DANIEL

//NIGHT// PREREADING ACTIVITY

Imagine yourself in the following situation: You and your family have been driven from your home. Now separated from them, you are suddenly alone. Shoved into a train like cattle, you are surrounded by screaming women, weeping children, silent old men, and ruthless soldiers. There is no food, no water, horror, and madness everywhere. Having arrived at your destination, you smell the stench of burning flesh: babies, children like yourself. Men and boys are hanged daily. There is only soup and perhaps a few morsels of stale bread to eat. You work until exhausted and are beaten for not marching in step. The gold in your teeth is extracted without anesthesia. Frozen and broken bodies surround you. Weekly you must run like a madman to escape being selected to die in the gas chambers or to burn in the crematory. You can’t even wonder if it will end, and you know that God has deserted you. You try to survive each day and lie through each night!

1. Do you believe something like this could ever happen to you? Why or why not? I don't think it could happen ever to me because people now not to ever do something like this and if they do they will go very fare. 2. What would be your first reaction to this horrifying experience? Who would think of doing something like this. 3. What means might you use to deal with what is happening (example: would you lie, cheat, steal)? I would change my name, shave my hair, and change religons for the time. 4. Do you think it would be better to give up and die or try to survive? try to survive because then if you did die you know you would end trying. 5. Inhumanity means being inhumanly cruel and brutal. Do you think the world could ever allow this kind of inhumanity to happen again? No, considering that 6 million were lost and no one would have the guts to do it again. 6. What kind of punishment do you feel would be suitable for this kind of inhumanity? I think not aloud to have an army or death. 7. Do you think this kind of inhumanity could exist in our day and age? No, because no one would think of it.

Reading Guide

The following questions are thought questions that relate to various themes and ideas in the reading. Use these questions to guide your reading and better understanding of the novel. Be prepared to share your responses in class discussion or in a writing assignment. Please answer all questions in COMPLETE SENTENCES.

__Chapter 1, pages 1-22__ 1. Why does Eliezer pray and why does he cry when he prays? He cries because he thinks he is suppose to. 2. Why don’t people believe Moche’s stores? Elie didn't think it could happen. 3. Site examples of how the Jews gradually lose their freedom. First Elie and his family had to go to the Gettos then, Small Geuttos ,than camps. __Chapter 2, pages 23-28__ 4. What does Madam Shachter’s nightmares about a fire foreshadow? Madam Shacter has nightmares about people dieing 5. Where does the train finally stop? It stops at camp Berkanow. __Chapter 3, pages 29-46__ 6. When questioned by the SS officer, why does Elie lie about his occupation and age? Elie says that he is 18 years old and is heathly. 7. Why does Elie disbelieve what his own eyes show him? Elie disbelieves because he didn't think anyone would through people in to a fire for no reason. 8. Why is Elie now reluctant to pray? Elie is reluctant to pray because he doesn't think it is meaningful anymore. __Chapter 4, pages 47-65__ 9. Why is Elie summoned to the dentist? Elie has a gold tooth and the German's want it. 10. How does Elie react to his father’s beating? Elie reacted in shock he was disterbed and unhappy. 11. Why is the hanging of the “sad eyed angel” said to be one of the most profoundly moving events in the novel? They are hanging a 13 year old child because of something he didn't do. __Chapter 5, pages 66-84__ 12. What is selection? Selection is when they are getting checked up on and seeing if the are healthy or no.

__Chapter 6, pages 85-97__ 13. Why couldn’t Elie allow himself to die? Elie couldn't let himself die because he had to take care of his father 14. Why does Juliek play the violin? Juliek plays the 15. Compare how the other boys treat their fathers with Eliezer’s treatment of his own father. The other boys didn't treat there fathers very well. They would leave then or evan kill eachother for a piece of bread. Elie on the hand was giving his food to his dad and getting him what he needed. __Chapter 7-9 pages 98-115__ 16. Why can’t Elizer weep at his father’s death? Elizer can't weep because he new he was going to die and he didn't do anything about it. 17. When he is finally free, Elie wishes to see himself in the mirror. Why can’t he ever forget the look in the eyes of the corpse that gazes back at him? He can't look in the mirror because he looks like a dead man.a

Literary Analysis Characterization/Author’s Purpose After page: 34

Elie is a Jewish child who is extremely strong in his faith. He often spent nights in the synagogue weeping and praying. He was preparing himself to be initiating into “eternity.” Then came night.

