One of the reasons Night is so searing is its use of imagery. Weisel uses images to make the horrors of the Holocaust vivid in the minds of readers who never experienced it. Consider one of the novel's most famous passages:
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never...
One of the reasons Night is so searing is its use of imagery. Weisel uses images to make the horrors of the Holocaust vivid in the minds of readers who never experienced it. Consider one of the novel's most famous passages:
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
As a reader safely in my home in 2017, I have no experience of the Holocaust. However, I know very well what children's faces look like, what a wreath looks like, and I have seen smoke. I have known many a "silent blue sky." Because I, as a reader, can create the building blocks of this image in my mind, I am able to envision the three together and feel something of Weisel's dismay.
This is but one specific example. Weisel utilizes the same technique, the use of small, quotidian, concrete details to render the unimaginable real, throughout his memoir.
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