The Holocaust was also known as the Shoah and was a mass genocide that happened between 1941-1945 during the Second World War. Elie Wiesel's memoir 'Night' is a record of his experiences during the Holocaust. He uses a range of techniques such as Repetition, strong verbs and dialogue. His writing had an emotional response on me making me feel sad, awful and heartbreaking.
An event that impacted me was at the start of the book when Elie Wiesel saw, living children being thrown into a pit of fire The quote I have found is a part of his poem about never forgetting what he has seen and experienced "never shall I forget the small faces of children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky" the technique that is used in this quote from the book is repetition in the prose poem of "Never shall I forget..." seven times; sibilance (repetition of s sound) "smoke, silent, sky". The repetition Technique got me thinking about how he could never forget the horrors in the camp he lived in for so long. This made me uneasy and sad because children's lives are too short to be extinguished in the middle of their childhood and without living a normal life.
An event that gave me an emotional reaction was near midway through the book "he must have died, trampled under the feet of the thousands of men following us." this sentence is enhanced by the technique strong verb (trampled) the way they used trampled itself is a good enough word for what happened and adding on about "under the feet of thousands of men" gives it more emphasis. It's hard for me to understand what these people were forced into doing like having to run to their death across the country most of the mid-teens and older people that had survived were probably dying from exhaustion or had a health problem that mean they can't keep up and they either get trampled by there fellow inmates or killed by the ss officer and it makes me feel disheartened.
Near the end of the book, this event really impacted me "passed between the bunks. My father was pleading: "My son, water . . . I'm burning up . . . My insides . . ." "Silence over there!" barked the officer. "Eliezer," continued my father, "water . . ." The officer came closer and shouted to him to be silent. But My father did not hear. He continued to call me. The officer wielded his club and dealt him a violent blow to the head. I didn't move." The technique of dialogue effect is to convey their feeling or reasoning to the other character it tells me how Elie has deteriorated and has become a shell of his former self and doesn't speak or try to stop his father from being beaten as his father begs him for water. This quote saddens me because Elie stays still even though his father is being beaten he starts to guilt himself after his father's death because the last time he saw his dad was when he was calling out for his name on his death bed while being beaten by an ss officer.
The way he used techniques to show what it like witnessing it right in front of him like how he used “I shall never forget” to drill in to your head that he cannot forget what he has seen for the future of humanity and for himself and with the strong verbs that give emphasis on the events which are unfolding.
These events that Elie Wiesel has witnessed over the course of his time during this story show his highs and his lows and how de humanising things could get and he kept going and surviving for hi dad and his family that have not survived and eventually talked all over the world spreading awareness about the Holocaust so nothing like that ever happens again.
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