Tragic Irony In Elie Wiesel's Night

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In chapter one of Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, his purpose behind his use of excessive tragic irony is to display the astonishing amount of innocence and unawareness the Jews have about the Germans’ plans. For instance, Wiesel displays the Jews’ ignorance when he writes, ““There was joy, yes joy. People must have thought there could be no greater torment in God’s hell than that of being stranded here, on the sidewalk” (16). This exemplifies how the Jews truly believe that the situation was going to get better. This is tragically ironic because their situation was not going to get better, it was going to get much worse. The Jews don’t believe that what awaited them in Auschwitz was even possible. For example, Wiesel displays tragic irony when