XANDER

//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 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? Eliezer prays because he wants God to hear him and he cries because he is happy for God to hear him. 2. Why don’t people believe Moche’s stores? People don’t listen to Moche’s stories because it is hard to understand and it is horrible and inhuman. 3. Site examples of how the Jews gradually lose their freedom. Jews gradually loss their freedom by having to be moved into a Ghetto and then they had to move out without them having a saying in moving.

__Chapter 2, pages 23-28__ 4. What does Madam Shachter’s nightmares about a fire foreshadow? Madam Shacter’s nightmares about a fire foreshadow the crematorium in Burkenau. 5. Where does the train finally stop? The train stops in Birkenau, which is a death camp in Auschwitz.

__Chapter 3, pages 29-46__ 6. When questioned by the SS officer, why does Elie lie about his occupation and age? Elie lies about his occupation and age because if he didn't he would get killed for not being a man and not strong. 7. Why does Elie disbelieve what his own eyes show him? Elie disbelieves what his eyes show him because they are horrible for anyone to see and he felt that those periods of history were over. 8. Why is Elie now reluctant to pray? Elie is now reluctant to pray because felt that even if there wasn't a god then it wouldn't hurt to pray before dying. __Chapter 4, pages 47-65__ 9. Why is Elie summoned to the dentist? Elie is summoned to the dentist for his gold cap on his tooth to be pulled off. 10. How does Elie react to his father’s beating? Elie reacted to his father's beating by not moving at all. 11. Why is the hanging of the “sad eyed angel” said to be one of the most profoundly moving events in the novel? The hanging of the sad eyed angle is said to be the most moving events in the novel because it is about a young child who is hanged for his father sabotaging a power plant. He hangs there for about half an hour because he was so light. Everyone in the camp had to look at him t close range. __Chapter 5, pages 66-84__ 12. What is selection? Selection is when the Nazis chose who can still work or is too weak. If the person is too weak than they kill them.

__Chapter 6, pages 85-97__ 13. Why couldn’t Elie allow himself to die? Elie couldn't die because then his father wouldn't have any strength left to live. 14. Why does Juliek play the violin? Juliek plays the violen to escape the horrible world for a second. 15. Compare how the other boys treat their fathers with Eliezer’s treatment of his own father. Eliezer's treatment of his own father was much more nice then other people. Elie gave his father his ration even though it could have killed him. __Chapter 7-9 pages 98-115__ 16. Why can’t Elizer weep at his father’s death? Eliezer can't weep at his father's death because he had lost all his ability to cry. 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 forget the look because it doesn't look like him at all and he looks dead.

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? I think that night symbolizes death to the people in the camp and Elie. I think he made that the title because it was one of the hardest times of the day when he was in the camp. 2. What fires does he speak of that consumed his faith forever? Why do these fires consume his faith? The fires that consumed his faith were the pits with fire that burned the babies. The fires consume his faith by making him not think that there was still a god because he didn't think that a god would let that happen. 3. Do you find it difficult to believe that a boy so devout in his faith could lose his faith? Why? I think that it is not difficult to believe that a boy who was so devoted to god could lose his faith because he doesn't think that a god would let the camps be created if there was one. 4. Why does he lose his desire to live? He can't bear the feeling of no god and he doesn't want to be tortured. 5. Elie spoke these words as an adolescent. Do you think that as an adult his feelings have changed? Why? I don't think these feeling would have changed if he was a adult because this experience would never make him the same. 6. Why do you suppose Elie wrote this novel?

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:

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) The passage above is so ironic because it says work is freedom when they are slaves. 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) The passage above is so ironic because the yellow star showed that they were Jewish and they were killed for being 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) This passage is so ironic because if you are in the work cap you will most likely die and it says that you should be careful of touching the walls which would kill you. 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) This passage is so ironic because he kept his promise to the Jewish people when he said that he would 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) This excerpt mean that you could die anytime you want or don't want by other hands and the world doesn't care. 2. “Work makes you free.” (page 40) This excerpt mean that work will make you think of other things other than being in a Nazi work camp. 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) This excerpt means that the Nazi were so evil that they made people wish for death by a bomb. 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) This excerpt means that the victims didn't care if they died.