Analyzing Night

Wiesel’s use of the word mirage is used to imply that the life he is living is all one big illusion. He uses this word at the time when all the Jews are reciting the Kaddish. The reason why he chose to use it is because as they were reciting the Kaddish there was a sense of peace and happiness that was only there for a split second, but then faded away in despair and agony. In that moment then and there people felt as if there was tranquility and peace but before they realized it, it turned out just be a mirage.

The reason why Elie Weisel chose the Night as the title for his book is simply because all the horrible and mind twisting events that have happened to him happened at night. All throughout the book the word Night is being affiliated with death. It is also titled Night is because night is used as a term of the unknown and evil. This directly represented the Nazi’s. The Jews were not aware of the great evil and horrifying events the Nazi’s were going to cause them. He says that the whole event was like one big long night. He uses this to imply that the whole time he was there he was enveloped in death and thus making night the symbol for death throughout the book.

Elie Weisel stayed silent for 10 years because he wanted to be like the rest of the Jews….silent. He wanted to forget all the horrific events that he had seen and gone through. My theory as to why he broke his silence is because he started to remember what the people did to Mrs. Schächter. She could see flames that ultimately led to the crematory but the Jews didn’t believe here started beating her for screaming. Her won son was next to her while they were beating her and he stayed silent. Not even a single word or breath came out of him or intention of trying to stop the men from beating his own mother. After thinking whether he should stay like the rest or speak out he decided to speak out and tell all of us the horrific events of the holocaust that way history doesn’t repeat itself and almost wipes out a whole religion.
Once Elie is liberated from he is taken to a hospital because he got food poising. He finds a mirror in his room and takes a good look at himself. What he saw in the mirror was not him, but a lifeless carcass. He describes himself as “a corpse.” As he was staring into the dark holes of what he saw in the mirror he tells us that “the look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.” He uses this diction to indicate that he isn’t in his body but in some other place. The look that he saw is actually what he has imagined many times before. It’s almost as if he’s never been inside his own body but instead floating above it only guiding it.