How Does the Book Title "Night" Function as Imagery?
ELISE WILE
CLASS
Imagery takes a number of forms within literary works, providing the reader with a mental image to help her visualize a mood or an idea. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel does exactly this when he uses the powerful metaphor "Night" for the title of his book about his harrowing experience in the concentration camps during World War II.
1 The Silence of God
In the book, the narrator Eliezer laments, "Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live." This provides the key to the imagery in the title. When Wiesel suffered in the camps, his faith in God was severely tested. When he questioned why such suffering could take place, all he heard was silence. This "nocturnal silence" is the darkness of the soul that gives birth to the title. The title also conveys the presence of evil in the novel, as the darkness of night can symbolize moral darkness.
- 1 Hunter College: Glossary of Literary Terms
- 2 Night; Elie Wiesel
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