Night

Night //Night //Study Guide: Date your journal on the day you begin this work and also on the days questions are answered. Refer to Elie Wiesel’s Biography and Setting and timeline handout before and as you read. //Night //is divided into a Preface, a Foreword, 9 unnumbered sections, and Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Read **All** sections. Meet each reading deadline. On that deadline, you are responsible for having answered the questions in this study guide for assigned sections. The questions below follow chronologically, yet also are comprehensive and encompass the entire work. **Timeline: ** Due Friday, 13 March 2009-- Reading divided into Preface, foreword. Due Monday, 16 March--Section 1 which ends on 22. Due Monday, 23 March-- Section 2 and Section 3 pages 23-46. Due Friday, 27 March--Section 4 and Section 5 pages 47-84. Due Tuesday, 31 Sections 6-9 pages 85-115 and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Journals are to be completed in full by ** 7 April. ** __Content Questions: __As you read,  use your journal to compose answers to these questions from this powerful testimony. Questions 1-14 will be done orally in class. Answer questions 15-25 completely. Be aware that there is more than one question per number. Be ready to volunteer answers and to be called upon to share your responses to these content questions during discussions on reading section due date.  //1. Night // is written in short, simple sentences. Critics call this kind of writing **controlled**. That means that every word has been carefully chosen for a precise meaning. How do you explain the decision to write in a **controlled** or measured way to describe experiences that are beyond control?  2. The word **night** is a key word in many sections of the book. What does the word mean early in the first chapter?

3. Describe in detail the character of Eliezer and Moishe the Beadle. What is the nature of their relationship?

4. Who are the members of Eliezer’s family? Consider Eliezer’s feelings for his family, especially his father. What about his father’s character or place in the Jewish community of Sighet commands Eliezer’s respect or admiration?

5. Early in the narrative Moishe tells Eliezer, “Man asks and God replies. But we don’t understand his replies. We cannot understand them” (5). Is this a paradox? (A paradox is defined as “A statement or situation that appears contradictory but that actually may be true.”)

6. What do the Jews of Sighet know about the outside world in 1941? How do they respond to what they know? <span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; msobidifontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Arial Narrow';"> 7. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“And then, one day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet,” writes Wiesel, quite bluntly. “And Moishe the Beadle was a foreigner” (6). Why do you suppose this shocking information is delivered so matter-of-factly? What is the point of Wiesel’s abruptness? Also, consider the manner in which Moishe is treated by the Jews of Sighet after he has escaped the Gestapo’s capture. Are the people happy to see him? Is he himself even happy to be alive? Explain why Moishe has returned to the village. Why is it so important to Moishe that he be believed? Why don’t the Jewish townspeople believe the horrible news he brings back to them? <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: windowtext; msobidifontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; mso-list: Ignore;"> 8. Time and again, the people of Sighet doubt the advance of the German army. Why? When the Germans do arrive, and even once they have moved all the Jews into ghettos, the Jewish townspeople still seem to ignore or suppress their fear. “Most people thought that we would remain in the ghetto until the end of the war, until the arrival of the Red Army. Afterward everything would be as before” (12). What might be the reasons for the townspeople’s widespread denial of the evidence facing them? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">9. Is Mrs. Schächter considered a madwoman? A witness? A prophet? What is the difference between these three labels?

10. Cassandra was a figure in Greek mythology who received the gift of prophecy with the simultaneous curse that no one would ever believe her. Compare Cassandra to Mrs. Schächter. Are there other Cassandras in //Night//? Who are they? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';">11. How did Elie and his father, Shlomo, pass Mengele’s first selection? Why are these two factors important factors in selection instances? There are other selections that occur in //Night// **list other factors** that are considered in selection. 12. How does the meaning of **night** you offered in question 2 change as the story progresses? Review the powerful passage on page 34 and continue to ponder this word and its development. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-spacerun: yes; msospacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';">13. Primo Levi, who was also at Auschwitz Birkenau,wrote: It is not possible to sink lower than this: no human condition is more miserable than this, nor could it conceivably be so. Nothing belongs to us any more; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find ourselves the strength to do so, to manage so that behind the name something of us, of us, as we were, remains.

How are Levi’s responses to his initiation into Auschwitz similar to those of Eliezer? What differences seem most striking?

