Rhetorical Devices In Night By Elie Wiesel

The one person in Elie’s life that means everything to him is his father. During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s bond with his father

In the American memoir, Night, Nobel Peace Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel constructs a story about the horrific events he endured during the Holocaust. In the pages of this memoir, he portrays the life of Eliezer, a child born Jewish. In the later chapters of the book, Eliezer endures the tragic hanging of a pipel who lost his life for not giving up the names of the inmates that worked to sabotage the power plant at Buna, a forced labor camp in Germany. The guards forced Eliezer and his father to walk past the child as he hung from the gallows stuck between life and death. The death of the child signifies the death of Eliezer’s faith. The author used this position in the memoir to signify the end of the main character’s religious views, which makes this the climax of the book. The climax fits into the structure of the memoir at this point by staying consistent in word choice and advancing the plot further. The use of the appeals and tone also ties this scene into the plot. However, each translation utilizes these devices differently. The scholar’s translation focuses on ethos, logos, and a helpless tone. Marion’s translation uses pathos and a bitter tone. Marion’s version more effectively uses the appeals and tone because it conveys more emotion to the reader.

Wiesel made the appeal pathos noticeable to the audience in Night; using this strategy in his writing gives the audience the emotional feeling felt by Eliezer as the story progressed. The first example of pathos was the appearance of German troops on the streets of Sighet, “The race toward death had begun.” (Wiesel 2006, 10). This is how Elie Wiesel used the appeal of pathos to help the audience understand how frightened and shocked everyone in the town was after the German officers appeared on their streets. Elie continued to use this appeal throughout the book;

At this point, the Jews did not know where they were going and Elie had managed to stay optimistic but he began to change his feelings when he saw his father's tears. The tears were the first stage of change his fathers goes through. Elie had never seen his father cry, so he knew something was wrong. After a long uncomfortable train ride, the Jews ended up at Buchenwald. This is where Elie's family was separated from each other. He and his father were told to go in one line and his mother and sister were ordered to go into another line. It was the last time they would ever see each other again. As Elie and his father walked in their line toward the flames, Elie questions if they could actually burn a human being. When his father tells him that anything can happen on this day Elie says, "if that is so, I don't want to wait here. I'm going to run to the electric wire. That would be better than a slow agony in the flames." (pg. 31) His father did not answer him, he was crying. Although they ended up taking a sudden turn before getting to the flames this symbolizes the small thread by which he and his father hung on. Later on in the book after they had endured more pain and were forced to run and run Elie describes his father's appearance. "How he had changed! His eyes had grown dim. I would have liked to speak to him, but I did not know what to say."(pg. 34) Elie had sympathy for his father and did not like seeing him the way he was. However,

But as more days passed, he saw this more often to the point where it became the norm. Secondly, Elie supports the collapse of compassion when he wished that his father could die. The novel, asserts, “If only I didn't find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself…” (Wiesel 106).

In the quote “I was angry with him for not knowing how to avoid [it]. That is what concentration camp life made of me.” a rare characteristic of Elie is presented because he never gets mad at his dad in fact he refuses to let his dad die at many points in the memoir such as the part when they were being transported from one camp to another and starvation was claiming many lives in the cattle car and they were being thrown out of the car and when the men approached Elie’s father “And I started to hit him harder and harder. At last, my father half opened his eyes. They were glassy. He was breathing faintly.”. As Elie stays at the camp his identity, his past life is rewritten, and his thoughts are filled with all the things that could go wrong within in the camp including the fact that he might be shot for no reason at any moment. These thoughts caused Elie’s patience to shorten and he had thought of things that made him curious as to what the source of such crazy thought was but he still accepted that they were

Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night” shows many of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. In the memoir, Wiesel recalls his experiences in the Holocaust. In many of the dire situations, it is not Elie who pulls himself out of a situation, it is the presence of his father. For example during the Death March: “My father’s presence was the only thing that stops

First, Elie only cares about him and his father. Elie should not have to fight for his father because Elie’s father can fight for himself. “Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else”(105). This quote is saying that the only person Elie is responsible for is himself. The boy in the

When Elie and his family are sent to a concentration camp, he is fortunate enough to not be separated from his father. At first, this is a relief, and is father is his will to survive. “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot… My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breathe, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.”(86)

Sometimes the strongest connections in life are formed during the worst circumstances. This is exactly what happened during the Holocaust between Elie Wiesel and his Father. In Night, a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel recounts the appalling events him and his father were subject to at the hands of the Nazis. Amidst the atrocities happening around them Wiesel develops a bond with his father he never could have achieved without living through one of the lowest points in the world's history. Although Elie Wiesel's relationship with his father is challenged numerous times due to the atrocious events they were succumbed too, in the end this bond is what maintains Wiesel's will to live.

In night there were many times when Elie and his dad wanted to give up but they did not because they had each other. They used family to get through the terrible things that were happening to not only them but millions like them. Before the concentration

In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel is a young boy who struggles to survive after being forced to live in the brutal concentration camp of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, death and suffering is rampant, but due to compassionate words and actions from others, Elie is able to withstand these severe living conditions and overcome the risk of death in the unforgiving Auschwitz. As shown through the actions and words of characters in Night, compassion, the sympathetic pity for the suffering or misfortune of others is critical to the human experience because it enables humans to empathize with each other, empathizing which allows us to feel the need to assist others which can often be vital for survival.

In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel spoke about his experience as a young Jewish boy in the Nazi concentration camps. During this turbulent time period, Elie described the horrifying events that he lived through and how that affected the relationship with his father. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship faced many obstacles. In the beginning, Elie and his father have much respect for one another and at the end of the book, that relationship became a burden and a feeling of guilt. Their relationship took a great toll on them throughout their journey in the concentration camps.

The book opens with Elie’s life before him and his family were taken away. The story continues talking about how when they arrived in Auschwitz his mother and sister were taken to the crematorium with other women and children who were not strong enough to work in the camps. The only people left from Elie’s family were him and his father. Throughout the whole book Elie talks about how his father was his only motivation to keep going. When Elie’s father dies he contemplates to keep going or just to give in. In the end he is liberated and is freed.