Wiesel uses fire as a symbol throughout Night to impress upon his readers the devastation of the Holocaust victims. Choose one quote from the memoir that demonstrates Wiesel’s use of this symbol and explain what you think this quote reveals about Wiesel’s life and the Holocaust. (150 – 200 words).
16 comments:
The symbol of fire was used often throughout the book. In the book one example of fire is when the Jews were on a train to go to Auschwitz and Madame Schächter looks out the window and thinks she sees fire. This shows the horror that was going to be their destiny. "She pointed her arm toward the window, screaming "'Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!'" Some of the men pressed up against the bars. There was nothing there; only the darkness" The fire she thought she saw was her fear and her dehydration taking over. It caused her to hallucinate and imagine fire. Even though the fire foreshadows the camps and the death they would have to go through. Later on as they were arriving to the camp someone yelled out, "'Jews, look! Look through the window! Flames! Look!'" And as the train stopped, we saw this time the flames were gushing out of a tall chimney into the black sky." So all alone Madame Schächter was accurate with her views. The fire was a major symbol in the book and foreshadowed alot.
Weisel uses a symbol of fire throughout his novel, Night. Fire in Night symbolizes the evil, cruelty, and murderous acts by the Germans towards the Jewish people during this genocide known as the Holocaust. One example that portrays of what is to come is when Eliezer is on the train with his family and many other Jews on their way to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. One of the Jews there was a woman Madame Schachter, who was with her ten year old. As everyone is sleeping, Madame Schachter begins scream out to everyone, “Fire! I can see a fire! I can see a fire!” and everyone is trying to calm her down because she was separated from her family, dehydrated, and delirious. As she continued everyone was yelling at her to stop, she kept saying, “Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!” But she was right, because as soon as the Jews arrive at the camp, they see people going into fires, where they are burned alive. She knew everyone was going to die, and they were going to be put in the furnaces and become separated from their families. It is unbelievable for anybody to go through this and witness people being tortured and killed.
Wiesel uses fire as a symbol throughout his novel Night, as a way to further animate this devistation and horror that the holocaust victims witnessed and experienced. An example of this is towards the beginning of the novel when not much is known of what is to come. Eliezer witnesses Madame Schachter who is accompanied by her child, on their train go mad. She screams and cries in the middle of the night of fire and smoke. She makes such a fuss and arouses fear in the other passengers, so much that some people proceed to quiet her by beating her after trying to verbally calm her. “Fire! I can see a fire! I can see a fire! ... Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!” While she is really trying to warn the others of the dangers of their destination, many believe she has lost it due to dehydration on the long ride. The heat in the trains also plays a key element in Weisel's use of symbolism.“Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire! There are huge flames! It’s a furnace!” This comment forshadows what the Nazis are planning to do to the Jews but no one wants to hear it. This shows the irony and pain experienced by Wiesel during his horrific experience.
The way Wiesel uses fire as a symbol gives it a whole new meaning. "In front of us flames. In the air that smell of burning flesh. It must have been about midnight. We had arrived at Bikenau, reception center for Auschwitz." This shows that life during the holocaust gave a whole new meaning to things like fire. When a holocaust victim saw fire the first thing they would think of is death. This reveals that being in the Holocaust meaning a new world of meaning. Today when some one thinks of fire they may think of it has a tool for survival since we often do use fire to help us. However during the Holocaust fire lost its meaning as a tool and became a symbol of death. Wiesel uses this symbol heavily because it shows what an impact the Holocaust had on him.
Wiesels use of fire conveys different forms of literary elements. "She continued to scream, breathless, her voice broken by sobs. 'Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire!" In this quote it demonstrates the use of fire as a foreshadow for the crematory at the death camp. This is not the only time that he uses fire in his novel he later uses it as a confirmation to the proliminary reference to fire. This time everyone notices, " And as the train stopped, we saw this time the flames were gushing out of a tall chimney into the black sky."
Wiesel uses fire as a symbol in Night to show the terrible things that went on in the Holocuast, such as the burning of bodies in fires. On the train on the way to Auschwitz, one of the passengers, Madame Schachter claims that she is seeing fire out of the window. "Fire! I can see a fire!" When everyone looks to see if there is a fire, there is none, so they try to silence Madame
Schachter. This is also foreshadowing, since when they come up to the camp they see the creamtories and smeel the burning flesh. Wiesel is very detailed in his descriptions of several events of the Holocaust.
Wiesels use of fire in Night symbloizes the crematory at the camps. During the Holocaust Jews were burned in the fires of the creamatory, and when Elizer and the other people from his town are on their way to the Auschwitz concentration camp, one of the passengers on the train is Madame Schachter. She starts screaming that she is seeing fire, "Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire!" But there is no fire, and the other passengers get tired of her yelling about a fire that isn't there, so they tie her up and gag her. But when they actually get to the camp, there really are fires where bodies are being burned. The symbolism that Wiesel uses is very powerful.
