TOW #7- Night by Elie Wiesel (IRB post)

The second half of Night by Elie Wiesel describes experiences in the Holocaust that were significantly worse than the experiences described in the first half of the book. For example, the first part of the book explains Wiesel’s life before being taken to the concentration camps and it explains his experiences in the ghetto (which, although incredibly difficult, were not as bad as those in the second half of the book), while, in the second half of the book, Wiesel explains losing his father, the extreme cold and long runs, and the starvation and surrender to death. As a result, Wiesel frequently uses anaphora to help appeal to pathos. Wiesel writes, “The last night in Buna. Once more, the last night. The last night at home, the last night in the cattle car, and, now, the last night in Buna” (83). The repetition of the words “last night” cause the reader to feel sad. Although it is not directly stated, Wiesel is implying that soon there will be a “last night” of his life, which also creates sad emotions for the reader. Wiesel’s audience is the general public, and Wiesel is trying to inform everybody about his previous experiences in order to prevent something so horrendous from happening again. This use of anaphora which appeals to pathos allows Wiesel to play with the reader’s emotions and make them feel sad (therefore, the reader would be less likely to allow something like the Holocaust from happening again in the future). Additionally, this quote connects to the title, Night. It emphasizes how Wiesel has reached a point in his life where he can begin to count the time he has left to live by nights. Finally, Wiesel uses the symbolism associated with nights to once more appeal to pathos. Usually, “night” is associated with darkness (symbolic for bad things) and a fear of the unknown, both of which are prominent emotions and occurrences throughout Wiesel’s experiences in the Holocaust. Therefore, Wiesel effectively uses the repetition of the word “night” to appeal to pathos and create a parallel structure with his experiences, which helps him to successfully achieve his purpose of informing the general public about his experiences in order to prevent something like the Holocaust from happening again.