Symbolism In Night, By Elie Wiesel's Night

We as individuals often take many daily benefits for granted. From being able to eat everyday, to having a nice warm bed to sleep in, to smaller, overlooked, everyday items such as shoes or even clothes themselves. We often fail to realize we are truly blessed to have these necessities we refuse to even think how life would be if these very items were stripped from our lives the way those of the Jewish faith were stripped of any humanization they had, as displayed in “Night” by Elie Wiesel. As we are guided through Wiesel’s horrific experience, we are challenged to understand how specific items and events symbolize the pain and suffering of the Jewish people. In such case, tattooed numbers, the process of selection, and the yellow stars being
The yellow star itself is a way of telling the Jews that there are dissimilar from other human beings and do not deserve equality. Not only does this act insulate them as human beings but it allows the Germans to label them as if the were animals, as if they were dogs and they were forced to wear a dog tag. We are speaking of human beings, not just any item on the shelf we can chose to display in whatever way we would like. This minuscule act was just one step to the dehumanizations of the Jewish people. It symbolizes their faith, for what they believe in, but that is just stating the obvious. There would be a second meaning aside from that. It can symbolize hope. When everything is taken away from each individual this is one of the few things they are allowed to keep. It defines their uniqueness and regardless what happens hey know that they have their faith to fall back on and believe in. Although, this is also taken away from them when they enter the camp, it is still there whether it is physically or mentally. Truly being, a symbol of hope when they have nothing else to turn
Of course, this being another act of dehumanization, it deprives them of their humanity as well as labeling them with the star did. But this, this is not only a patch that was sown into their clothes, this was permanently marked on them for the rest of their suffered life's. The tattoos on their skin stained more than their exteriors, but it stained who they were. “The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on out left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” (Page 42) The name that their parents had given their children was taken from them and replaced with numbers, symbolizing everything that they had lost. Everyone had lost something, whether it was their family, their house, or their friends. They lost the one thing that defined them. The name they grew to become. They were labeled as if they were just an object to be sold at a store. A “thing,” no, not a human, a number. Just a number, they were no longer a