Figurative Language in Night
Idiom
" A tall man, in his thirties, a crime written all over his forehead and his gaze. He looked at us as one would a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life."
Irony
"'Burna is a very good camp. One can hold one's own here. The most important thing is not to be assigned to the construction Kommando..."'
personification
"A prolonged whistle pierced the air."
Repetition
"And he himself was so thin, so withered, so weak..."
Metaphor
"Another inmate appeared, unleashing a stream of invectives.."
Metaphor
"As for my mother, she was walking, her face a mask without word, deep in thought"
Irony
"At every step, white signs with black skull looked down on us. The inscription: WARNING! DANGER OF DEATH. What irony. Was there here a single place where one was not in danger of death?"
Idiom
"I couldn't believe his ears."
Hyperbole
"I wanted to run away, but my feet were nailed to the floor. Idek grabbed me by the throat."
Metaphor
"It was as though she was possessed by some evil spirit."
Hyperbole
"My heart was about to burst. There. I was face-to-face with the Angel of Death..."
Personification
"My throat was dry and the words were choking me, paralyzing my lips. There was nothing else to say."
Metaphor
"Open rooms everywhere. Gaping doors and windows looked into the void. It all belonged to everyone since it no longer belonged to anyone. It was there for the taking. An open tomb. A summer sun."
Simile
"Physically, he was as awkward as a clown. His waiflike shyness made people smile."
Oxymoron
"She was smiling her mournful smile as she slipped me a crust of bread. She looked straight into my eyes. I knew she wanted to talk to me but that she was paralyzed with fear."
Irony
"That SS officer in the muddy barack must have been lying: Auschwitz was, after all, a convalescent home..."
Simile
"The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear."
simile
"The courtyard turned into something like an antechamber to an operation room."
Metaphor
"The man interrogating me was an inmate. I could not see his face, but his voice was weary and warm."
Personification
"The shadows around me roused themselves as if from a deep sleep and left silently in every direction."
Metaphor
"The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes."
Simile
"They called him Moishe the Beadle, as if his entire life he had never had a surname."
Metaphor
"They dwell in the depths of our souls and remain there until we die."
Metaphor
"They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death."
Hyperbole
"This conversation lasted no more than a few seconds. It seemed like an eternity."
Metaphor
"We had fallen into the trap, up to our necks. The doors were nailed, the way back irrevocably cut off. The world had become a hermetically sealed cattle car."
Metaphor
"We were still trembling, and with every screech of the wheels, we felt the abyss opening beneath us."
Irony
"We were to leave the train here. There was a labor camp on site. The conditions were good. Families would not be separated."
Personification
'But it was all in vain. Our terror could no longer be contained. Our nerves reached a breaking point. Our very skin was aching. It was as though madness had infected us all."