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Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

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Prisoners in Auschwitz received about three “meals” a day. Half a liter of “coffee” for breakfast, and a liter of soup for the noon meal. For dinner, the prisoners usually received about 10 ounces of black bread, with 25 grams of sausage or margarine, or a tablespoon of marmalade of cheese. The small amount of food prisoners got in concentration camps caused them to starve. In the story, Night, the absence of food caused Eliezer and others around him to slowly change themselves and their morales, hoping for a little extra soup or a crust of bread.

To begin, over time the absence of food changed Eliezer but mostly the people around him, which he had to witness. In the beginning of the story, people did not get psychotic over food or lack of, …show more content…

Yom Kippur passed while Eliezer was in the camp. People had to decide whether or not they should fast and Eliezer “did no fast”. The hunger caused people to give up morals and it caused Eliezer to give up faith. He saw people starve, he was starving, so in defiance he “nibbled on” his “crust of bread.” (pg.69) When the prisoners were being moved yet again their cattle car stopped. A “German worker” felt bad and threw a piece of bread into the wagon. “In the wagon where the bread had landed” people completely abandoned any sense of who they were and “beasts of prey unleashed animal hate in their eyes.” The people turned insane because the only thing that mattered anymore was food. (pg.101) A piece of bread was thrown into Eliezer’s cattle car and an old man got it. His son saw he had it and “threw himself on him” and then the old man died. “His son searched him” and found the bread. He “took the bread and began to devour it.” The son killed his father for a piece of bread. He was so driven for food that he basically threw his morales into the fire. (pg.102) The hunger made people do insane things and Eliezer had to see these changes in

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