Symbolism And Imagery In Elie Wiesel's Night

In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel uses symbolism and imagery to show when people are faced with difficult challenges in life it results in the loss of faith.
Symbolism is widely used throughout the memoir Night through regular objects and events to show the loss of faith. “The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria…’ His voice broke. ‘Father… If that is true, then I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrical barbed wire.” (Wiesel 33) After Elie discovers people being burned alive inside the camp he starts to lose his faith in God immediately. He states to his father that he would rather run into the barbed wire and die a quick death than a slow one. The barbed wire represents

a way to end his suffering. He is thinking that there are no other options than death. “One more hour. Then we would know the verdict: death or reprieve.” (Wiesel 70) The Selection was a process which they selected the weakest ones in the camp to die. This symbolizes life and death. Elie and the others were in constant fear, never knowing when their time to die would come, slowly picking away their faith. “I don’t know how long he played. I was overcome by sleep. When I awoke at daybreak, I saw Juliek facing me, hunched over dead. Next to him lay his violin…” (Wiesel 95) Juliek had been searching for his violin all night while being smothered to death. He finally had reached it while Elie was about to fall asleep and started to play. He played until he could not breath anymore, and Elie saw him lying with his violin peacefully at morning. The violin represents a hope for Juliek and Elie, an optimistic view that they will get out and alive. It sadly does not help him and tears away at Elie’s faith, which is next to nothing.
Weisel also uses imagery to show the emotional toll of terrifying events on a person's faith.

“In front of us those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau.” (Wiesel 28) The author uses the night represent death and loss of faith. Whenever it is night, awful things happen to him and others. They had smelt the flesh through the chimney and heard the lady screaming on the train. “Look! Look at this fire! This terrible fire! Have mercy on me!” (Wiesel 25) The image of fire is showing the people the horrors that are about to brought down on them by the Nazis. This is seen all throughout his memoir, showing how cruel of an environment the Jewish people had to live in for several years. He had also shown the lady in the train car as a foreshadowing event. “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” (Wiesel 115) Elie sees corpses being buried and burned all throughout his period in the camps. He finally escapes and looks in the mirror for the first time in years. He doesn’t see himself in the mirror but a corpse, a dead man staring him in the eyes. The image of the corpse represents a ghostly figure. He always saw through the corpses, but afterwards he became one. As he noticed that the image in the mirror had appeared to be himself he slowly lost more faith in God and

himself.
The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel was an inspiration to people all around the world. He told of his struggles during the Holocaust which took incredible strength to relive them. He used literary devices like symbolism and imagery to show them, making his book come alive to the reader and show the true feelings of one during a hard time and how it affects one’s faith.