How Does Elie Wiesel Use Figurative Language In Night

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Figurative language in the book Night helped the reader interpret the struggles of Elie Wiesel and his father as they endure the Holocaust. Figurative language in Night gave Elie Wiesel the language necessary to portray his struggles throughout the Holocaust. Without figurative language, Elie would not have been capable of adequately expressing his pain.

The first example of figurative language in Night that struck me is a simile, “They passed me, like beaten dogs, with never a glance in my direction (Wiesel 17).” This compares beaten dogs and Jews at Auschwitz. This simile affected the readers because it caused readers to think of the Jews as helpless, and throughout the book, made readers feel more compassionate towards them. It demonstrated how dehumanized the the Jews were. Wiesel used this specific choice because it showed how the Jews had lost their dignity. Comparing Jews to animals raised readers’ awareness towards the Nazi’s cruelty and how it affected the Jews’ personalities. This specific simile struck me because it introduced to me how the Jews were truly treated as unimportant animals.
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There was nothing. Only the darkness of night (Wiesel 25).” This example of foreshadowing happened as Elie and his community were being taken to a concentration camp, where most of them would die or lose their mind. This impacted the reader because it implied the fate of the Jews. It gave the reader insight into what the Jew’s fate was. Foreshadowing adds suspense to the plot of this book, and it makes the reader wonder what is going to happen next. The foreshadowing made the book much more intriguing, and made the plot easier to follow. Elie Wiesel used the specific example to demonstrate how the Holocaust took over the victims’ lives forever, and how it pulverized any ounce of hope they had once

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