JON

//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? Elie prays because it's his way to talk to God and cries because of how he feels.

2. Why don’t people believe Moche’s stores?

People don't believe Moche's story because they thought he wanted their pity and didn't want the towns people to think he is crazy.

3. Site examples of how the Jews gradually lose their freedom. The Germans put them in gettos and took their things and treated them out side of socity.

__Chapter 2, pages 23-28__ 4. What does Madam Shachter’s nightmares about a fire foreshadow? Madam Shachter's nightmares foreshadow the ovens in the camp.

5. Where does the train finally stop? The train stops at a conentration came in called Awshwitss

__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 age and ocupation because he knew kids were sent to death. 7. Why does Elie disbelieve what his own eyes show him? Elie doesn't believe his eyes because he take in the fact people can be this evil. 8. Why is Elie now reluctant to pray? Elie is reluctant to pray because he lost faith in god. __Chapter 4, pages 47-65__ 9. Why is Elie summoned to the dentist? Elie is summoned to the dentist because he has a gold tooth. 10. How does Elie react to his father’s beating? Elie reacts to his father's beating without emotion and without helping out or even showing concern. 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 side eyed angel is one of the most profoundly moving event in the book because it tells that Germans even hung kids and while he was still alive they made the other inmates watch him choke to death. __Chapter 5, pages 66-84__ 12. What is selection? Selection is when Dr.M chooses which prisoners live or die by a exam or tests.

__Chapter 6, pages 85-97__ 13. Why couldn’t Elie allow himself to die? Elie coludn't allow himself to die because his part in fighting this war is not giveing in to the evil that goes around in the camps. 14. Why does Juliek play the violin? Juliek plays his vilolin because its to show tribute to the dead and to show how he feels.

15. Compare how the other boys treat their fathers with Eliezer’s treatment of his own father. The other boys in the story abandon their fathers or treat them badly while Elie trys to be alive with him.

__Chapter 7-9 pages 98-115__ 16. Why can’t Elizer weep at his father’s death? Elie can't cry at his fathers death because you cry you die. 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? Elie can not forget the look in the eyes of the corpse in the mirror bhecause he was so shocked at how he looked and the look of death in his eyes.

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 the book symbolizes Elie of what he went through in the camp and how he felt. I think he chose night as the title because the nights were very short and saw horrible things at that time of day. 2. What fires does he speak of that consumed his faith forever? Why do these fires consume his faith? Elie speaks of the fire that consumed his faith forever is the impatience of waiting for god to do something. 3. Do you find it difficult to believe that a boy so devout in his faith could lose his faith? Why? I think it is possible because he grew up thinking god could do anything and make things happen for the tortured but God never did anything while he was in the camp so that is why why he lost his faith. 4. Why does he lose his desire to live? I think Elie lost his desire to live because he gave up hope and knew he will have to die sometime in the camp.

5. Elie spoke these words as an adolescent. Do you think that as an adult his feelings have changed? Why? I think they don't because they still remember the event like it was yesterday. 6. Why do you suppose Elie wrote this novel? I think Elie wrote this book is to inform what he and his father went through in the camp and to expose the terror that went on in the 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:

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 irony in this is that work is not liberty it is inhumane and not liberty at all.

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 irony is that Ellie's father said you don't die from it when later you do.

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.’ ” The irony is that the danger of death is all over the camp. (page 40)

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) The irony is that this man has faith in Hitler when his goal is to kill him and his people.

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) Ellie means that he thinks no one will come to set the prionsers free and he gave up hope.

2. “Work makes you free.” (page 40)

The inorny is that the work will kill you and not set you free. 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) Ellie and the other inmates were not afraid of death because they knew they will die sometime in the camp.

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) Ellie means that the people being hanged never weeped by they have felt tomuch paine to cry anymore and most people being hanged insteaded of weeping they cursed the camp.