Comparison of Night by Elie Wiesel and The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick - Essay Example

? Assignment COMPARISON OF TWO BOOKS Due COMPARISON OF BOOKS Overview the world over haveremained very important agents in the transformation of society. This is because through their works of literature, they bring out key issues and problems that confront society. In most cases, these issues and problems are addressed with accompanying suggestions for solutions. Interestingly, writers come in different characteristics and with different viewpoints. Based on the dynamism in their differences, they approach their writings and concepts of society differently. In this paper, two passages are taken from two different writers namely Elie Wiesel and Cynthia Ozick. The aim of the paper is to undertake a comparative discussion on their writings namely “Night” and “The Shawl” respectively. This means that any major similarities or differences that are noticed in the two passages selected shall be discussed from the perspectives of the themes used by the writers, style of writing, themes covered in the writings, as well as any identified problems. Style of writing Reading through “Night” and “The Shawl”, readers get a sense of feeling that two different forms of writings are presented. This is rooted in the general approach used by the two writers, manifesting in the style of writing they used to present their work. Generally, “Night” is presented by Elie Wiesel from a more juvenile perspective of wording, making the whole style of writing easy to read and understand. There are not much use of literary devices and other technical literature terms. Rather, the reader to have a smooth flow of the storyline with no meandering of ideas entertained. The advantage that this had on the text was that it made it very easy for the reader to get along with the ideas being portrayed by the writer without any difficulty in understanding. Indeed, events were described in a down to earth approach making statements like “I decided to give my father lessons in marching in step, in keeping time. We began practicing in front of our block. I would command: ‘Left, right!’ and my father would try.” (PAGE 55). On the other hand, “the Shawl” is presented in a more classical manner, disbanding the use of naive and juvenile techniques to making the theme of the story flow. This was seen through several perspectives of the writing including the use of complex sentence structuring, idiomatic expressions and a number of literary devices. Along the way however, Ozick gets comic just as Elie had been throughout his writing by stating that of Stella who wanted to be in the shawl like Magda that “A thin girl of fourteen, too small with thin breasts of her own, Stella wanted to be wrapped in a shawl, hidden away, asleep, rocked by the march, a baby, around infant in arms” (PAGE 3). Themes The family as an agent of socialization Throughout both stories, the role of the family in society is clearly defined as both Ozick and Elie make statements that suggest that the family is an agent of socialization. By this, reference is being made to the larger concept of family and how the family plays its role in ensuring that the people that are born into it fit in perfectly. In “Night”, socialization is depicted as a bilateral responsibility between children and their parents. That is, parents socialize children and children socialize parents. The relationship between Elie and his father is shown to reflect the popular saying that if your parents take care of you for you to make teeth, you also take care of them till they loss their teeth. From another perspective, it could be said that the marching training that Elie gives to the father represents a reverse of role because it is fathers who are normally expected to teach their kids to walk. In “The Shawl” also, the role of family in socialization is resounded as Rosa makes frantic efforts to cater for her two daughters, Stella and Magda. Stella was 14 years and Magda was only 15 months. Due to economic hardship however, the family would not live a normal family life. Regardless of this however, Rosa made a resolution to ensure that her children had perfect embrace of society. Generally, this was not a reverse of role as in “Night” because the mother was the one responsible for the upkeep of her daughters as expected in a normal family setting. Survival of the fittest The concept of survival of the fittest is also highlighted to a very large extent in the two stories. There were however differences in the approaches that the writers used in trumpeting this concept. For example in the case of “Night”, we read of younger person, preparing an older person to be strong enough to take care of himself in overcoming the fright of the war that was raging. In “The Shawl” however, both the older and younger generations are made to survive the hardship. Quite significantly, the older generation is so helpless of herself that she would leave the younger generation to the mercy of nature. It is not surprising that at 14, Stella was not having her menstruation as was expected. The writer even portrays a more disturbing scene of a 15 month old Magda who must be fit enough to survive in the Shawl. Whiles presenting the theme of survival of the fittest, a significant difference that is seen in the approaches of the writers is that where as Elie Wiesel refuses to believe in divine intervention in times of personal survival, Cynthia Ozick believes in this and so gives some supernatural and magical powers to the Shawl, from which little Magda could be fed. Credit in the works Both works can be praised highly for the use of detail. Even though they are both considered as short stories, writers of “Night” and “The Shawl” did so well to ensure that there was virtually lacking in the way of reasoning of their readers. Clearly, most questions such as “why” and “how” that readers might possibly ask in relation to events and activities that were taking place in the stories were rightly addressed. In effect, the themes of the writers were justified under the circumstances that the readers were given meaning as to why everything that was going on took place. For example in “The Shawl” the attitude of Stella towards the shawl is explained to be the result of both jealousy and the need to equate the survival battle that was being fought. In “Night”, also, the social hardship that the people were undergoing under the Nazi regime gave a very clear indication as to why there was the need for any person to be equipped with militia competences in order to survive the prevailing situation. Conclusion From the comparative analysis that has been conducted of the two passages, and for that matter the two writers, a number of conclusions can be made. In the first place, it can be concluded that both writers took their setting into strict consideration, addressing key issues that faced the world in which they lived in at the time. For example Elie writing set the writing in the time of Nazi war, when the need for resilience and power was of prime importance. Regardless of the similarities in mentality to address key social issues that faced their setting, the two writers approached their advocacy in different ways. It can be said therefore that as far as literature is concerned, there may not be only one right way to get a person’s issues addressed. It can also be concluded that despite the differences in approaches, both writers were very effective in getting their themes, and for that matter the issues they wanted to discuss well spelt out to their readers. The reason this was so is that works of literature always have different audience and each of these audiences would have a preferred style of reading that is not tied to only a single academic approach. Whiles some readers may be more comfortable with ‘easy to read’ text as used by Elie, others would prefer the more classical style of writing as used by Ozick. Works Cited Elie Wiesel. “Night”. Ozick, Cynthia. "The Shawl." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. New York, Oxford UP, 1992. 601-606. Read More