November 23, 2014

In the Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir Night, Wiesel takes the reader on his gruesome journey from his home at the young age of 15 and throwing concentration camps, depicting the truly horrific events that occurred in his life- shaping him into who he is. With the use of dialogue and syntax, Wiesel conveys the physical and emotional changes the camps caused him to suffer, forcing him to adapt to a harsher reality than he was formerly accustomed to.

In the earlier chapters of Night, Wiesel uses dialogue to convey how the prisoners and Elie wanted to live and were willful.  For example, Stein, a distant relative who was also deported to the concentration camp, encourages Elie’s father to, “Take care of your son….Take care of yourselves, you must avoid selection. EAT!” (45) By giving them this advice, Stein is not only showing concern, but is encouraging Elie and his father to live.  Also, Elie willfully denies giving away his one remaining possession, “I’ll give you another.” I refused to give him my shoes…”I’ll also  give you a ration of bread with some margarine….I would not let him have them.”(45) Wiesel using dialogue shows how steadfastly he clings to the things he values at the beginning, remaining unmoving in the holding on.  However, in the second part of Night, Wiesel shows the full effect camp has on prisoners by displaying their despondent attitudes with their dialogue. For instance, Zalman gave up soon after starting the 42 mile trek,”… [Zalman] yelled to me; “I can’t go on….I can’t go on,” he groaned.”(86)  Zalman, who might have tried to continue before the camp, gives up after the brutality in the camp which reduced him and his will to live to practically nothing. Wiesel skillfully displays with the dialogue how will-breaking, soul-stomping, energy-depleting the camps are.

Wiesel also uses dialogue in the form of rhetorical in the earlier chapters to show the prisoners disbelief in God and the life.  For example, during the hanging of the pipel, a man questions where God is, “For God’s sake, where is God?” (65)  This man’s disbelief that God could allow such a young boy to die causes him to question if God is even there for them.  However, he isn’t the only one who questions Life and God.  Elie especially questions God, “Why should I sanctify his name?…What was there to thank him for?” (33) and humanity, “how was it possible men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?” (32)  The horrendous acts at camps had driven him to question everything he knows and his own existence.

In contrast with earlier chapters six through  nine, Elie and the prisoners had shifted to question about each other’s survival. For example, Elie, upon seeing someone lay down in the snow after failing to awaken their comrade, questions who would awaken them, “…..he lay down to, next to the corpse, and also fell asleep.  Who would wake him up?” (90)  Elie still cares about others’ lives- he worries who will keep each alive.  The camps have made him care more about others survival by him having to suffer alongside them.

In chapters one through five, Wiesel syntax sets a slow pace full of background before it becomes faster paced in six through nine. For example, Wiesel tells us a little about his home, “[Sighet] the little town in Transylvania where I spent my childhood…”(3) Wiesel, before diving into the truly horrific things done at camp, gives us a glimpse of where he’s from –before it was destroyed.  On the other hand, chapters six through nine have more action and cruelty shown.  For example, the SS officer’s became ‘Trigger happy’ during the 42 mile trek, “Their fingers on the trigger, they did not deprive themselves the pleasure.  If one of us stopped for a second a quick shot eliminated the filthy dog.”(80)  Wiesel shows that the SS violence has increased and due the cruel things said to the prisoners, they have started to believe they are nothing more than mere dirty animals in clothing.

Wiesel displays with the different use of juxtaposition in the first and second part of Night to show the changes the camps caused.  For example, in the earlier chapters, Wiesel puts right next to each other beauty and imprisonment, “It was a beautiful day in May. The fragrances of spring were in the air….but no sooner had we taken a few more steps then we saw the barbed wire of another camp.”  (40)Wiesel shows how he was in prison but still surrounded by beauty-how the cruelty had no effect on the loveliness of nature.  In contrast, Wiesel shows weakness and power side by side in later chapters, ”chill to the bone, our throats parched, famished, out of breath…..we were masters of nature, the masters of the world.”(87)  Wiesel shows how he went from noticing what was around him to feeling nothing but weak to the point of delusional thinking-how camps have cracked the prisoners.

Wiesel with the use of commentary and eternal observations crafts an interestingly heart breaking first- hand account of how the camps weakened the prisoners physically and emotionally to the point of them thinking of themselves as nothing but feeble, dirty dogs, and  adjust his views about how the world actually is- including his opinions about God and the morality of man.