Analysis Of Never Shall I Forget By Elie Wiesel

“Never Shall I Forget,” by Elie Wiesel is a poem of a passage in Night, that deals with the Holocaust which had occurred during the time of World War 2. The Holocaust is a very delicate matter and Elie Wiesel handles it in a way where he describes and shows the horrors committed by the Nazi’s of Germany. This poem, “Never Shall I Forget,” is written in the first person in which it illustrates the horrible events and tragic effects of the concentration camps where Elie Wiesel and his family were forced upon to. Wiesel employs various literary devices such as imagery, metaphor and anaphora and repetition to amplify on the tone and the meaning of the poem, “Never Shall I Forget.” One of the most important literary devices that Wiesel used is …show more content…
The main use of the metaphor by Wiesel is to apply a phrase to an action or object, which in reality is not actually applicable. This is done to help signify how important the actions that Wiesel describes are to him and how the effects are really tragic. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed,” is one of the first line in the poem with the use of metaphor by Wiesel. He applied the metaphor at the end of the sentence where it says “ one long night seven times sealed.” This is effectively used to make a reference to the symbolic meaning of night. Wiesel states that the whole week was taken over by the darkness of night due to the horrors he had been witnessing, and the word “night”, specifically in this context, signifies the living hell that Wiesel is living in. This is used in a way to implicitly state to the reader how horrible the circumstances were and how cruel reality was to Wiesel’s mind and body. “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.” This sentence has the use of the metaphor in the segments “murdered my God and soul” and “turned my dream to ashes.” The use of the metaphor causes a shift in tone to one which is somber yet in a mix with a sympathetic environment around the reader. The transition in this tone shows one of two things; one being the …show more content…
The first use of these literary devices is used at the beginning of every new sentence, “Never Shall I Forget, [...].” The use of this anaphora initially creates an overall tone of the poem to be a sympathetic one in reference to Wiesel’s emotions. It is also used to engrave that sentence into the reader’s memory so that the reader will not forget the message that is being passed on by Wiesel. The intensity of the indisputable pain and suffering that Wiesel endured in the concentration camps seems to continue way past his existence and the pain is unimaginable. There is another repetition although it is not explicitly stated. Wiesel consistently refers to fire, flames, and smoke throughout the poem; these terms are very interrelated. Fire, in general, signifies the consumption of an object or thing and once it has been consumed, it no longer exists in its original form. With that repetition, it deepens the meaning of what Wiesel is exerting from his poem; how the flames and fire consumed his faith, the deepest and strongest part of his soul. It creates an environment around the reader of sympathy and makes the meaning of that repetition more significant and effective. This is really effective because something that is sad and painful is more dramatic when it is said in a new environment filled with sorrow and sympathy; enables the communication of the pain that