The book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a powerful memoir about the Holocaust. In his memoir Wiesel gives a first hand account of his experience in Auschwitz. The horrors he faced are described vividly and the effect it had on him is made clear in his memoir. From beginning to end, the memoir is intense and illuminating. Wiesel uses overstatement, or hyperbole, to evoke strong emotions in order to encourage people to treat everyone respect, so that the horrors of Auschwitz never happen again. The terror the camps created can be seen even before the Jews enter Auschwitz. Wiesel uses overstatement to articulate this. For example, before they enter the camp, the Jewish people are sorted into two lines: one goes to the crematoria and the other
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Overstatement is such a powerful device because it highlights how extreme a situation is and give the reader a very definite mental image of what is happening. An example of this can be found during the selection. This excerpt is from the part of the memoir when the doctors are examining the prisoner’s health by watching them run by. The selection determines who will keep on working and who will be sent to the crematoria. “The race seemed endless; I felt as though I had been running for years...”(Wiesel, 2006, p.72). This again shows the power of his fear through hyperbole. It is a hyperbole because he was only running for a few seconds, but he says if felt like he “had been running for years”. Wiesel chooses to emphasise his fear again to reinforce the idea of absolute terror and make the reader grasp how powerful this fear was. Therefore the reader would feel compelled to prevent this feeling in themselves and other people, this in turn gives readers a broader understanding that people other than themselves have feelings, and need to be respected. Respect is an element that is essential to living in society and even more important in the pursuit of peace. Wiesel wants his readers to strive for a world where hatred and violence are a thing of the past, and respect is the first step to achieving that …show more content…
During their last night in Buna, Wiesel talks about trying to sleep, but being unable to because of the immense pain he was in. He says… “My foot was on fire”(Wiesel, 2006, p.83). This is an overstatement because his foot was not literally on fire. This overstatement shows the reader that he was in an extreme amount of pain. It also gives the reader an idea of what his pain felt like. Since most people can make some kind of connection to the sensation of “fire”, they feel empathy. This insight makes the reader recognize that the holocaust would be a terrible thing to have to experience and therefore makes them want to prevent it. This realization also causes the reader to contemplate times when they’ve known others who were in pain and comprehend that others feel just as much pain as they do. It makes the reader face the truth that there is no “us” and “them” there is only a “we”: the human race.Understanding this inspires readers to be kind to their neighbors, respect people unknown to them, and strive for a better
Overstatement is such a powerful device because it highlights how extreme a situation is and give the reader a very definite mental image of what is happening. An example of this can be found during the selection. This excerpt is from the part of the memoir when the doctors are examining the prisoner’s health by watching them run by. The selection determines who will keep on working and who will be sent to the crematoria. “The race seemed endless; I felt as though I had been running for years...”(Wiesel, 2006, p.72). This again shows the power of his fear through hyperbole. It is a hyperbole because he was only running for a few seconds, but he says if felt like he “had been running for years”. Wiesel chooses to emphasise his fear again to reinforce the idea of absolute terror and make the reader grasp how powerful this fear was. Therefore the reader would feel compelled to prevent this feeling in themselves and other people, this in turn gives readers a broader understanding that people other than themselves have feelings, and need to be respected. Respect is an element that is essential to living in society and even more important in the pursuit of peace. Wiesel wants his readers to strive for a world where hatred and violence are a thing of the past, and respect is the first step to achieving that …show more content…
During their last night in Buna, Wiesel talks about trying to sleep, but being unable to because of the immense pain he was in. He says… “My foot was on fire”(Wiesel, 2006, p.83). This is an overstatement because his foot was not literally on fire. This overstatement shows the reader that he was in an extreme amount of pain. It also gives the reader an idea of what his pain felt like. Since most people can make some kind of connection to the sensation of “fire”, they feel empathy. This insight makes the reader recognize that the holocaust would be a terrible thing to have to experience and therefore makes them want to prevent it. This realization also causes the reader to contemplate times when they’ve known others who were in pain and comprehend that others feel just as much pain as they do. It makes the reader face the truth that there is no “us” and “them” there is only a “we”: the human race.Understanding this inspires readers to be kind to their neighbors, respect people unknown to them, and strive for a better