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Symbolism In Elie Wiesel's Night

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Imagine yourself waking up, and not knowing where you are, when finally you remember that you’re in a concentration camp, and the guards are yelling and striking out anywhere they want, when they want. Well, in Elie Weisel’s memoir, Night, the reader is beginning to understand what it was like for him. Weisel had to go to a mix of concentration camps, and know what it felt like to get taken out of his home, and be a prisoner, just for being a Jew. The story is full of similes, metaphors, allusions, and especially symbolism. Weisel uses the symbols fire, family, and life or death to help the readers understand his experience throughout all of the concentration camps. One of the most apparent symbols in the memoir Night is fire, which symbolises …show more content…

The representation of family is apparent when Elie gives his father some of his soup and bread when he is weak/dying, Weisel also went and tried to find water and a doctor for his father, even if it meant that Elie got beat by an officer to just for asking if he could have help with his father. (Weisel 104). Another example of family can be found on page 71: “Look, take this knife,” he said to me.“I don’t need it any longer. It might be useful to you. And take this spoon as well. Don't sell them. Quickly! Go on. Take what I’m giving you.” Weisel’s father gives him a spoon, and knife before he has to go through another selection, to show that he loves him. It also shows family because Weisel’s dad is giving him things in the concentration camp that he doesn’t need anymore, so that shows that his father loves him. This symbol is important to the story because Weisel would have been really lost and even more scared if he didn’t have his father with him. This symbolism helps the reader understand or visualize the story because if anyone else had to go through a concentration camp, most of them would want a family member so they wouldn’t be as

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