Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

In the 1956 memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, he illustrates that witnessing human cruelty was his traumatizing memory of the Holocaust. Weisel supports his illustration through the use of symbolism, which demonstrates that witnessing human cruelty had more effect on him that anything else he will ever experience. He uses the flames that he saw as a symbol for the atrocities that he saw, because the flames themselves were the first example of cruelty that he ever witnessed. The author’s purpose is to explain why he will never forget “that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night”, so that the reader can understand the consequences of cruelty. Instead of simply stating that the cruelty he witnessed tore his dreams

In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel details that the Jews of his hometown Sighet Hungary, cling to an illusion of safety up until the moment of their arrival at Auschwitz. Mosche the Beadle provides the first evidence of potential danger; however the townspeople choose to ignore the warnings and instead condemn Mosche the Beadle as a lunatic. The Jews of Sighet choose to sacrifice the ”joy in[Mosche the Beadle’s] eyes”(7) to maintain a sense of security and isolation from the actions of the Hungarian police. Upon the seizure of power by a pro-nazi party the Jewish people merely view the change “in abstract”(9). They do not allow themselves to rationalize the event. German encroachment into Hungarian territory is not enough to shatter the

The second “kiss” from God Elie received was in the Rabbi’s words. When his life began to progressively become worse in the camps moments like the ones in the ghettos were not common; he began to become more despair. The book Night states, “He was the only rabbi whom nobody ever failed to address as "Rabbi" in Buna. He looked like one of those prophets of old, always in the midst of his people when they needed to be consoled. And, strangely, his words never provoked anyone.

Night Elie loses his faith throughout the book, but it was not always like that. Elie used to be very religious and wanted to learn as much as possible about his faith. “One evening, I told him how unhappy I was not to be able to find in sighet to teach me the Zohar, the Kabbalistic works, the secret of jewish mysticism” (Wiesel 5). Elie said to Moshe the Beadle. His father wasn’t supportive of his decision so he took things into his own hands.

During the Holocaust, food played a significant part. It was important for the way people took care of themselves and survived. The reason being was that in the concentration camps it was every man for himself and they sought food to stay healthy. Elie Wiesel had managed to keep himself strong and healthy for his father.

Eliezer’s words in the middle of p.34, starting with, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed,”(34) gave a new meaning to the word night. The story had gone more in depth on the horrors of the time, also it reinforces what I had said in my previous journal, that Night, the title, refers to the never ending darkness that surrounds Eliezer. In this part of the book Eliezer writes “Never shall I forget,”(34) followed by everything he had seen, every story he will remember, everything he has endured. The repetition of the “Never shall I forget,”(34) isolates every attribute he doesn’t want to forget, which almost honors it and then he moves on to the next.

Elie Wiesel wrote a book about his days during the HOLOCAUST. The Book itself is an incarnation of the symbolic trauma he has experienced. Three pieces of evidence from the story will be explained on how Elie’s suffering was symbolic. Now the first piece of evidence will be explained. First we explain the symbolism of the crematory.

Eliezer’s faith in god is lost. He struggles both physically and mentally for life as he loses his faith in god. Eliezer worked strenuously to save himself and asks god many times to guide him and free him from his suffering. These conditions gave people the confidence, and the courage to live yet took away everything else they ever loved or believed in. Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in God through through what he experiences in the Nazi concentration camp.

For my creative response to Night by Elie Wiesel, I decided to make an alternative book cover. The theme that I chose to portray in my adaptation of the cover is the journey from darkness to light. My cover is black at the top and the amount of black reduces towards the bottom of the cover. I did this to show the transition from darkness to light that is shown during this novel.

In the beginning of Elie Wiesel’s Night Elie is very faithful to God and eager to learn about God, the Kabbalah, and mysticism. When asked why does he pray Elie answered, “Why did I live? Why did I breathe?(4) ” After one of God’s Followers and Elie’s leader, Moishe the Beadle gets back from the forests everything changed. News about the Holocaust starts to spread.

“Never shall I forget the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed, and seven times sealed” (Wiesel 32). As portrayed in this passage from Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, “night” is used numerous times as a central symbol. The nonfiction novel takes place during the Holocaust throughout several concentration camps. The word “night” literally means the period of darkness in each twenty-four hours; the time from sunset to sunrise, but symbolically it commonly represents sadness, fear, and negative commendations.

For me, the greatest moment of sadness in the memoir is when Elie’s father dies. His death is gruesome and much suffering is shown throughout the last pages of the memoir. A dramatic shift is made in Elie’s perspective after this traumatic event. His father serves as his sole motivation to continue on in their cruel conditions and without him Elie is hopeless and alone. I feel Elie's father's death also symbolizes the unjustness of their situation.

The Nazi's dehumanizes the Jews like animals by being psychologically deprived of their necessities. In the beginning of the story, the Hungarian police and later the SS soldiers force all the Jewish people into ghettos, Elie says: "There was no longer any distinction between rich and poor, notables and the others; we were all people condemned to the same fate" (Wiesel 21). The Hungarian police and the Nazi's take away the Jews individual rights as people and their safety as they are placed in a confined space they are seen as the same. Consequently, at the death camp, Auschwitz Elie was given a number along with other Jewish people to symbolically show them that they are inferior to the Germans: "I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other

Symbolism can be seen through both good and bad alike. Though when it comes to instances that have to do with the holocaust, it’s almost always, if not always, a painful connotation. The holocaust is one of if not the the largest instance of mass genocide in recorded history. Leaving each Jew that survived with a different story to tell. While their story’s remained different, the pain that they each experienced was not.

Elie Wiesel successfully created a clever plot consisting of dialogue, introspection and dynamic characters to make his story realistic and compelling. Elie WIesel changed the protagonist Eliezer, an observant Jewish youngster, that strived to delve deeper into the mythical traditions of his religion, changed to a person that questions God’s greatness, a disloyal son and a person that only seeks personal gain. The protagonist, Eliezer, proves to be a very dynamic character. One of the most noticeable change in Eliezer is that his perspective and beliefs of God has changed dramatically.