The element of symbolism is so strong and predominant in the novel “Night,” we are able to delve deeper into the heinous experiences the Jews were subjected to during the Holocaust. There is no sure way to empathize with the victims of the Holocaust, but survivor Elie Wiesel opens the eyes of the reader to so many encounters that the Jews had to face in order to survive. Wiesel was able to portray individual emotions while using tangible objects or acts. Elie’s father, the march of the Jews, and the fire in the story all represent a deeper interpretation of themselves. One of the most evident symbols in the story Night is the fire that continues to be referenced. The first development of this is when Elie and numerous other Jews were in the cattle cars on their way to the concentration camp. A woman traveling with them, Mrs. Schachter, causes …show more content…
The others believe she has been driven mad and do not take her cautions into account. She cries, “‘Look! Look at this fire! This terrible fire! Have mercy on me!’” ( ) When they arrive at the camp, they too see the flames and smell the burning flesh. At this point in the story the fire represented a warning to the Jews. It served as a message that their fate was brutal and tragic. Throughout the story, the fire makes appearances in the concentration camp as an entirely different symbol. As the Jews are burned by the thousands, the flames engulf all form of human life. It is a constant reminder to the rest of the Jews in the camp of their own fate. The fire symbolizes the absolute hell on earth that has been created. The complete deprivation of any sense of humanity. The flames were walls of a prison, seizing them in this timeless damnation. The fire was death. The fire could not be
In the concentration camp was all about survival. As the information gathers after finishing the book called Night, the theme for the book is, survival, it is survival because Jews were being killed, there were dangerous marches, and Jews didn’t get much food or medical care. The first reason
The night is a motif in the novel, appearing again and again in the text. While Elie is in the process of moving into the ghetto and becoming accustomed to their new home he says "Night Fell". A second instance that night is used is when the train is taking the Jewish people to the concentration camp. Elie says "Only the darkness of night". While at the concentration camp, the last day in the Jewish calendar is drawing near so everyone is gathering around to pray.
Holocaust has been a horrendous genocide during the second world war which must not happen again. Since Hitler desired to demolish all the Jewish people, he commenced to eliminate them by setting up the concentration camps and it consequently led to over 6 million Jewish casualties. Although there was a mass murder during the holocaust, some Jewish people have successfully survived and one of them is Elie Wiesel who has written a novel, “Night.” In the story, it reveals the cruelty of Nazis who incinerate Jewish children in a furnace for fuel. As Elie and other Jewish people approach to the camp in a packed train, they sight smoke from an incinerator and starts to smell burning flesh.
One of the ways that the Germans would execute the Jews were by burning them alive. The term '"furnace" brought fear to the Jews. Whenever they heard the word, they would tremble in fear because they had already known what was going to happen to a select few of them. A quote from the book Night says, "We had already lived through so much that
(Wiesel 25). Mrs. Schächter’s screams caused the Jews riding in the cattle car with her to put her in the corner, bound her hands, and gagged her, so she would be quiet. Although they thought that putting her in the corner would solve their problems, it never did because she began to yell it again. This is also a symbol in the story; the fire represents all hurt and pain. When they arrived at the concentration
“Yes, you can lose somebody overnight, yes, your whole life can be turned upside down. Life is short. It can come and go like a feather in the wind. ”- Shania Twain.
Without the fear of being afraid of the camp at first arrival or the fear of the Jew not eating because they know they will be killed, there wouldn’t be much hope. This proves the point on why fear overpowers people and make them not do what they would normally due since there life is at risk. This truly shows the bad of the holocaust. Due to all the fear no one could stand up to
It is referred to a lot mainly when Elie is talking about the crematorium. After his experience at the camp, he will never hear the word fire and think of it the way he did before the war, the way you and I would picture it. In Night, fire is a symbol of death and destruction. Countless adults, children, and corpses were thrown into the crematoriums and pulverized into dust and
The second and the third quote show us that the flames have transformed the bodies of children and students of Talmud and also other Jews into a smoke from their burning bodies. What does the book have to say about identity? “The yellow star?” “Hungarian police take them from their homes” Jews are taken from their homes and treated not like humans.
Fire stands out the most because he used fire to foreshadow the ghettos and it's easier to spot and recognize when used symbolically. Night and death are commonly used in reference to the text, making it harder to distinguish them from words and symbols. Fire symbolizes Wiesel’s hellish experience in the ghettos with the SS officers, and he makes that very distinct when Mrs.Schächter was used to foreshadow their future. The foreshadowing becomes obvious when the author writes “Jews, listen to me,’ she cried.
However, in Night, it is the opposite. The symbolism of fire, is used as a symbol to represent the cruelty of the Nazi’s. For example, “She was howling, pointing through the window: "Look! Look at this fire! This terrible fire!
Fire is often a symbol of pain and suffering and is particularly evident throughout different personal accounts of historical events. Throughout Night, by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel gives an accurate account of his life throughout the Holocaust while using different motifs to symbolize the horrors of the Holocaust. Wiesel uses motifs to show things without actually saying them directly. Throughout Night, the motif of fire is portrayed as a symbol of Hell on Earth and usually indicates that a bad thing will start to happen and is shown in multiple moments including Mrs. Schaechter, the Crematoriums, and the Death March.
In Night, Elie Wiesel describes the Holocaust in a way to ensure that this type of history should not repeat itself. The Holocaust was a genocide of the European Jews that lasted between the years of 1933-1945. Night is a story of young Jewish boy who suffered the agony of the German Nazi’s concentration camps. He knew that if he where to survive this horrific period of his life, that he would make sure the world knew what really happened behind the electrified fences of those camps. Elie uses detailed words to create imagery that establishes the tone and the whole purpose of his story about what happened to the Jews in concentration camps.
Faith is a significant part of one’s daily life. Everyone endures moments in their life in which situations challenge one’s religious beliefs. In Elie Wiesel’s short novel he bears an immense amount of hardships throughout the Holocaust that test his religious faith. As a young adult, Elie was just beginning to venture into his religious beliefs discovering his personal values and faith; but as he began that journey the German soldiers infiltrated his village. His whole village was soon transported to Auschwitz and divided up between camps.
Wiesel includes the term Yom Kippur in the book Night to show how desperate those in concentration camps were to ignore this very important holiday. Weisel shows the verbal irony in this passage by saying, “To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting. It was Yom Kippur year-round.