Describe at least one important technique used in the text. Explain how the technique created an emotional response in you.
In the Holocaust memoir 'night'by Eile Wiesel, three events that impacted me emotionally were when Moishe the beadle tried to warn the Jews about the Nazis, When Elie was split from his mother and younger sister and when Elie's father was close to death. The writer uses a range of language features such as use of direct speech, use of first person narration.(The pronoun I), short negative sentence.
One event that impacted emotionally me was when Moishe the Beedle escaped after the mass shooting. He came back to Sighet and said to Elie, "I wanted to come back to warn you. Only no one is listening to me." The use of direct speech made me feel sad and worried, knowing Moishe was only trying to help his people but no one believed him.
A second event that impacted me emotionally was when they were on the platfrom at Auschwitz and how Elie's mother and little sister went to the gas chambers. He didn't ever get to see his mum or little sister ever again. Reading the sentence, "I didn't know that this was the moment in time and place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever," really just broke my heart. The use of first person narration (with the pronoun 'I') made me feel heartbroken looking at it from Elie's point of view. Just thinking about it with my mother and sister that I love very much just makes me feel out of sorts.
A third event that impacted me emotionally was when Elie's father was close to death and very sick and all his father wanted was food and refused to drink the water. The man in charge of their block said to Elie, "Listen to me, kid. Don't forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every man for himself, and you cannot think of others. Not even your father." After that, Elie thought about it and knew that it was the best thing to do but never had the heart to do it. The short negative sentence, "Not even your father," made me feel disturbed. If this happened to me personally I don't know if I could do that to my own father.
I never really understood the trauma of the holocaust till reading this book. Of course I knew about and the horrifying death of the gas chambers but reading this book made me really understand all that the jewish people had to go through. Im really thankful that people don't have to go through this pain anymore but it still breaks my heart knowing that this will always be in their past and their people will always remember what there older relatives had to go through.