14. Why do you think the Germans take away the inmates’ personal belongings? Their clothing? Why do they cut off their hair? Tattoo a number on each person’s arm?

15. Reflecting on the three weeks he spent at Auschwitz, Wiesel admits on p. 45: “Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job!” Then later on 65, Eliezer witnesses one of the several public hangings he sees in Buna. “For God’s sake, where is God?” asks a prisoner who also sees the hanging. “Where He is?” answers Eliezer, though talking only to himself. “This is where—hanging here from this gallows. . .” What does he mean by this? How could God have been hanged? How have Eliezer’s thoughts and feelings changed since he identified with Job while in Auschwitz? <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: windowtext; msobidifontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; mso-list: Ignore;"> 16. Two of the people Eliezer encounters more than once in the narrative are Akiba Drumer and Juliek. Where and when does Eliezer cross paths with these individuals? Describe their personalities. What are their outstanding traits? Describe the relationships that Eliezer has with each of them. How do their respective deaths affect Eliezer? What does each person mean to him? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: windowtext; msobidifontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; mso-list: Ignore;"> 17. As the story progresses, we witness scenes in which the Jews have been reduced to acting—and even treating their fellow prisoners—like rabid animals. During an air raid over Buna (see 59), a starved man risks being shot by crawling out to a cauldron of soup that stands in the middle of the camp, only to thrust his face into the boiling liquid once he has arrived there safely. Where else do we see examples of human beings committing such insane acts-offer **two** examples? What leads people to such horrific behavior? Is it fair to say that such beastliness in the death camps is inevitable? Do Eliezer and his father fall prey to such tragedies? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; msobidifontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; mso-list: Ignore;">18. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In several instances we learn that Eliezer and his family missed out on opportunities to escape from the Germans (9, 14, and 82). How did these missed chances influence your reading of this memoir? And how do these unfortunate events fit into your understanding of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust as a whole? <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: windowtext; msobidifontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; msolist: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Arial Narrow'; mso-list: Ignore;"> 19. In the concluding pages of //Night,// Eliezer’s father is dying a slow, painful death in Buchenwald. But Eliezer is there to comfort him, or at least to try. Does Eliezer see his father as a burden by this point, or does he feel only pity and sorrow for him? Compare and contrast the father-son relationship you see at the end of this memoir with the one you saw at the beginning. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';"> 20. By the end of Segment 7 please describe three symbols that have been carried through the story. What does each symbol represent? Supply text-based references as support for your answers.

21. At the end of the novel, what is the major theme of //Night//? Defend your answer with evidence from the text.

22. Wiesel writes, “From the depths of the mirror a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (115). What parts of Eliezer die during his captivity? What was born in their place?

23. Discuss the relationship that Wiesel has with God throughout //Night//. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">24. Elie Wiesel has written in //The New York Times// (June 19, 2000) about the difficulties he faced in finding the right words for the painful story he wanted to tell—and had to tell—in //Night.// “I knew I had to testify about my past but I did not know how to go about it,” he wrote, adding that his religious mentors, his favorite authors, and the Talmudic sages of his youth were of surprisingly little help. “I felt incapable and perhaps unworthy of fulfilling my task as survivor and messenger. I had things to say but not the words to say them. . . Words seemed weak and pale. . . And yet it was necessary to continue.” Wiesel did continue, and although //every major publishing house in France and the United States originally rejected Night//, eventually it was published to universal acclaim. As a story, albeit a true story, how fitting did you find the words, imagery, and overall plotting of //Night?// Does the author succeed in his self-described goals as a “survivor and messenger” who must “testify” to his readers? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';"> Write your responses to the book as you read. You might also want to **list questions and comments that come to mind** as you read parts of the book. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';">What does it mean to know but not acknowledge what you know? When do people do it? How is this evident in //Night//?
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';">Journals are a place for you to compose responses: At times, in addition to the questions above you might find that you will want to: **
 * Compose a list of striking quotations as you read.** <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

What causes people to embrace death? What could cause a person to want to die? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">25. In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Wiesel says, “One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs” (120). How has Eliezer fulfilled this purpose with //Night//? How does this statement make you feel about your place in the world? <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';">