In Night, Elie Wiesel uses foreshadowing, flashforwards, and repetition to explain the terror in the concentration camps back in World War Two and before. He does a really good job of displaying these literary devices to help the reader better understand the theme of terror in this book. The prisoners of these camps were scared and Wiesel was one of these prisoners. This makes the book more accurate. It also is really interesting to see what life was like for these prisoners coming from one of them that was a part of it. It’s really great that someone would write a book about this so that we can understand more about such a horrific event like the Holocaust. The first literary element that Elie Wiesel uses to help explain the terror in the concentration camps back in World War Two and before is the foreshadowing. These do a great job of showing us how terrifying the camps were. It does this in many ways. First off, the main foreshadowing that showed terror in the book Night was when Madame Schachter was going crazy on the ride to their camp in pages 22 through 26. Her husband and two eldest sons had been deported by mistake much earlier. This …show more content…
The repetition in the writing is when the prisoners of the concentration camps have to go through roll call every day. This is terrifying because if you make one wrong move, you get shot. Then, they restart the roll call, which makes you need to stand there even longer risking your life. Sometimes, they even shot you for no reason at all. Another use of repetition in the book was what they ate everyday. They ate bread and/or soup. You didn’t even get that much. This terrified the prisoners because it wasn’t very tasty to start with, but it didn’t help eating it everyday. They were too scared not to eat it, though, because you could starve to death if you didn’t. The author uses repetition to show the theme of
When Elie first entered the camp after the selection they walked past a burning pit. After looking closer he discovers it is the burning corpses of small children and infants. While gazing at the burning pit of blameless corpses he says “ Never shall I forget these moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes “ (34). Repetition is used in this section of Night to show the point of how Elie would never be able to abolish those numbing images of burning children from his mind. Elie stared endlessly into that pit he could discern the flames burning his faith that was such an immense fragment of himself to nothing. This was the commencement of the downfall of himself. All his life his parents sheltered him from the cruel harshness of the world. Now that he was in that horrid work camp that terrorized his life, he had finally seen the reality of what humanity is capable of but he couldn’t comprehend
Imagine not knowing where you’re going, if you’ll survive the night, or if you’ll ever see your family again. After Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the lives of millions of innocent Jews were placed into the hands of the Nazi Party. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel uses his personal experiences to tell about his life during Holocaust and the horrific events he witnessed. The author uses foreshadowing to strengthen the plot and give the reader clues to the atrocities he goes through during his two years in the concentration camp.
Often, the theme of a novel extends into a deeper significance than what is first apparent on the surface. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the theme of night and darkness is prevalent throughout the story and is used as a primary tool to convey symbolism, foreshadowing, and the hopeless defeat felt by prisoners of Holocaust concentration camps. Religion, the various occurring crucial nights, and the many instances of foreshadowing and symbolism clearly demonstrate how the reoccurring theme of night permeates throughout the novel.
Overall I think that the literary devices used in Night bring Wiesel’s words to life. They give detail to his experiences and help the reader better understand the different situations he experienced. You can see, hear, and feel each atrocity he faced because of each literary
“The Holocaust was not only a Jewish tragedy but also a human tragedy,” (Wiesenthal). The Holocaust was all-around a dark patch in history. It was something that although it took a toll on lots of people throughout the world, and the Holocaust had the biggest impact for those being Jewish and living in Europe. There have been many films, movies, and books depicting life during the Holocaust. Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, who was a victim of the Holocaust growing up as a Jewish boy and has as a result gone to numerous concentration camps. In Night, he describes a time period of his life which revolved around the Holocaust. Where his family, identity, and innocence were lost in a very cruel way. Elie Wiesel through his use of tone
"The three 'veteran' prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name".(42) By taking away their names and giving them a number, they made them feel unworthy. As the book went on every person in the concentration camps began to lose compassion for one another. As Ellie's father began to get sick, he had to start taking care of him like he was own child instead of the other way around. Ellie then became very tired of caring for his father. "And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!..." (112)Ellie was very upset that his father had passed but he was glad he was finally free. He did not say it aloud but on the inside he was glad he did not have to take care of his father. The conditions in the concentration camps were absolutely horrific and it made every single person concerned for their survival. As the men were running for selection many men fell. Everyone else just kept running like there was no one falling, getting hurt. All the men cared about was their safety. Ellie saw the men but decided to look out for himself. "Beneath our feet there lay, men crushed, trampled underfoot
