Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

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Take a moment and think about who you are. Think about everything that makes you special and different from someone else. Now imagine everything you thought of getting stripped from you so you are left with skin and bone; a basic outline with no identity. In Night by Elie Wiesel, a plethora of the Jewish people are deprived of their identity and have lost their meaning of life but have to fight in order to see another day. Through this we can come to the central idea that people in power will do anything to dehumanize you in order to gain more power over you, and the way you come out of that will change you forever. This central idea is portrayed through the use of symbolism, where gold and personal possessions are symbolic of your identity. …show more content…

Through this we can come to the central idea that people in power will do anything to dehumanize you in order to gain more power over you, and the way you come out of that will change you forever. In the beginning of the novel Wiesel writes,"The three'veteran' prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on their left arms. I have a A-7713. From then on, I had no other name”(page 42). This alludes to how Eliezer lost everything that he knew to the point where he no longer knew who he was. As Eliezer makes his way into camp Buna, he meets a man named Franek who fancied Eliezer's gold crown and would do anything to get it. He says to Eliezer, “‘If you don't give me your crown, it will cost you much more!’ All of a sudden, this pleasant and intelligent young man had changed. His eyes were shining with greed.This went on for two weeks. It was not an option. We had to give in”(page 56). This demonstrates the last hope Eliezer had was in his tooth if time required and it was just taken from him for his father’s sake. In real life we can see an example of this when we have to make choices for someone else’s sake, putting their priorities over

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