The book Night is written by Elie Wiesel. For my history project I had to find a recurring word, or symbol from the novel Night. The word death is used frequently throughout the book. During World War II, Elie, his family, and other jews from the area, were deported to German concentration camps, known as Aushwitz and Buchenwald. In this true novel, Elie takes you through his journey of how horrible concentration camps are and how he survived
Of course, night is used literally in the book to mean a time of day. It is also used as a motif in the book to symbolize death, the Jews gradual loss of faith, and suffering. As an image, it comes up repeatedly. Many things happen at night in the book. The Jews of Sighet are loaded into the cattle carts; Eliezer arrives at Auschwitz; they are forced to march through the night; they're stacked on top of each other and suffocate each other, and Eliezer’s father dies during the night.
In the beginning of the memoir night is less prominent. Also in the beginning of the memoir I had the feeling that he set the mood at dusk. As the book progresses the tone get darker as the references about being in the dark and night become more frequent. Therefore the book slowly slips from dusk to dark to night and then at the end the sun begins to rise but the carnage caused by the monsters of the night is still there. I also feel that night refers to not only his time in the concentration camps but also the officials and those who never spoke.
Throughout his book the word night appears nearly every time something bad happens to Wiesel or his family; therefor, the word night can symbolize death or horrific events. In Wiesel’s book, “Night” he uses the term night on multiple occasions. Night is foreshadowing death or bad things. Wiesel’s father was summoned during the night by the counsel to discuss their deportation.
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.
In the memoir Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, tells his story about his life during the Holocaust. He talks about his experience in the concentration camps and the traumatic events that occurred. This is all to show a few different meanings. Firstly, the title itself represents the darkness and anguish the Jews experienced. One way Wiesel expresses this meaning is through figurative language, for example, “The days resembled the nights, and the nights left in our souls the dregs of their darkness (Wiesel 94).”
Night Essay “Night” is a term used often, usually to express a time to relax and rejuvenate, but in this memoir it takes on a completely different meaning. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the importance of the word “night” uncovers the most terrifying memories of most of the events that took place in the holocaust. Eithout the lack of natural neccesities such as food, water, and proper shelter, the journey from one camp to the next for the jews is going to take a toll on their bodies. As camps were starting to evacuate becuause of the red army taking on multiple victories, a mojortiy of the people were left for dead. “remained lying on the floor for days and nights, one on top of the other, never uttering a word.
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.
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.
(p. 65) Night is used as metaphor for darkness and death in the book “Night”. The first quote tells us that the experience was so bad in the camp that he can’t forget it. Because he can’t forget what has happened he has become a shadow for his life that makes him remember the terrible experience, which sealed his life. His life is sealed, because of the bad experiences that he had gone through.
The symbol I chose was God for Eli because he does talk about God quite often during his days in the holocaust from the book Night. This picture I choose is a pile of dead bodies to represent death for the symbol God. The reason I choose this picture because Eli had witnessed a lot of cruel things at a young age. He had worshipped God so much and had trust and love for him.
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.
NIGHT In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when he said “The jews were ordered to get off and onto waiting trucks. The trucks headed toward a forest. There everybody was ordered to get out. They were forced to dig huge trenches.
Another time where night represents a dark time is when Eliezer and his father arrive at Auschwitz and wait in line all night long with the smell of death in their noses as they watched all those individuals die. Finally, “No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”- Bram
In Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Night”, you can find symbolism and imagery throughout the story; however the symbolism was subconsciously done. Bradbury’s short story “The Night” has symbolism, such as the darkness representing not knowing what going to happen next, death and the fear of death; however the imagery in the short story is what the reader perceive as symbolism . When asked “Do you consciously, intentionally plan and place symbolism in your writing” Bradbury responded by saying “I never consciously place symbolism in my writing”, but even so many tries to “find beasties and bedbugs in my ink-splotches” instead of trying to look at “story...humanity, character analysis, truth on other levels…” The ravine in the short story
