Symbols In Night By Elie Wiesel

Imagine being involved in the world's largest mass murder, or even taking part in the process. This horrifying tragedy took place between 1939-1945. The books Maus, by Art Spiegelman and Night, by Elie Wiesel show many symbols to create a deeper meaning throughout the books. These sad books also portray a solid image of what it is like to be involved in the Holocaust. Maus and Night have a very similar tone that shows exactly how the Jews felt during this time. These non-fiction books are written from a survivor's point of view and how their experience during the Holocaust affected them. They were hoping to show people and make them feel somewhat of a connection to what they felt. They wanted to educate people about the Holocaust through

Within the book Maus the biggest and most obvious symbol is the animal analogy. To do this, the author placed the cats as the Nazis and the mice as Jews. As representing the Jews as mice, the author Spiegelman is showing an anti-semitic stereotype of Jews, as vermins or pests rather than human. As the Germans / Nazis are cats, they were made to be predators who prey on the Jewish mice. Within the book Night, the symbolism that portrayed a deep meaning were the flames and fire in the air; as the cattle car pulled up into Camp Auschwitz. “We stared at the flames in the darkness. A wretched stench floated in the air” (Night, 28). Just reading this statement about the symbol fire, creates a horrible image. This symbol means death, hell, and suffering. “In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh… We had arrived. In Birkenau” (Night, 28). In front of camp Birkenau there was a gate that read, “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work will make you free). This gate is ironic because this camp was the largest work camp and also the largest extermination camp. There were about 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 people exterminated within four gas chambers at this camp, but the gate said work will make you free. They later ended up calling this camp, the Death Camp. These symbols truly make reading Night and Maus a lot more

The animal analogy creates a picture where the cats ( Germans / Nazis) are always chasing the prey, which are the mice (Jews). These racial stereotypes and their actions gives a perfect representation of what the real event was like. The Germans were always after the Jews, this analogy creates a sense of awareness, to inform the readers. In Night when the lady Mrs. Schachter kept yelling fire, it created an image that was not a great outcome. It created a picture of everyone feeling worried and uneasy. “But it was all in vain. Our nerves had reached a breaking point. Our very skin was aching. It was as though madness had infected all of us” (Night,25,26 ). Mrs. Schachter made every person in the cattle car very worried. This creates an image of death and a bad outcome. The smoke coming from the chimney also portrayed an image of death and darkness. Any little statement within a book creates a miraculous image and helps the reader feel like they are right beside the main