Elie Wiesel uses simile, metaphor and personification to causes victims to lose parts of their identity. In chapter 4, Wiesel use simile to demonstrate how dehumanization causes victims to lose parts of their own identity. For example, in ch. 4, Eliezer states: “The camp looked as though it had been through an epidemic; empty and dead” (Wiesel 47). This quotation demonstrates that Eliezer says the camp is dead. He says that the camp was widespread disease: empty and dead, the camp was full of dead people and empty things inside the camp. Elie’s family was sent to the concentration camp when Elie was 15. The use of the word “officers” suggests people to leave their homes so they can discuss the problems. Therefore, Elie’s camp were concentrated
and their were holocaust survivors. In chapter seven, Wiesel uses metaphor to demonstrate pressed tightly against, one another. For example, on Ch. 7, Wiesel states “pressed tightly against one another in an effort to resist the cold. This quotation demonstrates Elie is resisting the cold. Elie is resisting the cold so the wind won’t blow on him. The use of the word “tightly’ implies the person is pressed tightly against one another. Therefore, Elie’s is trying to be warm so the cold want blow on him. In chapter eight-seven, Elie Wiesel uses personification to demonstrate how the S.S officers waiting for him. For example, on chapters 8-9, Elie states “The S.S. officers were waiting for me. This Quotation demonstrates how the SS officers were waiting for elie wiesel. The SS comprise the guards in the concentration camps. Elie saw the SS officers with machine guns, and separate his family. In conclusion, people had to leave their homes so they can discuss the situation.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel there were countless acts that would be classified as inhuman. For example the hanging of an angelic pipel, or killing one’s father for a piece of bread. Although both acts are extremely inhuman, hanging a child is more inhuman than killing one’s father for a piece of bread. Yet, to kill someone’s father for a bread is more in keeping with human nature in the fact that it is done for survival.
About halfway through his imprisonment, Eliezer had gotten accustomed to life in a concentration camp. Despite the magnitude of death in every camp Elie was held hostage, nothing was worse than when three people were hanged in front of his eyes. The people were convicted suspiciously without confirmation of their crime; the youngest of which was about a twelve year old boy who was an assistant to one of the Nazi Kapos. After this experience, Wiesel writes, “That night, the soup tasted of corpses.” (65). The author incorporates a metaphor for his feelings and related it to the soup Eliezer was given; the soup did not literally taste like corpses, but this was how he felt because of all the death. The symbolism of his soup tasting like corpses relates to how death was surrounding Wiesel at the camp, and it also represents how he has lost faith in God. There were many places throughout the book in which Elie experiences things that make him question his faith, none more than when he thought there would be no chance of his
Throughout his novel, Night, Wiesel’s use of figurative language paints a picture of the emotional impact on the Jews to help the reader visualize how traumatizing the Holocaust is for the prisoners. One type of figurative language Wiesel uses throughout this novel are metaphors. The first example is during the trip the trip to the concentration camps of Auschwitz on the cattle cars. Aboard the car that Wiesel is also on is an old lady named Mrs. Schächter. Wiesel establishes that Mrs. Schächter is becoming mad, when she shouts, “‘Jews, listen to me,’ she cried. ‘I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!’ It was as though she were possessed by some evil spirit” (Wiesel 25). Wiesel uses a metaphor here to help the reader visualize how mad she
On their way to the concentration camp, a German officer said, “’There are eighty of you in the car… If anyone is missing, you’ll all be shot like “dogs” ”’ (Wiesel 24). This shows that the Germans compared the Jews to dogs or animals, and that the German have no respect towards the Jews. Arrived at the concentration camp, the Jews were separated from their friends and family. The first thing of the wagon, a SS officer said, “’Men to the left! Women to the right!”’ (Wiesel 29). After the separation, Eliezer saw the crematories. There he saw “’a truck [that] drew close and unloaded its hold: small children, babies … thrown into the flames.” (Wiesel 32). This dehumanize the Jews, because they were able to smell and see other Jews burn in the flames. Later on the Jew were forced to leave their cloth behind and have been promise that they will received other cloth after a shower. However, they were force to work for the new cloth; they were forced to run naked, at midnight, in the cold. Being force to work for the cloth, by running in the cold of midnight is dehumanizing. At the camp, the Jews were not treated like human. They were force to do thing that was unhuman and that dehumanized
Throughout the Holocaust, the Jews were continuously dehumanized by the Nazis. However, these actions may not have only impacted the Jews, but they may have had the unintended effect of dehumanizing the Nazis as well. What does this say about humanity? Elie Wiesel and Art Spiegelman both acknowledge this commentary in their books, Night and Maus. The authors demonstrate that true dehumanization reveals that the nature of humanity is not quite as structured as one might think.
