Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

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Throughout the book Night, Elie Wiesel integrated the symbol of night to convey the deep and profound message that lies beneath the text. With the incorporation of night, the reader can see the images of death clearly. Not just the annihilation of Jews, but the death in faith, and the death of Elie’s soul. As an image, night comes up repeatedly. Even when the scene is set during the brightest part of the day, images of night are still invoked. The symbolism of night brings out the more prominent message. Night is used throughout the book to symbolize death. The idea of night is always invoked when the torment is the worst. Elie experiences many life changing events during the night. The incident that impacted Elie the most was the passing of …show more content…

Their good deeds and belief in something greater than themselves. Belief that each person carries the light within. Elie had lost his light, his beliefs, his values and in exchange he began to focus on food in particular. Food became his religion. Food became his whole life. After Elie lost his faith in God he was completely transformed. He was no longer a sweet and kind boy with a future. Food and vengeance overtook him and became more important to him then other people's lives. The thought of food took over his thoughts. During a execution of prisoners, that included 13 years old boy, he states, “This ceremony, will it be over soon? I’m hungry...”. In this ceremony 3 men were hung right in front of Elie. Elie saw a life taken and the man hang limp, yet the only thing he could think of was eating. This hunger drove Elie from a person to a hungry animal. There was nothing left in his soul, no meaning and no purpose, just survival and starvation. He lost feelings for humanity. The symbol of night is very obvious here. In the night objects and people lose their color, form, identity, and disappear into the dark. Just like objects lose their figure in the dark, people lose their values and turn into shadows of themselves, hollow and numb to life. In the night everything disappears into the dark, just like the hope, dreams, and future of Jewish people. Elie is no longer a human, but an animal struggling to