Final Essay - Extended Written Text
Describe at least one important technique used in the text.
Explain how the technique created an emotional response in you.
In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the author tells the reader his experience of being separated from his family and even his own religion during the Holocaust. In this book he uses different techniques such as imagery, foreshadowing, metaphors, and many others. I read his writing and it had an emotional impact on me, making me feel empathy and disgust.
In the book, Elie Wiesel describes horrific events; one of these events is when two ghettos were made in Sighet. He tells the reader his thoughts and feelings during his stay in the ghetto. While he stayed there, the Jews were mocked, beaten and treated like cattle for being Jewish. They then made a Jewish council and police force. The author uses a metaphor in which he talks about how he felt having a bit of hope after being treated inhumanely by German soldiers, "We would no longer have to look at those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled stares. No more fear. No more anguish.” The imagery of the fear and anguish they have escaped made me feel a bit of hope, seeing as things got a little better for Elie Wiesel.
To transport the Jews from the ghetto to the concentration camp, the Hungarians crammed the Jews into small cattle cars, sending them away. Elie Wiesel and other Jews took turns sitting down since there was no room to lay or sit in the cramped car. After two days of travel, the train stopped in Kaschau, a small town on the outskirts of Czechoslovakia. German soldiers then told the Jews to hand over their gold, silver and watches and told them that if they still possessed these items they would be shot dead. After they carried on their journey, a woman in Elie’s car began to sob and scream. And then on the third night she suddenly screamed out, “'Jews listen to me,' she cried. 'I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!' It was as though she was possessed by some evil spirit.” This foreshadowing quote written by Elie made me feel sad knowing what's going to happen to them in the future. Shortly after this, they arrived at Auschwitz where they saw people being burned in a fire.
Auschwitz, where a concentration camp is, was where the most horrific event that happened to Elie was. At Auschwitz they entered a labour camp in Birkenau. They were then separated and put into different groups in which Elie sees adults and even children being thrown into the fire, some alive. “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes,” Elie Wiesel metaphorically writes. After reading that, I felt bad and felt pity for Elie, who was mentally struggling to keep faith in his religion after witnessing and experiencing such horrific events. I also couldn’t believe that real humans would do such things to other people.
In conclusion, Elie Wiesel used the techniques of imagery, foreshadowing and metaphors to write down his experiences he went through during the Holocaust. The reason he wrote this is so that people really know what happened. Overall, the way this emotionally impacted me was huge. The techniques made it interesting and made me feel more connected as if I was there. I think that Elie was traumatised and brave having gone through such events and surviving them.
