Explore the figurative language in Night by Elie Wiesel. Learn the purpose and examples of personification, metaphors, similes, and other literary devices in Night. Updated: 11/21/2023
Figurative Language in Night by Elie Wiesel | Examples & Analysis
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ShowFrequently Asked Questions
Why does Wiesel use figurative language in Night?
Wiesel uses figurative language in the book to help the readers connect with more difficult and inconceivable ideas. By creating relatable comparisons and illustrations, readers are more likely to understand the depths of the situations that Wiesel experiences during the Holocaust.
What is the figurative meaning of night?
The figurative meaning of night is the darkness and despair that surrounds Elie Wiesel while he is in the concentration camps. This darkness is not only because he experiences horrific treatment and witnesses mass murder, but because he feels he lives in a world without God.
What is an example of figurative language in Night?
One example of figurative language in Night is the metaphor, "Open rooms everywhere...It was there for the taking. An open tomb." This metaphor compares the empty housing of of the Jews to an open tomb in order to show the death of their former lives and foreshadow the murder that many of them will face.
Table of Contents
ShowElie Wiesel's "Night" is an autobiographical novel that details Wiesel's experiences in the concentration and death camps of Buna, Birkenau, and Auschwitz. The story begins with insights into Wiesel's dedication to his God, the years of hope preceding his deportation, and the disbelief that the destruction of an entire race could occur in the twentieth century. His novel then shares the harrowing tales of his deportation, separation from his mother and sisters, and Wiesel's time in the concentration camps. Wiesel illustrates the horrors of starvation, cruelty, and struggle with his faith. In doing so, he highlights his dedication to survive and the love for his father, who is struggling alongside him.
Oftentimes, figurative language is used in literature to help the reader further understand and connect with difficult concepts within the text. In literary works, a few common and well-known types of literary devices used to write figurative language include personification, similes, and metaphors, but there are many others.
In Night, Elie Wiesel includes multiple forms of figurative language to provide various avenues for the readers to better envision and grasp the disillusionment, hatred, and dread of the events that took place during the Holocaust. Because Wiesel's experiences are so foreign to the readers of his book, the figurative language in Night creates familiar comparisons to help illustrate the inconceivable events he encountered during his time in the concentration camps of Buna and Birkenau, and the death camp, Auschwitz.
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Below are several examples of literary devices in Night that Wiesel uses in an effort to unveil the despair of the Holocaust.
Personification in Night
Personification is when an inanimate object or nonhuman is described with human traits or characteristics. Readers are more likely to feel connected to descriptions and text with personification because they recognize the human-like traits being used. In Night, personification functions as a way to transfer Wiesel's emotions outside of his own experience so the reader can understand what occurred.
"A calm, reassuring wind blew through our homes" is an example of personification because wind cannot be reassuring: that is a human trait. However, after the foreign Jews had been deported and several weeks passed without another sign of war, the rest of the community felt more at ease. Wiesel demonstrates this with a "calm, reassuring wind."
A second example of personification is found when Wiesel first arrives at camp. He writes, "Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes." Upon seeing the flames of the crematorium, Wiesel realizes the horror of the camps. He uses the word "murdered." A moment cannot commit murder, but he assigns this trait to his experience to reveal how abruptly his faith and previous life disappear.
Metaphors in Night
A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike objects without using the words "like" or "as." Because the annihilation of an entire group of people is difficult to grasp, metaphors in the novel are used to help the reader conceive the magnitude of destruction that took place.
One example of a metaphor in "Night" is demonstrated in the text when Wiesel writes, "Open rooms everywhere...It was there for the taking. An open tomb." The rooms were open because their owners were forced to depart. The sign of these empty homes was a physical sign of the death to come for those who once occupied these spaces, which is emphasized when Wiesel compares them to "an open tomb."
A second example of a metaphor appears when Wiesel is describing the hanging of the young pipel. Wiesel writes, "Where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows…" When asking where ''He'' is, Wiesel is referring to God. Wiesel answers his own question, saying that God is hanging from the gallows to illustrate that he feels he is living in a world without God.
Similes in Night
Similes are comparisons between two unlike objects using the words "like" or "as." Similes in Night create depth and insight into Wiesel's experiences by relating an idea, feeling, or object that the reader may not be familiar with to something the reader is familiar with.
Wiesel uses a simile when discussing the German troops entering into Hungarian territory. He states, "The news spread throughout Sighet like wildfire." Wiesel uses "like" to compare the news of the Germans to the unlike object of a "wildfire." Wildfires spread quickly and in all directions, providing the reader with a visual as to how rapidly the news reached the Jewish community.
