DOUG

//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 that is how god can answer his questions. Elie cries when he prays because he feels like he needs to but doesn't know the real reason. 2. Why don’t people believe Moche’s stores? People don’t believe Moche’s stories because they are very unpredictable and people don’t believe that it could really happen to anyone. 3. Site examples of how the Jews gradually lose their freedom. The Jews lost freedom gradually by being put into the ghetto, kicked out of the ghetto, then being commanded to go to the death and labor camps. __Chapter 2, pages 23-28__ 4. What does Madam Shachter’s nightmares about a fire foreshadow? Madam Shachter's nightmares were about people being killed at the death camps. 5. Where does the train finally stop? The train pasted Aushwitz and stopped at Burkenou. __Chapter 3, pages 29-46__ 6. When questioned by the SS officer, why does Elie lie about his occupation and age?

7. Why does Elie disbelieve what his own eyes show him?

8. Why is Elie now reluctant to pray?

__Chapter 4, pages 47-65__ 9. Why is Elie summoned to the dentist?

10. How does Elie react to his father’s beating?

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 the Kapos look and examine the Jews and say whether they have to stay at the camp or leave and go to a different camp. __Chapter 6, pages 85-97__ 13. Why couldn’t Elie allow himself to die? Elie couldn't allow for himself to die because he thought that his father needed him, also, because he felt like it was his way to prove to god that he was something. 14. Why does Juliek play the violin? Juliek plays the violin because he was afraid that the SS officers were going to take it away because it was a treasured possesion. 15. Compare how the other boys treat their fathers with Eliezer’s treatment of his own father. The other boys at the camps treated their father as though he was a rock just lieing there. Elie treated his father as he was a golden rock by helping him and giving him the things that he needed. __Chapter 7-9 pages 98-115__ 16. Why can’t Elizer weep at his father’s death? Elie can't weep at his father's death because he had to worry about his survival and couldn't risk two live just to save one. 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't forget the picture of the corpse (himself) because it was so horrorfying and showed the lack of care the Nazis treated the Jews.

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?

2. What fires does he speak of that consumed his faith forever? Why do these fires consume his faith?

3. Do you find it difficult to believe that a boy so devout in his faith could lose his faith? Why?

4. Why does he lose his desire to live?

5. Elie spoke these words as an adolescent. Do you think that as an adult his feelings have changed? Why?

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: Stein wanting to see his dad and the rest of the family.

What I think: I think that it is nice that he cares about his family because most are split apart and he wants to know more about it.

I would’ve done: I would have wanted to know about my family and I would have done the same thing.

2. Page 49-50

Relationship shown: Elie saw his dad being beat for no reason.

What I think: I think that this is wrong and concerning.

I would’ve done: I would have felt the same way in this situation because I would have been beaten myself for expressing how I feel.

3. Page 55-56

Relationship shown: Elie tried to help his dad march so that he wouldn't be beaten in the future for it.

What I think: I think that this is great that he wants to help and protect his dad for what might come.

I would’ve done: I think that I would have just left my dad and told him to try because I wouldn't want to get in trouble.

4. Page 90-91

Relationship shown: Rabbi Eliahu wanted to find his son that he has lost while they were running.

What I think: I think that Rabbi Eliahu did the right thing by trying to find his son although his son has left his dad.

I would’ve done: I would have look for my son if I were Rabbi Eliahu but if I was the son I would have wanted to be with my dad to know he is okay.

5. Page 101

Relationship shown: Elie fell onto his father while trying to get bread that was thrown into the wagon.

What I think: I think that it was a stupid reason to risk his dad's life and there wasn't a good chance he was going to get the bread.

I would’ve done: I would have stayed back and try to hold my hunger in.

6. Page 112

Relationship shown: Elie's father was moved to the crematorium and another sick person was put in his place.

What I think: I think that Elie should have been a little more concerned about his father's death than he was.

I would’ve done: i would have cried myself to sleep because my dad is always there for me when i needed him and I was there for him.

__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) “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!’" is ironic because work doesn’t make you free it gives you a better chance of not being killed on the spot. If work made you free then the Jews would have worked a lot less then what they were forced to do. 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) “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…’ ” is really ironic because the star itself doesn’t kill you but it shows that you are a Jew and the Jews were killed. The stars that were put on their clothes were made to make the Germans’ lives easier when tell who was a Jew and who wasn’t.

3. "On we went between the electric wires. At each step, a white placecard with a death's head on it stared us in the face. A caption: Warning, Danger of Death." (page 40) "On we went between the electric wires. At each step, a white placecard with a death's head on it stared us in the face. A caption: Warning, Danger of Death." is ironic because it says that the fence is a sign of danger when the whole Holocaust is danger. They should have put a warning sign on the camp not on the fence because in my mind the fence is a lot less dangerous. 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) "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.” is ironic because Hitler is a cruel and mean man. However, he has been the only one that is truthful. He said that he would kill a lot of Jewish people and kept that promise.

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)

2. “Work makes you free.” (page 40)

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)

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)