In “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie tries to make the reader feel many different feelings through many different ways and styles of writing. This essay is hopefully going to show you the styles Elie uses to make the reader have the intended effect.
Through out the entire book Elie Wiesel wanted the reader to realize how horrible the Holocaust was and how horribly they were treated in the camps and the trains. One way he wants the reader to realize this is through telling us how mean and uncaring the SS officers were. Such as “”There are eighty of you in the car,” the German officer added. “If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs.”(Pg. 24) It shows the utter disgust that the German officers had with the Jews and he did not care the least for them. He also would tell us details of his years in Auschwitz that we thought could never have been true. “”You are in a concentration camp. In Auschwitz… “A pause. He was observing the effect of his words had produced. His face remains in my memory to this day. A tall man, in his thirties, crime written all over his forehead and his gaze. He looked at us as one would a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life.”(Pg. 38) That they even told the prisons of the concentration camps of what they expected and wanted, but with a smile on their faces and a loathing glow in their eyes. He also described moments of his life in the concentration camp and how horrific their everyday lives were. “The SS made us increase our pace.
“Faster, you tramps, you flea-ridden dogs!”… time to time, a shot exploded in the darkness. They had orders to shoot anyone who did not sustain the pace.” The SS would gladly shoot any of the prisons if they had the chance and probably shoot a few for the fun of it because they were bored. “WE were given bread, the usual ration. We threw ourselves on it. Someone had the idea of quenching his thirst by eating snow. Soon we were all imitating him. As we were not permitted to bend down, we took out our spoons and ate the snow off our neighbor's backs. A mouthful of bread and a spoonful of snow. The SS men who were watching were greatly amused by the spectacle.”(Pg. 96)
Elie also wanted the reader to notice how much people can cling to life because of the amount of love, even in the most harsh of environments. He shows this constantly through the book and how he clung to life because he wanted to look out for his father. “My father was sent to the left. I ran after him. An SS officer shouted at my back: “come back!' I inched my way through the crowd. Several SS mne rushed to find me, creating such confusion that a number of people were able to switch over to the right- among them my father and I.”(Pg. 96)
Finally Elie Wiesel wanted the reader to know how horrendous war is and that it wasn't like most people thought. He did this by telling the reader oh events when the front-line got close and bombings occurred. “Everyone came out of the blocks. We breathed in air filled with fire and smoke, and our eyes shone with hope. A bomb had landed in the middle of the camp, near the Appelplatz, the assembly point, but had not exploded. We had to dispose of it outside the camp.” (Pg. 60) This quotation shows us that just one of the bombs that had landed at Auschwitz could have killed hundreds of prisoners' lives and that living on the front-lines is very dangerous.
Elie Wiesel makes the reader feel the effects, which he intended when he wrote this memoir. He does it through many styles and techniques, which are suitable in the ways he used them. Elie achieved his goal superbly and with no error.