A second example of a simile reads, "By eight o'clock in the morning, weariness had settled into our veins, our limbs, our brains, like molten lead." Although their veins, limbs and brains are in reality not molten lead, Wiesel's simile compares them to lead using the word "like" to help convey to the reader the physical exhaustion that the Jews felt as the Hungarian police entered the ghetto.
Symbolism in Night
Symbolism is when one object is used to represent an idea, concept, or emotion. In the novel Night, Wiesel uses multiple symbols to help convey his experiences in the text. A few of the symbols used frequently in the text are fire, bread, and night.
Fire, first used in the scene with Mrs. Schachter, is used as a symbol to represent the impending death and the Nazis burning of human life.
Bread, the typical source of food for the people in the camps, is used to symbolize life, death, and friends or family. Bread is used for nourishment, and therefore life. The absence of their meager rations equated to death. Many of the prisoners would share their rations with their friends or family who were in more dire situations in order to help sustain life. We see an example of this in the text when Wiesel writes, "My father had a present for me: a half ration of bread, bartered for something he had found at the depot..." Wiesel's father loves and cares for Wiesel so much that he works to find ways to get extra bread to show that affection and to help keep his son alive.
Night is one of the most significant symbols in the book. Night represents the suffering, anguish, and sorrow that Wiesel felt as a prisoner in Buna, Birkenau, and Auschwitz. Wiesel begins the book showing his strong connection to and faith in God. However, during his experience in the camps, he struggles to see God's presence and begins to see that he lives in a world with no God. Wiesel's world without a God is part of his anguish and is also symbolized with night and darkness.
Hyperbole in Night
Exaggerated statements or claims that are not to be interpreted in a literal sense are called hyperboles. Hyperboles are meant to place emphasis on a situation or idea in order to illustrate significance.
There are a multitude of hyperboles used throughout Night. Below are a couple of those examples.
"We went off to work as usual, our bodies frozen" is an example of a hyperbole because their bodies were not literally frozen. However, the temperature and weather conditions at the camp were so cold, that their bodies being described as frozen helps illustrate the numbing frigidity of their conditions.
"I wanted to run away, but my feet were nailed to the floor. Idek grabbed me by the throat" is another example of a hyperbole. Wiesel, caught by Idek, wanted to escape the wrath he is about to experience, but he cannot. Although his feet are not physically nailed to the floor, by stating they are shows that Wiesel was immobilized by fear.
Irony in Night
Irony, used for emphasis and sometimes humor, occurs when a writer expresses an idea by using language that normally conveys the opposite meaning. Wiesel incorporates irony in "Night" to point out the brutality of the Nazis and the severity of their living conditions in the camps.
One example of irony is when Wiesel states, "We were to leave the train here. There was a labor camp on site. The conditions were good. Families would not be separated."
This text above serves as an example of irony because the labor camps did not have good conditions where families stayed together. Instead, the camps intentionally separated families and deprived the prisoners of basic human needs.
A second example of irony in the text includes, "That SS officer in the muddy barrack must have been lying: Auschwitz was, after all, a convalescent home..."
The second example demonstrates irony because upon arriving at Auschwitz, Wiesel was offered a bowl of soup, had a good night's sleep, and felt new hope that the war was about to end. Auschwitz did not feel so awful. In reality, Auschwitz is the concentration camp known for millions of deaths, and now, years later in writing his book, his irony prepares the reader for the horrors to come.
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Night is an autobiographical novel that discusses Wiesel's experiences in the concentration and death camps during World War II. In order to help communicate the meaning of difficult concepts within the text, Wiesel uses figurative language in Night. To help the future generations remember the horrible treatment of millions of Jews during the Holocaust, Wiesel uses figurative language in an effort to bridge understanding of these inconceivable events.
Wiesel uses the following kinds of figurative language:
- Personification - giving inanimate or nonhuman object human traits or characteristics
- Metaphor - a comparison of two indirect objects without using ''like'' or ''as''
- Similes - a comparison of two indirect objects using ''like'' or ''as''
- Symbolism - using an object to represent an idea, concept, or emotion
- Hyperboles - an exaggeration of language to create emphasis
- Irony - using language to express the opposite meaning of what is stated.
Although all figurative language contributes to the deeper understanding of the text, the symbol of night is one that stands out as significant. Night, the title of the book, uses the symbol of night to convey the idea that darkness was brought upon Wiesel as he experiences routine murders and believes that God has abandoned him in a cruel world.
