The element of symbolism is so strong and predominant in the novel “Night,” we are able to delve deeper into the heinous experiences the Jews were subjected to during the Holocaust. There is no sure way to empathize with the victims of the Holocaust, but survivor Elie Wiesel opens the eyes of the reader to so many encounters that the Jews had to face in order to survive. Wiesel was able to portray individual emotions while using tangible objects or acts. Elie’s father, the march of the Jews, and the fire in the story all represent a deeper interpretation of themselves.
For my creative response to Night by Elie Wiesel, I decided to make an alternative book cover. The theme that I chose to portray in my adaptation of the cover is the journey from darkness to light. My cover is black at the top and the amount of black reduces towards the bottom of the cover. I did this to show the transition from darkness to light that is shown during this novel.
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.
Elie Wiesel is the author of the memoir, Night, which is written about his teenage experience in concentration camps during the Holocaust. During this book, he speaks about how his innocence becomes lost and the painful memories he’s had to keep from this time. Throughout the book, Wiesel uses symbolism, imagery, and foreshadowing to portray the theme, just because you overcome darkness doesn’t mean you’ll feel the peace of light. Wiesel uses symbolism to depict how dark the time he spent in the Holocaust was. An example of this was when he said, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed” (Wiesel 34).
Night Elie loses his faith throughout the book, but it was not always like that. Elie used to be very religious and wanted to learn as much as possible about his faith. “One evening, I told him how unhappy I was not to be able to find in sighet to teach me the Zohar, the Kabbalistic works, the secret of jewish mysticism” (Wiesel 5). Elie said to Moshe the Beadle. His father wasn’t supportive of his decision so he took things into his own hands.
The motif that I chose from the book Night, by Elie Wiesel is “night”. This motif represents both physical and spiritual death, but it also represents death and despair. When Elie uses this word, it symbolizes when something in his life simply goes away, or when he enters a phase of darkness. For example, when Elie states, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed”, he is saying that the night that he entered the concentration camp, it of course changed his life forever, but it also was the night that he stopped trusting in God so much because he didn’t understand how God could be doing such horrible things to such innocent people. Now
The novel“Night” by Elie Wiesel was a story about Elie’s individual experiences as he endured the horrors of the holocaust at its worst. On a deeper more intellectual level one can take his experiences of pain and suffering and dissect them down to find a deeper more intellectual meaning. The intense marching, severe cattle
in the book “night” Eliezer Weisel says, “night fell, night had fallen, and night was falling. Eliezer Weisel means that by night people were dying and passing away. This has a reference to death because when people die they close their eyes, and its night forever. There were people dying left and right. Some people believed that if they died they would be with God.
In the beginning of Elie Wiesel’s Night Elie is very faithful to God and eager to learn about God, the Kabbalah, and mysticism. When asked why does he pray Elie answered, “Why did I live? Why did I breathe?(4) ” After one of God’s Followers and Elie’s leader, Moishe the Beadle gets back from the forests everything changed. News about the Holocaust starts to spread.
For me, the greatest moment of sadness in the memoir is when Elie’s father dies. His death is gruesome and much suffering is shown throughout the last pages of the memoir. A dramatic shift is made in Elie’s perspective after this traumatic event. His father serves as his sole motivation to continue on in their cruel conditions and without him Elie is hopeless and alone. I feel Elie's father's death also symbolizes the unjustness of their situation.
The dark, mysterious and life changing setting the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel contributes to the protagonist’s hardships between a spiritual character (God) and a minor character (his father). Eliezer, the protagonist, is faithful meaning that he respects and is influence by his God. “Oh God…have mercy on us” (20) as Eliezer “[prays] to his God…for strength,” (5) when arriving to the Ghettos. However, when arriving to the man-made settings such as the concentration camps, the relationship starts to diminish. The setting alters Eliezer’s judgment and now relies more on God’s faith to help the people at the camps.
The ultimate evil and the lack of regard for universal, human rights eventually leads to the heinous, inhumane attacks of the innocent Jewish population of Europe. The title, night, can illustrate the attacks the innocent faced because everyone is vulnerable during the nighttime when they are
Although the German dictators are trying to destroy the minds of their prisoners in order to create more compliant slaves, the Jews find ways to rebel and reasons to live. The Nazi soldiers take away everything they can from the jews except the basic human needs, but however hard they try, they can not take away their faith, hope, and friendship. These forces can not simply be taken away and they have become a coping mechanism for the repressed Jews because they are reasons to live and they make the grueling work easier. Most of the Jews in Night come from religious backgrounds, so they pray to get through difficult situations. Practicing their religion is a way of “escaping from reality” and “not feeling the blows” from the truncheons that
The well-spoken Quintus Horatius Flaccus, more commonly known as Horace, once professed that hardship has the ability to provoke hidden skills that otherwise would have never displayed themselves. This philosophy is especially true in comparison to the life of Elie Wiesel, a courageous Holocaust survivor. Wiesel writes to all who haven't lived through the horror that is known as the Holocaust, in efforts of “transmitting the history of the disappearance” of those who were brutally and unrightfully killed. With a tone of gloom and mourning, Wiesel argues that if it wasn't for the fire that was ignited under him to relay the stories of those who were lost at Auschwitz, he would have never become the descriptive writer that he is. Many find that
At times, it appears unviable for one’s life to transform overnight in just a few hours. However, this is something various individuals experienced in soul and flesh as they were impinged by those atrocious memoirs of the Holocaust. In addition, the symbolism portrayed throughout the novel Night, written by Elie Wiesel, presents an effective fathoming of the feelings and thoughts of what it’s like to undergo such an unethical circumstance. For instance, nighttime plays a symbolic figure throughout the progression of the story as its used to symbolize death, darkness of the soul,