1. Prostrate-
a.) To cast (oneself) face down on the ground in humility, submission, or adoration.
b.) To lay flat, as on the ground.
c.) To overthrow, overcome, or reduce to helplessness.
d.) To reduce to physical weakness or exhaustion.
2. Interlude-
a.) An intervening episode, period, space, etc.
b.) A short dramatic piece, esp. of a light or farcical character, formerly introduced between the parts or acts of miracle and morality plays or given as part of other entertainments.
c.) Any intermediate performance or entertainment, as between the acts of a play.
3. Reprieve-
a.) A respite from impending punishment, as from execution of a sentence of death.
4. Rations-
a.) A fixed portion, especially an amount of food allotted to persons in military service or to civilians in times of scarcity.
5. Dysentery-
a.) Robust an infectious disease marked by inflammation and ulceration of the lower part of the bowels, with diarrhea that becomes mucous and hemorrhagic.
6. Robust-
a.) Strongly or stoutly built
b.) Suited to or requiring bodily strength or endurance
c.) Rough, rude, or boisterous
7. Quarantine-
a.) A strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease.
b.) A place or station at which such measures are carried out, as a special port or dock where ships are detained.
c.) Social, political, or economic isolation imposed as a punishment, as in ostracizing an individual or enforcing sanctions against a foreign state.
8. Apathy-
a.) Absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.
b.) Lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting.
9. Humane-
a.) Characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, esp. for the suffering or distressed
b.) Have or pertaining to humanistic studies.
10. Grimace-
a.) A facial expression, often ugly or contorted, that indicates disapproval, pain, etc.
b.) To make grimaces.
11. Nocturnal-
a.) Of or pertaining to the night
b.) Done, occurring, or coming at night
c.) Active at night
12. Livid-
a.) Having a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise, congestion of blood vessels, strangulation, etc., as the face, flesh, hands, or nails.
b.) Enraged; furiously angry
c.) Feeling or appearing strangulated because of strong emotion.
d.) Deathly pale; pallid; ashen
13. Pious-
a.) Having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations.
b.) Characterized by a hypocritical concern with virtue or religious devotion, sanctimonious.
c.) Practiced or used in the name of real or pretended religious motives, or for some ostensibly good object; falsely earnest or sincere
14. Interminable-
a.) Incapable of being terminated; unending
b.) Monotonously or annoyingly protracted or continued; unceasing; incessant
c.) Having no limits
15. Wizened-
a.) To dry up, wither or shrivel.
16. Morale-
a.) Of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical
b.) Expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work; moralizing
c.) Capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct
d.) Conforming to the rules of right conduct
17. Infernal-
a.) Hellish; fiendish; diabolical
b.) Extremely troublesome, annoying, etc.; outrageous
c.) Have, inhabiting, or befitting hell.
18. Refuge-
a.) Shelter or protection from danger, trouble, etc
b.) Anything to which one has recourse for aid, relief, or escape?
19. Oppressive-
a.) Burdensome, unjustly harsh, or tyrannical
b.) Causing discomfort by being excessive, intense, elaborate, etc
c.) Distressing or grievous
20. Expelled-
a.) To drive or force out or away; discharge or ejectTo cut off from membership or relations
Journals for Night
Pg. 2
"He noticed me one day at dusk, when I was praying. "Why do you weep when you pray?" he asked me, as though he had known me a long time."
Mosche the Beadle is questioning Eliezer about his devotion to the cabala and this awakens something small and skeptic within Eliezer that makes him question himself and question his practices. He doesn't think too deeply about it but questions are raised within him ad he moves on with his praying and weeping.
Pg. 14
"The Jewish police from the ghetto were able to go and fill a few jugs secretly. Since my sisters and I were destined for the last convoy and we were still allowed to move about, we helped them as well as we could."
I'm surprised that the Jews still don't suspect something even after the role call. They don't want to believe in every thing that is going on and all of it just blows past them. This small torture is nothing compared to what can happen to hem next. The children can't help this and I wonder who if anyone even knows.
Pg. 28
"No we had not heard. No one had told us. He could not believe his ears. His tone of voice became increasingly brutal."
Didn't they try to kinda keep this on the quieter side of things? Why would he expect people to know all about the horrible things he had done to all these parents, babies, children, to all those people. Then he was angered about it.. Or is he proud of what he had been ding and wants the world to know.
Pg. 36
"A pause. He observed the effect his words had produced. His face has stayed in memory, upon his brow and n the pupils of his eyes. He looked us over as if we were a pack o f leprous dogs hanging onto our lives."
Well I guess that is what they looked like right. How do you react to getting groups such as all of these. And then to add to that he knows that most of everyone he has there will die if not then all of them. He probably doesn't like being who is he is as much as the last guy.
Pg. 42
"In the evening, lying on our beds, we would try to sing some of the Hasidic melodies, and Akiba Drumer would break our hearts with his deep solemn voice. Some talked of god, of his mysterious ways, of the sins of the Jewish people, and of their future deliverance. But I had cease to pray."
Amazingly, there were still people who were still religious and completely devoted to the cabala even after all the hardship they had gone through. Elie however has given up.
Pg. 57
"He reached the first cauldron. Hearts raced: he had succeeded. Jealousy consumed us, burned us up like straw. We never thought for a moment of admiring him. Poor hero, committing suicide for a ration of soup! In our thoughts we were murdering him."
