel knew anything that was near radius of his assigned block was just deeper in

The word "night" employs symbolism by their misfortune of belief and the night then turns to what we know today as the Holocaust. Prior to the Jews acknowledgement of the departure from Sighet, Wiesel expresses how the night has fallen and this is also mentioned again before this event took place. With that being said, this mentions beyond than just the time of day. This reference to the night fall helps introduce the Jews into their world turning upside down. This was only the beginning of the dullest, darkest era of their lives. But, inevitably the longest nights of their lives then on, this began an era but with every moment that lies ahead of Wiesel and the Jews. In the novel, while traveling on the cattle wagon to Auschwitz, before the New Year service at Bun as prisoners leave in a march, all Wiesel can think of is the night. "So much has happened within such a few hours that I had lost all sense of time. When had we left our houses? And the ghetto? And the train? Was it only a week? One night - one single night." (Wiesel 34). For every night after would be the longest nights of all their