Dylan Harris
Pre-AP English 1-5
11-21-14
Assignment: Stylistic Analysis of Elie Wiesel’s Memoir, Night
Change Through Diction and Syntax in Night: By Elie Wiesel
In the Holocaust memoir Night, Elie Wiesel visualizes his changes from childhood to manhood as he grows up in concentration camps. Wiesel depicts his goal of staying with his father through the struggles of the Holocaust. Wiesel creates a symbolic diction of the Jewish religion which later transitions to a hateful diction, and uses syntax such as juxtaposition and rhetorical devices to describe how Elie changes from the time he entered Birkenau to the time he was liberated.
In chapters one through five, Wiesel describes his deep devotion to the Jewish religion. For example, when Elie is looking for a master, he is upset that he is “not able to find in Sighet a master to teach him the Zohar, the Kabbalistic work, the secrets of Jewish mysticism,” (5). Elie wants to learn the Zohar, but there is no one who can teach him, which indirectly implies that not many people know it well enough to teach it. Also, Wiesel describes how he does “not want to want to learn it by heart but to discover within the very essence of divinity,”(5).By using religious diction, such as Zohar, Jewish mysticism, and Kabbalistic works, Wiesel describes how he educated in the Jewish religion. This implies that before going to the concentration camps, Elie was very dedicated to learn more about God and the Jewish religion. However, in chapters six through nine, Wiesel rarely mentions religion because he had abandoned it. “I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered,” (113). The only reason his life no longer mattered to him was because he believed that God was not gracious and kind, and that there was no chance of a saviour. Wiesel discontinues the use of religious and symbolic diction and begins to use a vulgar diction when speaking about religion. If he believed that God was gracious and kind, then he would still have faith in Him, and would continue to praise His name, but his faith in God was no more. Therefore, because of his experience at the concentration camps, Elie Wiesel has changed from a Jew who is eager to learn about God, to a Jew who is awaiting death.
Similarly, Wiesel uses syntax such as juxtaposition and rhetorical devices to express his transformation from eager-to-live to waiting-to-die. For example, throughout the memoir there is a recurring juxtaposition of Elie not wanting to be separated from his father. While the prisoners were taking shelter to avoid being injured from an approaching airstrike, a prisoner announced that the airstrike was to hit the Buna factory. Although most of the prisoners were in their blocks, there were still some prisoners working in the factory, including Elie’s father. Because Elie knew that his father was still in the factory, he “ was anxious about [his] father,” (60). By saying that he was anxious shows that he loves his father and does not want to lose him.however, this juxtaposition ceases when his father dies. Elie says if he “could have searched the recesses of [his] feeble conscience, [he] might have found something like: Free at last!,” (112). By using juxtaposition to describe a father-son relationship, Wiesel describes how his love for his father changed after his death.
Another way Wiesel uses syntax to describe a change is through rhetorical questions and devices. Before the Jews left Sighet, a decree was placed by the S.S. Officers that required the Jews to wear a yellow star the that they were easily distinguished. As the Sighetans began to get uncomfortable, Elie’s father says: “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal,” (11). Afterwards, while Wiesel was remembering the scene, he says: “Poor father! Of what then did you die?” (11). By asking this rhetorical question, Wiesel foreshadows his father’s death. Because Wiesel placed the rhetorical question after the Holocaust, he shows that, at the time, Elie was just as clueless as his father to their upcoming conflict. However, after Elie and his father had reached the point of their conflict, they realized their fate and grew to accept it. While on the train to Buchenwald, Elie’s father was with one of his good friends from Sighet. Meir Katz, a very large man, was becoming weaker and weaker as he grew ill. In great pain he asks: “Why don’t they just shoot us now?” (103). This rhetorical question symbolizes the way the Jews feel about the Holocaust. They solemnly believe that their pain and suffering may only be ceased by death. Thus bringing the conclusion that the concentration camps have altered Elie’s and the other prisoner’s views on their future so that they no longer wish to survive, but would rather die instead.
By examining these scenes it is clear that, because of their life in concentration camps, Elie, his father, and the other Jews have changed both emotionally, and physically. Everyday, the prisoners, including Elie and his father, come face to face with starvation, sickness, and death, thus changing their faith in God, and their appearance.