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Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

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In the short novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, the author discusses an event of tremendous scarring effect to him and all those unfortunate to be caught in it’s scourge, The Holocaust. From the new age diaspora, death marches, cremation, and many other tyrannical actions from the German Reich that left all witnesses traumatized. These horrendous acts brought out a primal version of self preservation in the prisoners. The prisoners self preservation is displayed through their fight for rations of bread, their relentless labor to avoid the path to death that is tested by Dr. Mengele, leading the prisoners ultimately to the crematorium. The scarce rations provided by the Nazi’s were the only reason most of the prisoners even attempted to stay alive. Similar to that of animals in the wild, they would fight amongst each other, regardless of heritage or past relations. “A worker took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon. There was a stampede. Dozens of starving men fought desperately over a few crumbs” pure animalistic desperation bred from the cruel removal of basic human needs. This cruelty, in turn, came with a much crueler fate for the captives as they fight to control their insatiable desire …show more content…

With swiftness and the carelessness of a sociopath, Mengele would frequently come and go throughout the many camps and sentence Jews to death. All with no direct cause but it was assumed that those seen as too unfit to carry out work at an efficient rate would be disposed of without a second thought. Ordering and killing indirectly he came and went like death itself as he would mark down the numbers of the captives. “Dr. Mengele was holding a list: our numbers. He nodded to the Blockälteste: ‘we can begin!’ as if this were a game”. The epitome of heinousness as he directed both women, men, children, and adults alike to the rather inhumane fate that is the

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Prisoners were first beaten brutally later hanged up and left to die. In the camp prisoners would be examined by SS man, Wiesel said “ Whenever he found a weak one, he would write his number down: Good for crematory” (38). The Nazi were capable of doing anything they wanted with the prisoners, according

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596 Words | 3 Pages

In 1943, during World War II, there was a mass genocide of the Jewish population. Many people in the concentration camps had lost everything from clothes to family to names. These people who after losing everything, gave up, lost their lives. But those who continued putting one foot in front of the other, made it through to the end. Elie Wiesel, a young boy at the time, has lived to tell the world about his experiences in Auschwitz.

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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.

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Probably one of the most prominent figures in the book besides Elie was his father, Schlomo Wiesel. Throughout the book, he desperately tries to protect his family no matter the cost and especially Elie — since they were together most of the time — in the concentration camps. In the book, there are multiple instances where Elie’s father looks out for his son by giving him his “knife and spoon” and also giving him his “rations of bread.” Other times he gives advice and encouragement to his son; near the end of the book, Elie almost sleeps to his death but his father wakes him up in time saying “‘Don’t let yourself be overcome by sleep Eliezer. It’s dangerous to fall asleep in the snow.

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Literary Term: Symbol Symbol: A symbol is an object, person, or event that has another meaning other than its own to represent an idea, object, or connection Example: “Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes… children thrown into the flames” (32). Wiesel, Night Function: Context: In Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer’s family had arrived in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Eliezer was separated from his family and was only left with his father.

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Many immediately think to blame the Nazis, and only the Nazis for the Holocaust. This is not the case however, as many groups all share a portion of the blame. In Elie Wiesel's book, Night, it is evident that blame be passed to Elie’s God, the Jewish people themselves, and the non Jewish Europeans. Elie writes how his non Jewish neighbors watched, the Hungarian police force the Jews to march. When this was happening, the Jews were insulted, and beaten; it was clear the police had dark intentions.

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During the Holocaust, food played a significant part. It was important for the way people took care of themselves and survived. The reason being was that in the concentration camps it was every man for himself and they sought food to stay healthy. Elie Wiesel had managed to keep himself strong and healthy for his father.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

In the memoir, Night by Elie Wiesel it demonstrates how horrific it was back then in the Holocaust and the Jewish people didn’t know if they would live to see the next day. During the Holocaust, the Jewish people were treated very inhumanely. The times in the Holocaust were very discriminating toward the Jewish people because they had no self worth and their presence did not matter to the Nazi’s. The Jews had to work countless hours and they hardly ever got a break. Even if the Jewish people did not get a break, it did not mean that they would get any portion of food.

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We receive more blows than food. The work was crushing on me. And three days after he left we forgot to say "Kaddish"(Wiesel 77) And so they were constantly thinking about how they could find some basic sustenance needed for life itself. The prisoners are further brutalized by the officers abusing them, which causes them physical and mental pain as well as making them worthless in the eyes of Nazis who look at them like objects.

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Symbolism can be seen through both good and bad alike. Though when it comes to instances that have to do with the holocaust, it’s almost always, if not always, a painful connotation. The holocaust is one of if not the the largest instance of mass genocide in recorded history. Leaving each Jew that survived with a different story to tell. While their story’s remained different, the pain that they each experienced was not.

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The Nazi's dehumanizes the Jews like animals by being psychologically deprived of their necessities. In the beginning of the story, the Hungarian police and later the SS soldiers force all the Jewish people into ghettos, Elie says: "There was no longer any distinction between rich and poor, notables and the others; we were all people condemned to the same fate" (Wiesel 21). The Hungarian police and the Nazi's take away the Jews individual rights as people and their safety as they are placed in a confined space they are seen as the same. Consequently, at the death camp, Auschwitz Elie was given a number along with other Jewish people to symbolically show them that they are inferior to the Germans: "I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other

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523 Words | 3 Pages

Elie Wiesel mentioned in his Novel "Night" that the prisoners came from a religious community, ¨The Jew of Sighet¨ (p. 3). Yom Kippur was a solemn Jew religious holiday where adults abstained from eating and drinking for long hours, except for sick people, children, pregnant women, or those who gave birth. Jews sought forgiveness of their sins by fasting. Even In a non-ordinary situation like the death camp, some Jews believed that they needed to fast more than any other day to clean their soul and seek forgiveness from God. They could not give away everything and became nonbelievers regardless of the horrific circumstances, especially for Elie, who learned and studied his religion at an early age, ¨ I studied Talmud, and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the

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574 Words | 3 Pages

After going through the holocaust many victims said that they suffered from PTSD, depression, and sleep disorders other had health problems due to the poor conditions of the camp. Night by Elie Wiesel is about the authors expirence of the holocaust as a teenage boy and how it slowly starts to break his pyche. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the author uses conflict, characterization, symbolism to enhance the theme that putting people in tortuous situations causes mentality and body to break. The conflict of misery Elie and others had to go through because of the Holocaust.

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The Nazis continued their torment by killing large groups of people in small, confined areas. This is supported by a Jew among Wiesel when he said, “we can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse”(31).

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487 Words | 2 Pages

In the memoir, Night, written by Elie Wiesel, the author discusses the struggle to survive during the Holocaust. A major theme illustrated throughout the memoir is survival. The two types of survival that are predominate are survival of the fittest and family commitment. The theme of survival through self-preservation is seen in the memoir Night the situations of Madame Schachter being beaten in the cattle car on the way to Auschwitz, the Rabbi’s son leaving him behind on the death march, and the son killing his father over a crust of bread.

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