In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel the strategic use of syntax contributes to the ongoing theme of the novel that relationships with family and friends can help one get through the toughest of times. Wiesel wants readers to understand how depending on your loved ones can help motivate you to keep trying and never give up. For example, when Wiesel and his father met up with their family member, he writes, “The only thing that keeps me alive," he (Stein) kept saying, "is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up” (45). In this quote Stein, Wiesel’s relative, is declaring that if he had not know that his family members were alive, then he wouldn’t have the will to keep fighting. The syntax of this sentence is bold …show more content…
This really reiterates the power that love has over a person. Also, during the march Wiesel describes his thought process on why he couldn’t give up, he writes, “ To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue, nor cold, nothing. To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road…My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me” (86). The syntax of this quote stresses the importance of relying on your family. First, Wiesel repeats the words, “To no longer,” which creates emphasis. This repetition helps readers understand Wiesel’s emotion, which is wanting to surrender. He is struggling and really wants to let go. Second, the letting go and giving up portion is shown by the following sentences which contain darker connotation. These negative phrases
Wiesel does a wonderful job with his use of pathos throughout the speech by making the audience reflect on his words and creates a strong emotional reaction for what is being said. From being a survivor of the Holocaust, one of the darkest parts of history as well as the most shallow times for humanity. Immediate sympathy is drawn from the audience. When he states that himself endured the horrible conditions these people had to live in. He then explains to us that the people there, “No longer felt hunger, pain, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.” With saying this it brings forth feelings of guilt, one of the most negative emotions to accumulate a reaction towards these events. Also numerous people throughout the world long for world peace and to hear the inhumane acts that was once acted upon an innocent man, makes their stomach's sink. Wiesel defines its derivation, as “no difference” and uses numerous comparisons on what may cause indifference, as a “strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur.” Like good and evil, dark and light. Wiesel continues to attract the audience emotionally by stating this he is aware of how tempting it may be to be indifferent and that at times it can be easier to avoid
When Wiesel awoke the next morning he realized that he had forgotten his father and went out to look for him. He thought if he didn’t find
The book Night is a story of family, religion, violence, and hope. This book tells the story of Elie Wiesel’s journey through the holocaust. During the novel, Wiesel writes with the purpose of teaching us several lessons. This lesson is conveyed through Wiesel’s actions, other character’s actions, as well as quotations. The lesson Wiesel taught in Night is to persevere and never lose hope up no matter how hopeless the situation may seem.
Wiesel had to deal with his family being separated and tortured as well as his own account with facing injury and death and trying to survive. “Men to the left, women to the right! Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Yet that was the moment when I parted from my mother…we were alone. I saw my mother and sister disappear into the distance” (Wiesel 38).
At the beginning of the book Wiesel mentioned that his dad was a cultured man, his dad was also said to be “rather unsentimental” (4). On page 32 Wiesel mention he was still happy since he got to be near his father. Wiesel got to be in a working spot next to his father too, which once again he was stationed ny his father and was very happy about it as mentioned on page 50. Wiesel also seemed to be worried about his father’s factory getting bombed on page 60 since the buna factory had been bombed and went up in flames. On page 94 Wiesel was calling for his father making sure he was near, which to mean means he was still very worried about losing his father. On page 96 wiesel’s father was about to get exterminated in the crematoria but Wiesel made a scene to distract the SS officers working, so his dad could sneak to the opposing line which was for the prisoners that could live longer. “I tightened my grip on my father’s hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him.” (104). Wiesel was getting closer and closer to his father throughout the book which you can tell by looking at the above quotes throughout the book. On page 111 an SS officer was striking wiesel’s father on the head and Wiesel was to scared to do anything about it, and every muscle in his body tightened leaving him left standing there
Figurative Language in “ Night” The book night by Elie Wiesel has a lot of figurative language in it; almost all of the figurative language used has its own significance and gives you more information on how bad life was when you were a Jew in the 1940’s. “There are eighty of you in the wagon,” added the German officer. ”If anyone is missing. You'll all be shot, like dogs…”
Wiesel also felt the same because he recounts “My hand shifted on my father’s arm. I had one thought: not to lose him. Not to be left alone” (27). This was the first step to them strengthening their ties to one another and their dependence on each other only grew stronger from this point on. His father shows more concern for Wiesel emotionally than he ever has before. He explains to Wiesel “‘It’s a shame… a shame that you couldn’t have gone with your mother[...]’ [...] His voice was terribly sad. I realized that he did not want to see what they were going to do to me. He did not want to see the burning of his only son. [ …] He was weeping. His body was shaken convulsively” (30-31). The father is only expressing his sorrow for his son, not that he himself will also be burned to death in that situation, or so they thought at the time.
