Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

Fire has the unrestricted ability to burn through every last thing on this planet. Every last belief, possession, and commodity can be dusted into oblivion with the flicker of a tiny flame. Throughout the book Night, Elie Wiesel incorporates the symbolism of fire to paint the picture of a world so dark that it was only lit up by the burning of the Jewish people and their identity. The symbolization of fire illustrates the horrors of having family, culture, and identity all ripped away in a matter of only days, which was a daily experience for Jews. Across the entirety of this text, Wiesel uses the symbolism of fire to portray the horrors of daily life for Jews during the Holocaust.
At the beginning of Night, Elie has a fire ignited within …show more content…
Terror began to burn bright as the threat of concentration camps became ever prevalent. Denial began to set in for thousands of Jews, those who accepted their fate being branded mad. The threat of death became evident through the character of Madame Schächter, who screams this quotation as the Jews are being taken to the concentration camps, “ ‘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 darkness. (22)” Madame Schächter represents here the impending fate of the Jews, one of burning away Jewish identities and being left to suffer in the darkness. In this quotation, it is abundantly clear that fire has now taken the form of the bad guy, the one that enjoys the starvation and suffering of the Jews before he engulfs any hope of surviving with his fiery flames. In the central part of this book, fire now symbolizes the looming fate of the Jews, this fate being inevitable suffering. Most Jews choose to deny that there is a fire sparking two feet in front of them, allowing fire to also symbolize the intense denial emerging in the Jewish people. This symbolism shines through during this quotation, “in front of us flames. In the air that smell of burning flesh. It must have been about midnight. We had arrived-at Birkenau, reception center for Auschwitz. …show more content…
As Elie demonstrates in this quotation, the Jews held onto what little glimmers of hope was available in a world of darkness: “no one wanted to give up now, just before the end, so near to the goal.” Near the tail-end of this book, fire starts to symbolize an indifference towards the pain the Nazis were inflicting and the flame of hope residing within them being rekindled. The Jews were hurt so deeply that the vivid flames no longer scared them as this quote emphasizes, “right next to us the high chimney of the crematory oven rose up. It no longer made any impression on us. It scarcely attracted our attention. (99)” The knife of persecution had cut so deep that Jews become apathetic to the games of the Nazis. Nearing the end, the Jews began to allow themselves to hope again. Fire began to spark within the Jews as shown by this quotation, “stronger than cold or hunger, stronger than the shots and the desire to die, condemned and wandering, mere numbers, we were the only men on Earth. (83)” The will to live was still instilled within the hearts of the Jews, allowing fire to take on the form of the flicker of hope shining through the dark abyss of

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