Themes, Symbols, and Motifs Night Elie Wiesel Themes, Symbols, and Motifs

Theme: The message or question about life the author intends the reader to understand through reading the work. Themes should be stated as a sentence.

Themes How can one maintain faith in a benevolent God through the midst of suffering? Why is God silent when there is human suffering? Inhumanity toward other humans is the worst form of evil. How important are Father - son bonds?

Symbol Something used for or regarded as representing something else; a tangible or visual object representing something intangible or abstract.

Symbols Fire-What does this represent? Night-What does this represent? Why do you think Wiesel chose these two visual/tangibles as symbols? How are they present in the story from beginning to end?

Motif A simple element that serves as a basis for expanded narrative. A conventional situation, device, interest, or interest found throughout literature. Recurrent images, words, objects, phrases or actions that tend to unify the work.

Motifs Tradition-what traditions are important in the book? Religious Observance-what observances are present? How does the author use these motifs to help develop the themes?