It comes from the period of the book where the SS are forcing the prisoners to march at full speed to an abandoned village to get away from the Russians. He describes the exertion of his body as if it was a different person. Wiesel says, “I was dragging this emaciated body that was still such a weight. If only I could have shed it! Though I tried to put it out of my mind, I couldn’t help thinking that there were two of us: my body and I. And I hated that body.” (Wiesel 85). Wiesel includes this quote to highlight the extent of his physical exertion, and how he doesn’t want to slow down, but his tired body is going to force him to. The effect this has on the reader is that it helps them better understand Wiesel’s situation by describing his feelings about not wanting to slow down or stop and his concerns that his tired body may force him to. The reason Wiesel chose this example is that he wanted to show how tired he was but at the same time, show how strong his will to continue
The Book Night By Elie Wiesel demonstrates the evilness and insanity that is found in every human being, and is depicted through rhetorical devices to make the point more clear. At Elie’s arrival to Auschwitz ( a concentration camp) he watches people being burned, telling the reader that, “never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of children whose bodies were transformed into smoke under the silent sky. “ (pg 34) In this moment it is hard to believe that human beings are capable of doing such a thing, ruthlessly murdering thousands of people all at once, without blinking an eye.
As their time in the concentration camp continues, the conditions there worsen. The prisoners are soon forced into a treacherous forty-two mile run in the icy cold, which makes them struggle between life the death. During this march, one thing keeps Wiesel’s will to live alive and that is his father. This shows one of Wiesel’s weakest moments, where he contemplates giving up numerous times. Exhaustion takes over his body, and the only thing he can think about is the pleasures that death would bring him. Wiesel’s mind overpowers him and he reflects, “Death wrapped itself around me till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt that I could touch it. The idea of dying, of no longer being, began to fascinate me” (82). However, his father needs him, and that is truly what drives him to keep pushing until the end. They stay alive for each other, which shows how much they really care about the other. While Wiesel rests in the shed after the run, Rabbi Eliahou, a very well-liked man, comes in looking for his son. He and his son have been sticking together for three years. Wiesel expresses that he has not seen him, without realizing that this is false. The Rabbi’s son purposely left him, to strengthen his own chances of survival. Wiesel is taken aback by this, and astonishingly begins to pray. He thinks, “My God,
Wiesel’s story centers around the tragic horror that is genocide. He was apart of what is notoriously known as the Holocaust. This event is the most talked about and studied example of genocide but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one of its kind. There have been various examples of mass genocide over the years that don’t seem to stick in history the way the Holocaust does. This is precisely what Wiesel wanted to make
In this passage Wiesel has become more overtly angry with God. He no longer hides behind the reverence he has grown up knowing. Rather he is openly charging God with not only the destruction of the Jewish people, but also with continually plaguing their thoughts. Having the false hope that God may one day save them seems like a cruel joke. Wiesel seems to be saying that if God has already decided not to save them, than the least He can do is quit allowing the people to pray to and follow Him.
. One persuasive technique he uses is pathos. He uses this technique to gain empathy from the audience, to allow them to really feel like they are in the shoes of the victims. This is seen when Wiesel says “ To be abandoned by god was worse than to be punished by him” (444). The audience is able to feel how the victims felt, which helps convey his message of indifference more effectively as now they will actually get impacted by his message.
In the concentration camps, Jews have witnessed and experience violence towards them. One way Wiesel’s life became challenging is by the loss of his innocence from witnessing his father being stuck in the face. In Auschwitz at a concentration camp, Wiesel's father asks the Gypsy a simple question that results in him getting slapped painfully, in “ My father had just been struck in front of me, and I had not even blinked” (Wiesel, 39). As Wiesel’s father is being slapped in front of him, Wiesel becomes frozen in fear. He begins to understand that violence is real in the world. Wiesel has never witnessed anything that has ever made him fear for his life. He says this in “ I had not even blinked”, where he petrify in fear. As his father is getting slapped, Wiesel is silently
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” The repetition of the phrase “Never shall I forget” really emphasises on and illustrated that what Wiesel is describing will be engraved in his memory forever, that it is impossible to forget. I also think that he wants to spread the word about what happened in the holocaust, raise awareness and make sure that nothing even remotely like it ever happens again.