Essay question -
Describe at least one important technique used in the text.
Explain how the technique created an emotional response in you.
In the Holocaust memoir 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, three events that impacted me emotionally was their first journey to Auschwitz in the cattle car, the man getting shot with his face in the soup and the hangings. The writer uses a range of language features including listing, metaphors and alliteration to describe his experiences in the concentration camps. His purpose of writing the book is to tell everybody what really happened during the Holocaust and share all the emotional experiences that he went through and prevent them from happening again.
The first event that emotionally impacted me was their first journey to Auschwitz in the cattle car. Their was eighty people crammed into one cattle car with very little air and no food or water. The author uses language features such as listing and repetition to capture how they felt in the cattle car. "The heat, the thirst, the stench, the lack of air were suffocating us." From this sentence you can picture their surroundings and how they may be feeling. This helped me create a clearer picture of the conditions they were in. When I read this I felt sorry for them. A hot enclosed space with barely any air would be unbearable. I think the Jews are very strong to survive those circumstances.
The second event that emotionally impacted me was during the air raid when the SS left the unattended soup in the kitchen. Everybody was terrified to give in and take the soup because they knew it was a death trap, but one man was so hungry that he was ready to risk his life for the soup. The author uses the technique of metaphors to share what the Jews are thinking and to make it clear what they think will happen in this situation. "In our minds, he was already dead." This made me feel sad because the Nazi's are such vile human beings the Jews instantly knew those soups would not be for free. It's horrible that the poor man was so hungry that he was willing to risk his life for a bowl of soup. I realised just how great fear can be, the fact everybody was starving but the fear was consuming them that it just wasn't enough.
The last event that impacted me emotionally was the hangings. Three prisoners were hung by the executioner because they had been found with weapons in their possession. The author used the language feature alliteration. "Long live liberty! My curse on Germany!" Even when they were on the verge of death they weren't afraid to dis the Nazi's and curse them for all their wrongs. Reading the hangings made me feel sad and disgusted. I felt extremely disturbed for the young boy who was hanging in between life and death for half an hour, because his body was so much lighter than the other two men he survived much longer. The way Elie wrote the hangings in such detail was quite unsettling.
'Night' has taught me a lot about the Jewish religion and the Holocaust which I think is an important part of history. Using techniques such as listing, metaphors, and alliteration Elie Wiesel showed me the events in a heightened way. It was interesting watching movies and reading books seeing different peoples perspectives of the Holocaust. I felt quite sad reading the events that the Jews had to go through and I could never imagine myself in their shoes. The Holocaust is an awful event and I hope history never repeats itself.
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