Imagery is one of the most effective methods Wiesel used in his biography to portray forms of inhumanity. “Not far from us, flames, huge flames were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there… small children. Babies” (32). In this case, Elie does not wish to live if his eyes were telling the truth. This alone refers to extreme cruelty, describing the inhumanity in which the suppressed races endured inside the many concentration camps. Following several weeks at work in an electrical-fittings factory, Elie quotes a hanging which he remembers quite well. “He was a young boy from Warsaw… The Lagerälteste
Along with rhetorical appeals, Wiesel also uses many rhetorical devices such as parallelism and anaphora. Wiesel depicts parallelism when he says, “to fight fascism, to fight dictatorship, to fight Hitler” (Wiesel lines 103-104). The parallelism and anaphora, in the quote, provide emphasis on the discrimination and abuse that has taken place around the world. Repeating the same initial phrase shows the significance of the words Wiesel is speaking. Wiesel mentions the victims of this extreme tragedy when he states,” for the children in the world, for the homeless for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society.” (Wiesel lines 17-19). This use of anaphora and parallelism emphasize the amount of people the Holocaust has affected and impacted. The parallelism being used adds value to his opinions and balances the list of people Wiesel is making in his speech.
How can inhumanity be used to make one suffer? The book Night by Elie Wiesel is about a young Jewish boy named Elie who struggles to survive in Auschwitz, a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Throughout the memoir, there are many instances where inhumanity is portrayed. The theme seen in this novel is inhumanity through discrimination, fear, and survival.
Though beaten down, the prisoners had creative ways of coping with their confinement and of sustaining themselves, such as giving gifts to one another, and by praying. For instance, the narrator states, “My father had a present for me: a half ration of bread, bartered for something he had found at the depot, a piece of rubber that could be used to repair a shoe” (Wiesel 114 - 117). To put in other words, Wiesel’s father provided him a gift of bread and a piece of rubber that could be used to repair a shoe. This is significant, as the quote illustrates a creative way that prisoners cope with their confinement and of sustaining themselves by allowing themselves and others to enjoy giving and receiving gifts. In addition, another example would
Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish people’s outlook on life. Wiesel’s identity transformed dramatically throughout the narrative. “How old he had grown the night before! His body was completely twisted, shriveled up into itself. His eyes were petrified, his lips withered, decayed.
The significance of night throughout the novel Night by Elie Wiesel shows a poignant view into the daily life of Jews throughout the concentration camps. Eliezer describes each day as if there was not any sunshine to give them hope of a new day. He used the night to symbolize the darkness and eeriness that were brought upon every Jew who continued to survive each day in the concentration camps. However, night was used as an escape from the torture Eliezer and his father had to endure from the Kapos who controlled their barracks. Nevertheless, night plays a developmental role of Elie throughout he novel.
”Lie down on it! On your belly! I obeyed. I no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip. One! Two! He took time between the lashes. Ten eleven! Twenty-three. Twenty four, twenty five! It was over. I had not realized it, but I fainted” (Wiesel 58). It was hard to imagine that a human being just like Elie Wiesel would be treating others so cruelly. There are many acts that Elie has been through with his father and his fellow inmates. Experiencing inhumanity can affect others in a variety of ways. When faced with extreme inhumanity, The people responded by becoming incredulous, losing their faith, and becoming inhumane themselves.
Authors sometimes refer to their past experiences to help cope with the exposure to these traumatic events. In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel recalls the devastating and horrendous events of the Holocaust, one of the world’s highest points for man’s inhumanity towards man, brutality, and cruel treatment, specifically towards the Jewish Religion. His account takes place from 1944-1945 in Germany while beginning at the height of the Holocaust and ending with the last years of World War II. The reader will discover through this novel that cruelty is exemplified all throughout Wiesel's, along with the other nine million Jews’, experiences in the inhumane concentration camps that are sometimes referred to as “death factories.”
When people are placed in difficult, desolate situations, they often change in a substantial way. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the protagonist, Elie, is sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he undergoes many devastating experiences. Due to these traumatic events, Elie changes drastically, losing his passion in God, becoming disconnected with his father, and maturing when it matters most.
As humans we are constantly changing and adapting to fit our environment. Humans also can have mood changes due to age, rough times or any other driving force. In the book “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie goes through many changes because of what he experiences. Elie had to change his ways in order to survive and keep his loved ones by his side. Over the course of the book, Elie changed the way he acted towards people, loved ones, and things he knew to be true.