Literary Term: Symbol
Symbol: A symbol is an object, person, or event that has another meaning other than its own to represent an idea, object, or connection
Example: “Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes… children thrown into the flames” (32). Wiesel, Night
Function: Context: In Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer’s family had arrived in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Eliezer was separated from his family and was only left with his father. Alongside his father, Eliezer had to wait until Dr. Mengele arrived for their selection. Being relieved that he had been pointed in the same direction as his father, they walked into the direction that they were directed towards. As they approached a pit of fire, Eliezer
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
What is symbolism? It is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. What I will be talking about in this essay is how symbolism was used in the book “Night” by Eliezer Wiesel. While there are many different versions of symbolism in the story I will only be focusing on three that I think are the best to talk about. Those three include the yellow stars the Jews had to wear, the spoon and knife Eliezer got from his father, and the title of the book.
Many immediately think to blame the Nazis, and only the Nazis for the Holocaust. This is not the case however, as many groups all share a portion of the blame. In Elie Wiesel's book, Night, it is evident that blame be passed to Elie’s God, the Jewish people themselves, and the non Jewish Europeans. Elie writes how his non Jewish neighbors watched, the Hungarian police force the Jews to march. When this was happening, the Jews were insulted, and beaten; it was clear the police had dark intentions.
The motif that I chose from the book Night, by Elie Wiesel is “night”. This motif represents both physical and spiritual death, but it also represents death and despair. When Elie uses this word, it symbolizes when something in his life simply goes away, or when he enters a phase of darkness. For example, when Elie states, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed”, he is saying that the night that he entered the concentration camp, it of course changed his life forever, but it also was the night that he stopped trusting in God so much because he didn’t understand how God could be doing such horrible things to such innocent people. Now
The dark, mysterious and life changing setting the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel contributes to the protagonist’s hardships between a spiritual character (God) and a minor character (his father). Eliezer, the protagonist, is faithful meaning that he respects and is influence by his God. “Oh God…have mercy on us” (20) as Eliezer “[prays] to his God…for strength,” (5) when arriving to the Ghettos. However, when arriving to the man-made settings such as the concentration camps, the relationship starts to diminish. The setting alters Eliezer’s judgment and now relies more on God’s faith to help the people at the camps.
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.
In the short novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, the author discusses an event of tremendous scarring effect to him and all those unfortunate to be caught in it’s scourge, The Holocaust. From the new age diaspora, death marches, cremation, and many other tyrannical actions from the German Reich that left all witnesses traumatized. These horrendous acts brought out a primal version of self preservation in the prisoners. The prisoners self preservation is displayed through their fight for rations of bread, their relentless labor to avoid the path to death that is tested by Dr. Mengele, leading the prisoners ultimately to the crematorium.
“From the depths of a mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left.” This piece of text is a quote from the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. In this piece of literature the reader gets taken along the journey of what Eliezer Wiesel faced during World War II. The reader gets to see the joy beforehand and the living hell the Jews face inside the concentration camps.
Traveling in darkness can be equivalent to going through an obstacle blind. Darkness is portrayed in different ways to reveal the dark secrets of the night. The details of the night are changed according to the specific events happening at the moment. Wiesel is describing the events of the Holocaust, and the gruesome days and nights he suffered at the concentration camps. The memories of the Holocaust left Wiesel distraught, but he learned various lessons from the experience.
People always say that bad things happen at night. I believe Elie Wiesel called his Holocaust memoir, Night because Wiesel uses foreshadowing and symbolization of bad things with the name Night. Throughout the book, we see how Wiesel mentions the physical and symbolic darkness of night, right before something terrible happens. For example, in chapter 7 pgs 98-103, when Night symbolization as it relates to the author’s experiences. This happens when the car stops in a field and SS soldiers shout at the people in the cars to throw out their dead.
Imagery in Night by Elie Wiesel “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them for a second time”(Elie Wiesel). 1986 Nobel Prize Winner, Elie Wiesel, narrates his Holocaust experiences in the memoir Night to ensure that people do not forget. Night is based on the childhood experiences of Elie Wiesel during the Holocaust. Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania before the start of the second world war.
Laila Nagy Mrs. Leader Symbolism paper 26 March, 2018 Representation of Symbolism Burning fire and damnation led innocent lives to a conflagration that brought about death to 11 million as Adolf Hitler expertly exercised the Holocaust. Hitler was a man who lacked remorse and he inflicted unspeakable pain to thousands of families between 1933 and 1945. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, and survivor of the Holocaust, recounts the horrors that Jewish prisoners experienced at Auschwitz. Within Auschwitz, prisoners’ lives are guided by the campbells, frequent selections that eliminate the weak, and the horrific executions they deliberately instill fear within the Jews.
The darkness of night can foment fears and apprehension of what is to come in the future. Ultimately, the fears of night can be used to symbolize death and the evil within man. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel shares his difficult experiences at the concentration camp of Auschwitz during the Holocaust. His survivor testimony records the deaths of his family members, the abrupt loss of his innocence, and his confrontation with the absolute evil in man.
Wiesel uses the word Kabbalah when he is talking to Moishe which he explains as “the poorest of poor.” As they talked about Kabbalah he seems to have hope in his tone, and then that tone of hope seems to decrease as he starts to explain how much had begun to happen only soon after that. When Weisel is talking about Kabbalah, at first he uses the word in a positive way as he speaks to Moishe but then it quickly turns into something negative in the matter of one page. Weisel says “And in the course of those evenings I became convinced that Moishe the Beadle would help me enter eternity, in that time when question and answer would become ONE” (5).
Chris Yang Mrs. Booth English 1 Honors/Pre-IB period 4 Literary Device #2-Symbol Symbol: A symbol is anything that stands for or represents something else. A conventional symbol is one that is widely known and accepted. A personal symbol is one created for a particular work by a particular author.