Night Literary Devices Chapters 3 & 4

1. Night Literary DevicesChapters 3 & 4

2. Metaphor • Figure of speech in which one thing is spoken or written about as if it were another; a comparison of two unlike things • Tenor of the metaphor: the actual subject • Vehicle of the metaphor: another thing which the tenor is compared to • Example on page 7: “The race toward death had begun.” ?? - Identify the tenor and vehicle.

3. Simile • Comparison using “like” or “as” • Example: Wiesel describes Moshe as “as awkward as a clown” • Also has a tenor and vehicle ?? – Identify more similes from the previous chapters.

4. Synecdoche • Figure of speech in which the name of part of something is used in place of the name of the whole, or vice versa • Example: Addressing a representative of the country France as France would be a synecdoche in which a whole (France) is used to refer to a part (one French person)

5. Synecdoche, continued • Explain the uses of synecdoche in the following passage: “Bread, soup – these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.” ?? – What point is Wiesel making with these examples of synecdoche?

6. Figurative Language • Writing or speech meant to be understood imaginatively instead of literally • Example on page 36: Wiesel describes an SS officer as a man “with crime inscribed upon his brow and in the pupils of his eyes.” ?? – What does this line mean figuratively?

7. Figurative Language, continued • Used to help readers see familiar things in new ways • Wiesel sought to convey unfamiliar things, thing that are horrible beyond words, in a way that readers could imagine, if not understand. • By using figurative language – by describing the horrors of the concentration camps in images with which readers are familiar – he can, to some degree, express the inexpressible.