What Literary Devices Were Used in “Night” by Elie Wiesel?

Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night” uses literary devices involving figurative language, such as similes, as well as devices involving alterations in sentence structure, using balanced sentences and periodic sentences to alter the rhythm of the text. These devices connect points in the story to important themes, states Cliffs Notes.

One simile from “Night” says that one Monday passes “like a small summer cloud, like a dream in the first daylight hours.” The effect is to show how fleeting time appears. Complex, periodic sentences are designed to show the contradictions at work in the concentration camps. For example, the writer notes that “Despite the trials and privations, his face still shone with his inner purity.”

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