EVAN

//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?

2. What would be your first reaction to this horrifying experience?

3. What means might you use to deal with what is happening (example: would you lie, cheat, steal)?

4. Do you think it would be better to give up and die or try to survive?

5. Inhumanity means being inhumanly cruel and brutal. Do you think the world could ever allow this kind of inhumanity to happen again?

6. What kind of punishment do you feel would be suitable for this kind of inhumanity?

7. Do you think this kind of inhumanity could exist in our day and age?

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 prepareProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 roxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 trol: max-age=0 20to 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 is scared about the war, and doesn't want to be taken away. 2. Why don’t people believe Moche’s stores? What he was telling people was to horrible for people to believe! 3. Site examples of how the Jews gradually lose their freedom. The jews loose there freedom by being put into the Ghetto, then into a smaller Ghetto, and then finally being taken away __Chapter 2, pages 23-28__ 4. What does Madam Shachter’s nightmares about a fire foreshadow? The the nightmares foreshadow the fire they might be thrown into. 5. Where does the train finally stop? The train finally stops at the concentration camp Birkenau. __Chapter 3, pages 29-46__ 6. When questioned by the SS officer, why does Elie lie about his occupation and age? Elie lies because one of the inmates told him to (in order to survive). 7. Why does Elie disbelieve what his own eyes show him? Elie disbelieves his own eye because what is happening is cruel and unreal! 8. Why is Elie now reluctant to pray? He is reluctant because he hopes he will be saved. __Chapter 4, pages 47-65__ 9. Why is Elie summoned to the dentist? He keeps complaining about his mouth and the guards notice. 10. How does Elie react to his father’s beating? He tries to teach his father how to march so he won't be beaten. 11. Why is the hanging of the “sad eyed angel” said to be one of the most profoundly moving events in the novel?

__Chapter 5, pages 66-84__ 12. What is selection? Selection is when they line up all of the inmates and prisoners and have them prove their strength and run around. If their name is put on the list they have to stay in camp and go to second selection, and if they don't pass again they are killed.

__Chapter 6, pages 85-97__ 13. Why couldn’t Elie allow himself to die? If Elie let himself die, his father would die so he stayed keep his father alive. 14. Why does Juliek play the violin? Juliek plays the violin to escape to his own world! 15. Compare how the other boys treat their fathers with Eliezer’s treatment of his own father. Other boys would steal from, beat and even kill there fathers just fpr something like a ration of bread. __Chapter 7-9 pages 98-115__ 16. Why can’t Elizer weep at his father’s death? There was the fear that if he cried he wouldn't be able to stop. 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? When he looks in the mirror he is looking at a dead person, that person is him, and he will never forget how he looked after staying in the camps for three years. 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? "Night" symbolizes the harsh things that happened to him. I think he chose night because during night, all you could think about was what might happen tomorrow. 2.What fires does he speak of that consumed his faith forever? Why do these fires consume his faith? He talks about the fires that burn people and how they symbolize that all hope is gone. They consume his faith, because they consume there hope! 3. Do you find it difficult to believe that a boy so devout in his faith could lose his faith? Why? I think it could happen, one of the most important things about these camps is that the were supposed to break your spirit. 4. Why does he lose his desire to live? He loses his desire to live because living how he was, was just as bad as dieing. 5. Elie spoke these words as an adolescent. Do you think that as an adult his feelings have changed? Why? I think his feelings have not changed, when something that horrible happens to you, you don't change your mind. 6. Why do you suppose Elie wrote this novel? to ;et people know, the horrors that happened beyond those gates!

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 show:Elie's father tells him that he should save part of his ration for later. But before he says that Elie gobbles down all of his ration. Seeing this his father does not eat any of his ration to save it for the both of them later. so his son won't worry he tells him he's not hungry. What I think:I think Elie didn't realize that he would only be getting that for years and that he wouldn't be getting much of it. So his father saved his ration to keep his own son alive.

I would’ve done:I would've eaten a little bit of my ration to keep myself alive and then saved the rest for the both of us later.

2. Page 49-50

Relationship shown:Elie said that he'd like to work with his father, so the man says that his father will work next to him. Elie says that they got lucky.

What I think:I think that this is important because it shows how much Elie lives his father. It shows that Elie is not prepared to leave his father under any means neccesary!

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:

What I think:

I would’ve done:

6. Page 112

Relationship shown:

What I think:

I would’ve done:

__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) It's //ironic// because there being forced to work there, and the only freedom they'll ever get there is death! 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) This is //ironic// because the yellow stars tell soldiers there jews, and they would then be killed. 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) That's //ironic// because they eventually would be kill anyway, so why would they worry about the danger of 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) That's //ironic// because Hitler is keeping promises to the Jews that he would torture and kill 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) It means that they don't matter anymore, anything done to them doesn't matter anymore, the world doesn't care. 2. “Work makes you free.” (page 40) If you work for us, you won't have to stay here anymore. We will set you free, as long as you work hard. 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) Then, they didn't care if they died. the bombs gave them hope that either a bomb would end there misery or that the allies were around the corner. 4. “I witnessed other hangings. I never saw a si what??