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Video Transcript
Definition of Figurative Language
You've probably read more than your share of dry, dull textbooks. Can you imagine if everything you ever read was written that way, without any emotion or vivid images? Well, fear not - because this will never happen, thanks to a little creative writing technique called figurative language.
Figurative language is using language to communicate a meaning beyond the literal text on the page. Figurative language can enhance a reader's experience by making the text easier to understand, or making an image easier to visualize. It can also create a mood or tone.
Elie Wiesel, author of Night, uses figurative language to enhance your experience while reading this book. You'll examine four different types of figurative language in this lesson, and their roles in Wiesel's work: personification, symbolism, simile, and metaphor.
Personification in Night
Personification is giving an inhuman or inanimate object human characteristics. One of the biggest reasons authors use this technique is to create a more relatable, interesting image for the reader to visualize. Like in this example from Night:
'A calm, reassuring wind blew through our homes.'
What's being personified in this quote? That's right, the wind. While the wind can be calm, it can't really make the conscious effort to be reassuring, which is what Wiesel is communicating here. He's insinuating that the wind is coming into the homes of the townspeople by choice and reassuring them one by one, telling them everything will be okay.
Why write this sentence this way, instead of simply saying, 'Well, the people were reassured'? This particular description paints a vivid image in your mind. You can imagine a soft, gentle wind caressing the narrator's head and telling him, 'You'll be fine'. You can imagine this happening all over town, convincing people that everything will be all right.
Symbolism in Night
Symbolism is when a specific person, place, or thing is used to represent a larger, more abstract idea. The peace sign, which is a very recognizable, real thing, represents the larger, more abstract idea of peace.
Night plays an important symbolic role in this work. Night comes to represent terrible suffering and pain, and also a world without God. Eliezer, the narrator of Night, comes to believe that he lives in a world without the presence of God because of the atrocities he witnesses at the hands of the Nazis in the 1940s. The worst, most terrible moments of suffering occur for Eliezer at night - when he first arrives at the concentration camp, and his first night at the camp when he witnesses the burning of Jewish children, and these horrible moments turn his life '...into one long night…'.
As the Allied forces approach the camp later in the book, Eliezer and his father are forced by the Nazis, with thousands of other prisoners, to march to a train depot far away, where they will be shipped to another camp. This also happens at night, and is yet another event filled with terror, pitch blackness, and death. Again, night comes to represent the worst moments of suffering and terror for Eliezer, the darkest moments of his life.
Simile and Metaphor in Night
A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using either 'like' or 'as'. A simile creates an interesting, vivid description, and can also communicate a lot about a character or situation in a very small space. Similes are a lot of fun for both writers and readers. Take this example from the text:
'By eight o'clock in the morning, weariness had settled into our veins, our limbs, our brains, like molten lead.'
What two things are being compared here? That's right: the feeling of weariness is being compared to molten lead. In this particular scene, Wiesel is describing when the Jewish population of the Sighet ghetto must pack their things and be ready for transport. Nobody knows where they'll be traveling to or what's happening. The ghetto is in complete confusion and everyone is tense and afraid. They are physically exhausted and emotionally drained. The comparison to 'molten lead' paints the picture of their exhaustion much better than any literal description could.
A metaphor is another type of comparison, except this one doesn't use 'like' or 'as', and so is more direct. Like this example from Night:
'Open rooms everywhere...It was there for the taking. An open tomb.'
What two things are being compared? Open rooms and an open tomb. In this passage, Eliezer is watching the other Jews from the ghetto marching from their homes, where they will be transported to nobody knows where, for nobody knows what purpose. But the reader knows the pain and death that is to come for these characters. And what descriptive, poetic comparison could be more perfect for this moment of Eliezer's fear and worry than an open tomb?
Eliezer knows nothing good is going to come from this moment, so his comparison of the empty homes of his friends and neighbors to a tomb is very vivid and sad. This metaphor reminds you of the fate of these thousands of people: the vast majority of them will perish in the Holocaust.
Lesson Summary
Figurative language uses language to convey a meaning beyond what is literally stated in the text, and it's used for many different reasons, like painting a more vivid image for the reader. Four types of figurative language and their role in Elie Wiesel's Night were discussed in this lesson.
Personification is assigning human traits to inhuman or inanimate objects, like describing a 'reassuring' wind. Symbolism is when a specific person, place, or thing is used to represent a larger, more abstract idea, like how the idea of night is used to represent 'pain'. A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using 'like' or 'as'; Wiesel states that his extreme weariness was like 'molten lead'. And a metaphor is also a comparison between two unlike things, but without using 'like' or 'as'; in the book, open rooms of their abandoned homes are said to be 'tombs'.
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