Arno Rosenfeld

1/10/10

Syntax and Diction to Convey Dehumanization in Night

In Night, Elie Wiesel employs diction and syntax to show the dehumanizing effects that

Holocaust had on him and his fellow prisoners. It's hard for most to imagine what it's like to be

dehumanized to such an extent as we saw during the the Holocaust. In order to convey the emotional

pain he endured, Wiesel tends to use choppy, abrupt sentences to convey the sense of loss that he felt

and that he saw. In his use of diction, Wiesel has a tendency to focus on longer, key words and surround

them by small, meaningless words, to add emphasis where he wants it. This leaves the reader with a few

main words that define the dehumanization. We see this with such words as “shadow”, “filthy” and

“swept”. This way, the reader isn't bogged down by wordiness or by long complex sentences and is

instead given several words that pierce the soul and give a sense of the piercing effect that the Nazi's had

on the prisoners humanity.

In chapter four, Wiesel writes “I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished

stomach.” In this quote Wiesel is describing the effects that the lack of food has had on him as the Nazi's

gradually cut off their food rations to take away the basic needs as described in Maslow's hierarchy. The

lack of food succeeds in making him feel like his is withering away and ceasing to be a person. Now, he

is no more than stomach. Reduced from being a human to being an animal, always looking for his next

meal. Wiesel employs syntax to successfully convey the dehumanization by the choppiness of the quote.

It denotes a sense of defeat almost, and has hints of a dying mans last words. Spit out in pieces, instead

of a fluid and verbose statement. This gives a strong sense of desperation coming from this fifteen year

old boy, and shows the pain he was feeling now. He has gone from a student of Torah, in his comfortable

town, in his comfortable house, with his loving family. To nothing more than “a famished stomach.”

Wiesel uses this quote to describe the loss of humanity he felt as he lost his faith. “I was nothing

but ashes now...” Here Wiesel uses both syntax and diction to make his point. While not a choppy

sentence, it is very brief. The idea of burning down to just ashes because of his loss of faith in God could

be written about at length, he could go on for chapters about that, but instead he sums it up in this brief

phrase. Wiesel is able to convey more in these six words than he could in six chapters. His diction

highlights two key words, “nothing” and “ashes”. With every other word being three letters or less, the

reader is left with these two words seared in their memory. This is what he wants. When you pair the

two words it shows that he was once something, a person, and was now “nothing”, just as a fire was

once something, until it became “ashes”.

Rabbi Eliahu had maintained his strength, enduring throughout all the hardships of the Holocaust

and concentration camps. However, when his son left him, he was no longer strong. “And so he left, as

he had come; a shadow swept away by the wind.” He was now just a shadow. A sliver of a man. He had

no emotion or compassion, he had no strength of power as he was “swept”. Wiesel's diction here is

important because of the connotations associated with the words he used. “Swept” is often used to talk

about garbage or other meaningless things that hold no value. No longer was Rabbi Eliahu a man, now

he was nothing more than trash, or dust. His fight was gone, and now he was carried of by the breeze.

Once Rabbi Eliahu had lost his value as a human, he was able to be “swept” away. This quote shows the

subtle and yet powerful effect of Wiesel's diction in describing dehumanization.

“Faster, you filthy dogs!” This was the order from the Nazi's toward Wiesel and the other

prisoners as they ran, starving, through the snow. The briefness of the order is an example of Wiesel

employing syntax to show the coldness of the Nazis. They weren't simply referring to the Jews as dogs.

Which would have allowed the Jews a respite, in the back of their mind, knowing that they were not

dogs, that they were people. Instead they were speaking to dogs. It was taken for granted that the Jews

were not humans, they were dogs. From that understand, they were referred to as dogs. Everything about

the phrase shows this, “faster”, “filthy dogs”. “Faster” makes clear that these were orders, as would be

shouted at animals, and the “filthy” is an example of diction being used to convey the dehumanization.

Though they weren't being referred to as “filthy Jews”. Now they were dogs, and thus any adjective that

would normally be used to describe them as humans was now used to describe them as dogs. This takes

away any element of humanity that they may have held onto. This is an example of how the Nazi's

justified the abuses, by making them sub-human, while at the same time, making the Jews feel that they

were no longer human.

So throughout the book we see Wiesel use both the structure, length, and flow sentences, as well

as his precise word choice, to convey the pain felt by the Nazi's dehumanization of the Jews. The stop

and go action of his sentences, used to convey pain and desperation were effective in giving the reader a

sense of the pain felt by the prisoners. The emphasis put on specific words left the reader with a sharp

and very concise image of how the prisoners felt as the Nazis slowly stole away they're humanity. It's

Wiesel's incredible use of syntax and diction that allow Night to be such a powerful book.