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames, which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments, which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

Answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1. What does “night’ symbolize to Elie? Why do you think he selected it as the title of his memoir? Elie chose that title because he wanted to tell the reader that the nights were harder than than the days. 2. What fires does he speak of that consumed his faith forever? Why do these fires consume his faith? When Elie was talking about the fires he is saying that he that right when he got to the camp he was going to be thrown right into the fires. That is why he lost all hope 3. Do you find it difficult to believe that a boy so devout in his faith could lose his faith? Why? No, because he believed in so much and I think if he kept believing that he would be able to make it through the hard times. 4. Why does he lose his desire to live? Elie thought he was going to die anyway. 5. Elie spoke these words as an adolescent. Do you think that as an adult his feelings have changed? Why? No, because Elie will always be Elie and he will always be able to make his own choices. 6. Why do you suppose Elie wrote this novel? Elie wrote this novel because he wanted everyone to now what happened to him at this camp.

Literary Analysis: Characterization Elie explicitly recounts events that describe his relationship with his father during imprisonment in the camps. He also describes events in the relationships of other fathers and sons in the camps.

In your book there are many examples of father-son relationships. Give examples, including the page number of a father son relationship and tell what you think about that relationship, tell why you might or might not have acted in a similar way. This does not have to be done on Elie and his father. There are many other examples of father-son relationships as well. An example has been done for you.

Example: Page 39:

Relationship shown: Elie’s father is struck, but Elie does not move to help him. His father whispers that the blow does not hurt. Although Elie does not move, he feels remorse and hatred toward the gypsy. He is angry and unforgiving.

What I think: Elie is a child and probably fears that if he helps his father, he too will be beaten. His father does not blame him and does not want to see him beaten or do something he might regret; thus, he tells Elie that the blow des not hurt.

I would’ve done: This seems to be a relationship where the father is protective of the son who is young and frightened. I would have acted in the same way if I were the father, thinking that I need to protect my child.

1. Page 43-44

Relationship shown:

What I think:

I would’ve done:

2. Page 49-50

Relationship shown:

What I think:

I would’ve done:

3. Page 55-56

Relationship shown:

What I think:

I would’ve done:

4. Page 90-91

Relationship shown:

What I think:

I would’ve done:

5. Page 101

Relationship shown: A man was crawling to the back of the wagon with a piece of bread. Then a boy came up to the man with the piece of bread and started to beat him up and the man with the piece was the kids father.

What I think:I think that action of the son is very unnesisery.

I would’ve done:I would have shared the bread with my dad and would not have beaten him up.

6. Page 112

Relationship shown:Elie's father was dieing and his father was begging for some water when the S.S came in. The S.S told him to be quit but his father kept on talking and the S.S Gave Elie's father 3 big blows to the head. The next morning Elie's father was gone.

What I think:I think Elie's father should have shut up when the S.S came through the barck.

I would’ve done:If I were Elie's father I would have waited until the S.S officer walked out of the room then started to ask for water again.

__Night__ Irony

Read each passage below. Explain what is //ironic// about the meaning of the passage.

1. “but we had been marching for only a few moments when we saw the barbed wire of another camp. An iron door with this inscription on it: ‘Work is liberty!’ “ (page 40) When the S.S. says "work is liberty" they mean they will give you your freedom. 2. “Some of the prominent members of the community came…to ask him what he thought of the situation. My father did not consider it so grim…’The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don’t die of it…’ ” (page 11) When Elie's father talks about the yellow star he is saying that they are going to die because they are Jewish. 3. “On we went between the electric wires. At each step, a white placard with a death’s head on it stared us in the face. A caption: ‘Warning, Danger of Death.’ ” (page 40) They saying is trying to say every step you take over the fence that is one more step to death. 4. I’ve got more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.” (page 51) What is ironic about that is the he didn't love the jews at all he wanted to kill every single one of them.

Inhumanity

//Night// is filled with thoughts and comments that reflect inhumanity of World War II. Explain what each of the following excerpts from the novel mean.

1. “The world? The world is not concerned with us. Today anything is allowed. Anything is possible, even these crematories.” (page 33) Elie is trying to say that people are just letting Hitler kill then and no one is sticking up for him. 2. “Work makes you free.” (page 40) The S.S is tricking them by saying if you work in the camps then you will get your freedom back. 3. “we were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it alone would have claimed hundreds of victims on the spot. But we were not longer afraid of death; at any rate, not of that death. Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence in life.” (page 60) Elie is trying to say that every time the Allies or the red army drop a bomb that hurts the germans evan more. 4. “I witnessed other hangings. I never saw a single one of the victims weep. For a long time those dried up bodies had forgotten the bitter taste of tears.” (page 63) Elie is trying to say that every person who died in the holocaust has been forgotten.