Essay Question:
Describe at least one important technique used in the text. Explain how the technique created an emotional response in you.
In the Holocaust memoir 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, three events that impacted me emotionally were the time in the cattle car going to the camp, the hanging of the pipel, and the death march. The writer uses a range of language features including very short sentence, metaphor and repetition to describe his experiences in the concentration camps. These emotionally impacted me by enhancing just how cruel the conditions were and making me feel so much empathy for all the victims.
The first part of the book that affected me was the journey to the camp in the cattle car. For me it represents the downward dive in hope. At the start the Jews were clinging to the possibility that they were being transported somewhere nice, to escape the approaching warfare. But throughout the days in the cattle car they slowly start to understand their horrific fate. Mrs Schachter, a fellow passenger, had hallucinations of fire and distressed the cattle car. Her young son tried to comfort her but she was eventually silenced by an almost lethal blow to the head, "Her son was clinging desperately to her, not uttering a word. He was no longer crying." The author used a very short sentence to show how shocking it is that a six year old boy is no longer crying in this situation.
Reading this specific line made me think of my own mother, and how seeing her that way would break my heart. Watching the most important woman in your world, lose the spirit inside her, would shatter anyone. This also made me understand that the men who struck her did it to save themselves from her insanity. I think that this was an example of the dog eat dog world we live in, and how when everyone starts getting desperate, survival instincts kick in.
The second event that affected me emotionally was the hanging of the pipel. Elie Wiesel describes the hanging of a young boy alongside two adults. He writes in violent detail about how the pipel doesn't die immediately because his body is too light,
"'Where He is? This is where-hanging from the gallows ...'
That night, the soup tasted of corpses." .The metaphor at the end is used to show that although the Jews were seeing terrible things each day, this particular death impacted them all very much.
The third event that left an impact on me was the death march. The way he wrote it made me feel exhausted for them. The constant movement in already broken bodies showed the strength they had even when they were so fatigued,
"We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, doomed and rootless, nothing but numbers, we were the only men on earth." The author used repetition to reinforce and remind us of their constant bravery and how even though they had been beaten down in every way they were still so strong.
For me, reading this book shed light on the despairing truth that was the Holocaust. It always just a terrible thing that happened in the past, that never affected me directly. These specific moments, and the whole book, affected me hugely. The language features used in each of the quotes enhanced the meaning and deepened the impact on me. The horrors revealed to me in this book, were disgusting and heartbreaking all at once. What is even more heartbreaking is that the cruel behaviour shown in the holocaust hasn't ceased because of this tragic event. The fact the Neo-Nazism even exists proves that some people's sick views haven't changed. Despite this Elie Wiesel is unfathomably brave for going through a deeply traumatic experience and years later writing a book about it. Hopefully this book will educate generations to come.
