Describe at least one important technique used in the text.
Explain how the technique created an emotional response in you.
The book I'm going to be talking about is a true book called Night by Elie Wiesel. The techniques he used in this book that I picked up were first person narration, dialogue, repetition, and negative construction. These techniques had an emotional impact on me, making me feel sad, dejected and terrible. Elie Wiesel's autobiography made me think about how those people died and it wasn't their fault for being their religion. Also, why would the Nazis do that to people that haven't done anything wrong?
One part of the story which affected me was the part where Elie's family was split up. The technique Elie used was first person narration, using the personal pronouns 'I' and 'my''. This shows the event from Elie's point of view as it actually happened to him. "Tzipora was holding mother's hand. I saw them walking farther and farther away; mother was stroking my sister's blond hair, as if to protect her. And I walked on with my father, with the men. I didn't know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever. I kept walking, my father holding my hand." This part of the memoir made me feel very crushed because they had to leave their family. Then he knew his family died before him and his father, they got told that a while before his father died.
Another part which affected me was just before the selection when no one believed the inmate who told them about the gas chambers. The techniques Elie Wiesel used were dialogue and repetition. Elie records the words the inmate said to them, repeating the words 'over there'. This shows us that he is trying to let them know that they might be going to die, but they are not believing him. However, they soon found out they should have believed him, "We didn't know. Nobody had told us. He couldn't believe his ears. His tone became even harsher, 'Over there. Do you see the chimney over there? Do you see it?' " I felt that it was sad that they didn't know about the gas chambers. Luckily, they didn't go into the gas chambers, but sadly so many more did.
Another part that affected me was at the end of the book when his father died. They didn't have any type of funeral for his family or his cousins. The technique he used was a negative construction of the first two sentences, "No..." emphasising that nothing happened like a normal death. The final sentence starts with a positive phrase and ends with a negative phrase which shows us that he feels bad that he didn't respond to his dad. "No prayers were said over his tomb. No candle lit in his memory. His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered." I feel bad for him because he couldn't talk to his father again after that night because they took him away before he woke up.
World War II was a really bad time for Jewish people because most of them got transported to a concentration camp for something that they couldn't control. Some of the people made it out alive. But a large portion of the Jewish population in Europe died. 89,846 thousand Jewish people were living in Europe when World War II was in progress.
