Stream of consciousness writing is very hit-or-miss for me, but Wiesel's execution of it is brilliant. I'm not gonna spend a profuse amount of time doting over the technical writing style side of things, but I did want to talk about it for a little bit. I'm still an English major, so forgive me for always wanting to talk about this sort of thing. Wiesel has a tendency to put a lot of emphasis on phrases by reinforcing them with synonyms. When speaking of the ghosts on page 196 he says that they are "hard, cold, immobile, lifeless, incapable of change." He does a lot of lists like this when giving descriptions, but it's typically only in times of intense emotion. Notice that there is no conjunction present. There is nothing to indicate finality or closure. When he writes like this, it gives a sense of urgency or anxiety, and I feel like this is wholly intentional. As I was reading, I was hit with emotions in waves, and they were usually accompanied by similar Word Vomit, so to speak. As his heart rate speeds up, he starts spewing words out left and right. This is a brilliant stylistic choice that adds a deeper level of meaning to the entire reading experience.
I also wanted to talk about the theme of silence that has been showing up throughout the novel. Silence has been a theme throughout the whole semester so far (research paper topic, anyone?), but in Dawn, silence has several different functions. In Thursday's reading, we see a comfortable silence when Elisha walks with Catherine in Normandy. But now that the killing is upon us, the silence is heavy. Elisha is frantic and desperate for the silence to end. The very last page of the novel, he's wishing for a dog to bark. The shift that we see in these chapters from silence being respite to silence being a trap is really interesting, and I think it has a lot to do with how nighttime and silence often go together. I could go on about this for a lot longer, but I think I'll save it for class tomorrow!
josh & jamie
I also wanted to talk about the theme of silence that has been showing up throughout the novel. Silence has been a theme throughout the whole semester so far (research paper topic, anyone?), but in Dawn, silence has several different functions. In Thursday's reading, we see a comfortable silence when Elisha walks with Catherine in Normandy. But now that the killing is upon us, the silence is heavy. Elisha is frantic and desperate for the silence to end. The very last page of the novel, he's wishing for a dog to bark. The shift that we see in these chapters from silence being respite to silence being a trap is really interesting, and I think it has a lot to do with how nighttime and silence often go together. I could go on about this for a lot longer, but I think I'll save it for class tomorrow!
josh & jamie
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