The book called Night by Eliezer Wiesel is the true story of Wiesel’s experiences during the holocaust. Wiesel was born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania; he was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944, and moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp. This book is Eliezer terrifying record of his memories about how Jewish people were transferred to concentration camps. Eliezer explains how the Nazis treated them like they were animals, made them work hard, and fed them little food. (the food given to them was only bread and soup). Because of the abusive treatment Eliezer witnesses and endures at the hands of the Nazis
Based on the reading experience, what the author of the book, Elie Wiesel achieved with “Night” is having people understand the true horrors of the Holocaust. An evidence to prove that what Elie Wiesel achieved was achieved is the horrific events in the book and the reader’s general thoughts. By reading the book the reader followed Eliezer the protagonist on his survival out the camp alive, mentally witnessing and feeling the same horrors Eliezer had to face. Horrifying events such as child hangings on page 96 “...They hung the poor boy…”(Wiesel 96) and when Eliezer is finally free, it is not as if he ends on a happy note and is joyful but instead weary unable to tell if he is dead or not and filled with sorrow as Eliezer is constantly haunted
Night is an book that is filled with many different stories throughout the story. During the holocaust the prisoners in the camps killed, lied, and stole from each other because in these camps everything goes to survive. Night By Elie Wiesel, involves many cases on the dehumanization of Elie, and his other prison mates. The dehumanization happens all throughout the book such as: The incident that Mrs. Schachter has, a boy and his father on a train is another , And Elie’s thoughts changing and becoming intense and crazy.
Have mercy on me!” (Wiesel 25). Elie portrays the theme of silence using foreshadowing because Mrs.Schachter was yelling about the fire yet no one believed her. The people on the cattle car all thought she was going crazy and hallucinating, but in reality she was trying to break the silence. Little did everybody know, but Mrs.Schachter was actually foreseeing the future. Elie Wiesel also states, “ He spoke only of what he had seen. But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen...Only no one is listening to me…” (Wiesel 7). Elie stablishes the theme using foreshadowing because he was only telling what he had seen and what had happened to him, yet no one was believing him. By everybody not believing him, it got them
Throughout the novel Night, we follow Elie Wiesel through his horrific experience while in Auschwitz. While in Auschwitz, Elie goes through terrible beatings as well as seeing many sights one could not possibly bear to see for a long period of time. Elie learns of the true horror of Auschwitz by experience, which causes him to gradually lose faith in his religion he has been practicing his whole life. Elie is also separated from everyone in his family except for his father who is in Elie’s group. The novel seems to foreshadow what is to come when it states that the “[G]erman soldiers wore steel helmets and had death’s head emblem” (Wiesel 9) What this is foreshadowing is that when the death’s head emblem is mentioned, it is referencing a skull
Night by Elie Wiesel is a book that follows Wiesel and his father through many German concentration camp during the Holocaust. Like other resources about the Holocaust, it gives an inside look on what Jews and others went through and can be used as a research tool to learn about the Second World War.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a novel of post-Holocaust literature. It is a story about a Jewish man and his family and of the unspeakable horrors that they endured during World War II. Night is a retelling of a terrible story, a story that leads to Wiesel and his family entering Auschwitz, the most notorious death camp to this day, and the aftermath of liberation from the camps. Night is an incredibly well written novel. It twines together the power of fear and the loss of faith. It touches on how humanity changes in the face of power and oppression. This novel is able to not only testify, but discuss the atrocities of events that are not easily spoken about. Wiesel manages to take many difficult subjects like murder, religion, and false hope and
Elie Wiesel’s book Night is the self-account of Wiesel’s life in the Holocaust. It reflects back to the time through the eyes of a Jewish boy living in the awful conditions. It tells the story from the first few steps that Hitler takes, to when the camps was liberated. Wiesel delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity.
One of the most vital parts of Night is its emphasis on non sensationalized and pragmatic storytelling. While many know about the gas chambers and the horrid conditions that Jews went through in concentration camps, the day to day life is usually overlooked or just untold. Wiesel discusses what he went through everyday. The struggle to eat enough, the oppression suffered under other Jews and the SS, and the stress put on family inside of the camps. He also discusses his transformation into something inhuman. How he went from having a name to just being another number. This is all so foreign to the general public, who only know of the barracks and the crematorium. Not only does Night showcase the everyday life in the camps, it does so in an incredibly well crafted way, forcing the reader to see the horrors which Elie witnessed.