'Night' Essay

In the Holocaust memoir 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, three events that impacted me emotionally were when Moishe the Beedle comes back to town to tell people about what happened and no one believed him, When Elie was split from his family and Elie's Fathers Death, While the Holocaust is something that was familiar to me, the writer of 'Night' brought the reality of the suffering and brutality to life for me. It was really sad and made me realise how lucky I am not to live in a world like that. Elie Wiesel uses a range of language features including Imagery, Metaphors, and Simile to describe his experience during the war and his life in the concentration camps.

There was visual imagery used when a lady in the same cattle cart as Elie was having visions of fire, flames, and the smoke which I think was used to symbolise death, and then when the Jews arrive to the camp they see the smoke billowing out of the crematorium and realising that the people waiting and lined up towards the crematorium are heading towards their death the majority being elderly and young children. which made me feel very sad and fearful for the Jews.

There were many similes used in this novel such as when Moishe the beadle says "'They think I'm mad' he whispered, and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes." He returned after being captured by the Gestapo with a wounded leg and telling the other Jews in his village what was happening, such as babies being thrown in the air for target practice, and no one believed him. They thought he was acting or lying for gold or money as well. which makes me very frustrated because if they just listened to him none of these horrible things would've happened to them.

When Elie states "This is what the antechamber of hell must look like, so many crazed men, so much shouting, so much brutality" this is when he has just arrived in the barracks in Auschwitz. he is comparing the camp to hell is a common metaphor used in the book. another metaphor used is when one of the guards tells prisoners "Ahead of you lies a long road paved with suffering", the road is not literally paved with suffering but this describes what their time in the camp will be like. This made me feel angry for how the Gestapo and the Nazis treated the Jews as if they were inhuman, this was also highlighted when the Nazis separated the Jewish families when they arrived at the camp.

The use of the Language Techniques in this book by Elie Wiesel really brings the book to life as if I was really there. It was almost like I could smell, see, and hear what was happening in the book. The author's ability to paint a picture using words was what generated such strong emotions when I read this book. Even though there was so much death there was also a thread of hope knowing that he survived to write the book. One of the parts of the book that impacted me the most was when Elie was split from his Mother and his younger Sister Tzipora at the gates at Auschwitz knowing that they were headed towards the Crematorium lined up just waiting to die, "I didn't know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever" Elie Quoted in the Novel with the use of the first person narration pronoun I.

Another part in the book that really impacted me was when Elie was told by a "Blockalteste" the leader of Elie's barrack not to give his ration of food to his dad and that Elie should be the one getting his father's ration of food instead, "Because in this camp it's every person for them-self" because his Father was going to die soon anyway. his father later died and Elie woke up and his dad wasn't there and a new person was lying in his father's bunk this made me feel really sorrowful knowing that if my dad died I would feel very downhearted especially if I didn't get to say Goodbye or something to him at all before he died. This highlighted how brutal the camps were and with his father's death soon after this. This isn't a book I would choose to read but I am glad I did read it because it has made me more aware of the human suffering during the Holocaust.