Logan Goodwin
11-21-14
Pre- AP English 1
Assignment: Stylistic Analysis of Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night
Night Stylistic Analysis
In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night the author agonizingly relives his experience in the concentration camps during the Nazi occupation of WWII. Through the use if negative diction and syntax such as rhetorical questions and repetition, Wiesel presents the dire situation and shock of being thrust into the Holocaust at the age of 15.
Wiesel presents his comforting diction by showing the Jews’ false sense of security conveyed through their physical possessions. For example in chapters one through five Wiesel uses diction in the form of showing how the Jews’ used the love of their personal belongings to cope with the shock of being stripped away of everything by the Third Reich. After getting of the train the Jews were made to leave behind their “… beloved objects…” (28) to take on new roles as prisoners, forced to bend the knee to the SS officers’ commands. This immense shock brought many to the epiphany that they had been tricked to walk away from their small secluded town to a world of destruction and hate. Being taken away from their homes and belongings brought many to believe it was “just a dream” (38), even though it was not. Providing the true face of the Nazi army concealed by gifts of chocolates years ago.
Though chapters one through five are mainly about the shock of camp life in chapters six through nine the shock is dissipated and is matched by the degradation of the Jew’s body and soul. For example, during the forty-two mile trek to Gleiwitz Elie talks himself through what he expects to be his imminent death by saying “ Why don’t they just shoot us now?” whilst he marches in the cold. Even in the camps the jews only care about “warmth” and “food”. And without these basic needs contemplate the deaths they faced in the previous chapters. Therefore, Elie conveys the move from need of physical possessions to the basic needs of human life turning the Jews into animals.
Wiesel uses his rhetorical questions for his questioning of both God and the very nature of human existence. One example is when he was at Auschwitz, questioning God’s motives for the jews enrapturing him in an internal struggle. Saying things like “Why should I worship Him?” and how he wasn’t “just”(33). Especially when witnessing the murder and rape of his people at the hands of the Nazis. Although Wiesel questions God’s motives in the beginning of the book his experiences later in his imprisonment are drawn from basic human needs. For example during his time in the camps words such as “soup”, “death”, and fear of the “SS officers”(101) enraptured the jewish people. At the beginning they questioned God now they question themselves is what the Nazis wanted out of the capture of the jews. Turning a complex and civilized people driven by their love of God to a group of desensitized animals killing without mercy for a crumb of bread.
Therefore, using the love of physical possessions to create a false sense of security destined to be crushed by the cruel Reich and then using both rhetorical questions and repetition to enforce the turn from human to animal Wiesel recreates the agonizing year of capture and starvation brought on by an insane political agenda.