In the novel, Night, Weisel uses the symbol of fire throughout his story. Fire is symbolized as all of the harsh, evil, immoral, and lethal ways committed by the Germans towards the Jewish community during the Holocaust. For example, when Eliezer is on the train with his family and all of the Jews who were on their way to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, there was a woman, Madame Schachter, who was with her ten year old son. In the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping, Madame Schachter began to scream, “Fire! I can see a fire! I can see a fire!” This startled everyone and they quickly tried to make her be quiet and calm down. Everyone thought she was going crazy because of being so dehydrated, and restless. After awhile she stopped as she was gagged, beat, and yelled at. Soon later, she continued screaming, “Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!” And once again, she was gagged, beat, and yelled at for being so annoying. Nevertheless, she was right because as soon as the Jews arrived at the camp, they saw the fires, where the Jewish people were being burned alive. Madame Schachter knew everyone was going to die. She knew that they were going to be burned in the fire and never see their families ever again. It is so unbelievable that anyone ever had to go through such a terrible thing. To ever witness the people you care for, your friends and family suffer and be killed.
wiesel uses fire as a symbol of the devastation of the holocost victims serveral times throught the memoir. on example was this quote "Fire!i can see fire!i can see a fire!" There was a momnet's panic. who had cried out? it was Madame Schachter. standing in the middle of the wagon, in the pale light from the windows,she looked like a withered tree in a cornfield. she pointed he arm toward the window,screaming:"Look!Look at it!Fire!A terrible fire!Mercy! Oh,that fire!"(pg.22) this forshadows there death and how they dont want to face the facts that they are going to be killing everyone.
Wiesel uses Fire as a symbol throughout the novel of Night to show the horror and torment that the Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. While they were traveling on the train Madame Schächter kept screaming, “Fire! I can see a fire! I can see a fire!” While in reality noone could see a fire. This was a premonition that she was having. Madame Schächter knew what was coming and noone wanted to believer her because, someone screaming fire on a train when they can’t see one, well lets just say the boy who cried wolf had a better chance of someone believing him. When everyone had stepped off of the train, they had realized that Madame Schächter was actually right. Everyone was puzzled. Wiesel uses the fire to show that the Jews were treated inhumane. They were abused worst than animals and to Hitler they were less than dirt. Wiesel tries to convey what really happened to those who didn’t go through the holocaust first hand because such a travesty needed to be witnessed first hand to get what really happened to all those innocent people, when Hitler walked into Europe like he owned everything.
Wiesel uses fire as a symbol to the devastation of the Holocaust victims. One example that demonstrates this is “We looked at the flames in the darkness. There was an abominable Oder floating in the air. Suddenly out doors opened. Some odd looking characters, dresses in striped shirts and black trousers leapt into the wagon. They held electric torches. They began to strike out to right and left shouting get out everyone get out of the wagon quickly! We jumped out. I threw a last glance toward Madame Schachter. Her little boy was holding her hand .In front of us flames. In the air that smell of burning flesh. It must have been about midnight. We have arrived at Birkenau, reception center for Auschwitz.” This shows the they were burning Jewish people and Germans didn’t care what they did to jews. The devastation of the jew getting burn was tremendous.
Fire is a symbol that Wiesel uses to show the readers how devastating the Holocaust was. One example is when the Jews were being taken away to Auschwitz. In the middle of the night, Madame Schachter starts screaming out that there is a fire. ""Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!" Some of the men pressed up against the bars. There was nothing there; only the darkness." Many of the passengers get annoyed with her and beat her to quiet her down. She realizes their fate. Her screaming 'fire' foreshadowed what was going to happen to them. When they arrived in Auschwitz, they saw huge flames rising from a chimney. Madame Schachter was right from the beginning. The fire represents the harsh treatment the Jews received. They would be worked to death or just shot on the spot. After they were dead, they would be thrown into crematories to get rid of the bodies.
Throughout the memoir Elie Wiesel uses fire to show and demonstrate the horrible and devastating things going on during the holocaust. She uses this while Elie and her family are on the train going to Auschwitz. While riding on the train one of the passengers loss's it and begins to scream fire fire. This character is Madame Schachter and old Jewish woman and she begins to scream "Fire! I can see fire! I can see fire!... Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! mercy! Oh,that fire!" She started to see things due to the horrible living conditions in the train. then they you are shown as a change in the other Jews when they begin to beat and gag her. This is such a profound change in the Jews and it shows ll of the devastation in which the Jews had to experience.
In Night, Wiesel uses fire as a symbol of the evilness that the Germans have done to them. He uses that when Wiesel is on a train with his family and Madame Schachter starts screaming that she sees a fire in the distance out of the train window. The men on the train look out the window and see nothing but she continues to scream. Wiesel uses this as a sort of vision that Madame Scachter can see what is going to happen and is predicting that the Germans will use this to kill them later on. Also later when they arrive to Auschwitz someone yelled that they saw a fire, but this time is was for real and and they might have thought that Madame Scachter wasn't as crazy as she seemed. Wiesel uses Fire as a symbol throughout the novel and does it well.
Wiesel uses fire as a symbol throughout Night to impress his readers the destruction of the Holocaust victims. The part of the book where Wiesel shows this is when he says, “She continued to scream, breathless, her voice broken by sobs. 'Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire.” This foreshadows all the deaths that will happen in the concentration camps. Many of the Jews were burned in the concentration camps, and this quote shows how Wiesel uses fire as a symbol of destruction. Another example that still foreshadows the deaths in the concentration camp is when Wiesel says, “Fire! I can see a fire! I can see a fire!” She starts to become hysterical, “Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh, that fire!” This also shows how Wiesel uses fire as a symbol of destruction of the Holocaust Victims.
In his writings, Wiesel uses fire as a symbol of the devastation of the Holocaust victims. He uses this symbol both literally and figuratively. At one point he has to begin to walk before his foot was healed and he thought, "It reminded me of my mother's last recommendations in the ghetto. But I couldn't fall asleep. My foot was on fire." While Elie was describing his physical pain, I believe it also was symbolic of how he views his life and the Holocaust. He had to deal with the pain to be able to fight for his life. Each step Elie would take, emotionally and physically was stepping through fire. Would he make it through or not? The flames represent the ovens and the heat of all things bad.
Post a Comment