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Synthesis Essay - Symbolism in Literature

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Writers capture their message within intentionally placed symbols intended to convey, illustrate, and form the author's purpose. Not only are symbols used to enhance writing, but they are also a way to increase the clarity towards the reader. In works of literature ranging from Elie Wiesel's Night to Ernest Hemingway's The Big Two Hearted River, the use of tangible objects as symbols help inform the reader and enhance the work. Elie Wiesel's Night, a personal account of the brutality he faced during the Holocaust, uses several symbols not only to highlight his struggle for survival, but also his struggle to maintain his faith in a benevolent God. The main symbols: fire and night, work together to vividly describe the physical and emotional suffering of the Holocaust's victims. Night, the most prevalent symbol in this work, often refers to when suffering and destruction is at its peak. Whether or not there is a physical darkness, "night fell  or "growing darkness  is used to describe the environment of when these events took place (Wiesel 12).  Just as when God first began his creation of Earth by bringing light and dispelling darkness, the absence of his light and the presence of darkness, to Eliezar, is the absence of God's benevolence. God's failure to come to His followers' aid in a time of utter despair is what triggers a digression in Eliezar's naive faith in the altruistic nature of God. Fire is used as an instrument to emphasize the twisted destruction of humanity and mercy, further hardening Eliezar's idealisms. Representing Nazi cruelty and essentially evil, the Nazis' shockingly malicious use of fire in the crematoria is vividly described as "flames, huge flames were rising from a ditch ¦children thrown into the flames (Wiesel 32). In the texts of the Talmud and Jewish tradition, fire is a weapon of God to punish the wicked. The reversal of this role during the Holocaust, as it is the wicked who control the fire to punish the innocent, scars Eliezar's concept of the universe, most prominently the justice in the good and evil on Earth. His loss in his childish optimism and naiveté is described as "the student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames ¦My soul had been invaded ”and devoured ”by a black flame , as the horrors he has experienced have caused him to question his beliefs in God's mercy and justice (Wiesel 37). The fire not only consumes the lives of corpses-- it burns through Wiesel's faith, dignity, and humanity. Just as the darkness of night and fire personify the Biblical hell, Eliezar Wiesel's use of these symbols parallel this hell to the evil capabilities of humanity itself. Symbols are also used to highlight significant moments as well as associations and allusion to a greater theme. The descriptions in "In Another Country  and "Big Two-Hearted River  not only paint vivid portraits in the reader's mind, but they also a  separate meaning. "In Another C

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