They were consumed by jealousy and then they killed him....nice. Not surprised these people needed to let out frustration. But now they get to feel guilty for the rest of their lives for killing an innocent man who just finished working and needed food before he died. Then he died for trying to get that food.
Pg. 65
"Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast would mean a surer swifter death. We fasted here the whole year round. The whole year was Yom Kippur. But others said we should fast simply because if was dangerous to do so. We should show god that even here, in this hell, we were capable of singing his praise."
Well they should be thinking about surviving and if they've been fasting gall year then why would they want to starve themselves some more. I guess they have a point with maybe its a test but do they want to die?
Pg. 70
"He tried to calm them, to reassure the about their fate, to explain to them that they were staying behind in the camp did not mean much, had no tragic significance."
He is too nice and I wonder why is he even the head of those particular quarters because I would think they would want someone mean and cruel to match everyone else at those camps.
Pg. 87
"A terrible thought loomed up in my mind: he had wanted to get rid of his father! He had felt that his father as growing weak, he had believed that the end was near and had sought this separation in order to get rid of the burden, to free himself from an encumbrance which could lesson his own chances of survival."
Elie didn't even think not even once till realized that the rabbi's son had reached that point then he started considering leaving his father to help increase his chances of survival.
Pg. 93
"When at last a gray glimpse of light appeared on the horizon, it revealed a tangle of human shapes, heads sunk upon shoulders, crowded piled one on top of the other, like a field of dust covered twinkling in the first light of the dawn. I tried to distinguish those still living from those who had gone. But there was no difference. My gaze was held by a long time by one who lay with those eyes open slung into void. His livid face was covered with a layer of snow."
They were surrounded by the bodies of those who didn't make it earlier through their mistake and just wanting a short rest or actually not wanting to have to go on any longer anymore through their exhaustion and loss of their motivation. This could have been there when the father wanted to fall asleep in the snow.
Pg.105
"I'll give you a sound piece of advice, don't give your ration of bread and soup to your father. There is nothing you can do for him. And you're killing yourself. Instead, you ought to be having his ration."
Even thought this advice is rational and everything it isn't right to just let someone go like that, especially family. Everyone here has been numbed by the brutality that has been witnessed at the concentration camps. Selfishness has also made itself present though out everyone along with greediness.
Questions for Night
1.Where is Wiesel's childhood home? Locate the country on a map.
Wiesel’s childhood home was Sighet, Transylvania.
2. Wiesel opens Night by relating his youthful desire to study the cabala. What is the cabala?
The Cabala is the religious doctrine for the Jewish made from pieces received by the Holy Spirit.
3. Wiesel says that when he was young, he wanted to study the cabala in order to know the truths of this world.
What kinds of truths is he referring to? After you complete Night, return to this question: what kinds of truth was the young Elie ignorant of?
He wanted to know in depth the truths that lay behind mankind. Elie was ignorant of the two sides of the world. Good and Evil.
4. Why is Moshe the Beadle a significant character? What does he tell Elie about answers, questions, and the truth? After you complete Night, return to this question: why was Moshe prescient in his admonition to Elie?
Moshe the Beadle was important to Elie because he was the one who first introduces him to questioning in the beginning. He tells him that the truth lies within him. Moshe was prescient in his admonition to Elie through his honesty in whatever encounter they had together.
5. Why do the people of Sighet ignore Moshe after he returns from his escape? Why don't they listen to him?
The people of Sighet don’t listen to him because they don’t want to believe all the horrible things he has said so they decide to cast him aside instead. They also believe that the Germans won’t reach them in time.
6. Who is Madame Schachter? In what ways is she similar to Moshe the Beadle? (Think about prophetic figures and how people often ignore them.)
Madame Schachter was a mother who was separated from her family after boarding the train. She was prophetic and tried to warn the Jews of what awaited them at Auschwitz.
7. Consider this passage on pg. 32: “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desires to live. Never shall I forget those moments that 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.”
8. What is the context of this passage? How has the young Elie's theology changed? As you continue reading, ask yourself how this passage speaks to the rest of Night.
With all that Elie has seen and experienced at Auschwitz, he is led to believe that his god had no justice and not who he thought him to be. This passage sums up the complete change he experienced at Auschwitz.
9. How does Elie's understanding of God and God's presence—or absence— continue to change throughout Night? When is he most angry with God? When is not angry at all? Mark passages throughout Night that illustrates his changing attitudes toward God.
Throughout the novel, Elie changes from one side to the other and is most angry with God when he thinks about the injustice of all the matter. He isn’t angry when he is not thinking about him.
10. What literal and figurative (symbolic or metaphorical) meanings does night have in Night?
Night symbolizes the loss of hope, and increase of hatred in the novel along with the abrupt change that Elie experienced so quickly and without warning, like when night falls, abrupt.
11. Why do you think Night is such a slim book? Surely, Wiesel could have included much more detail.
Wiesel novel is slimmer than it could have been because he waited ten years until he would even talk about it. The more important and scarring memories stayed and overshadowed everything else and that was put in. In addition, you need to think of the readers who don’t want to be put through the entire experience he went through.
12. Is Night a memoir of tragedy or triumph? Can it be both? If so, why? If not, why not?
Night is both. Tragedy for obvious reasons but also triumphant through his survival and perseverance.
Night Essay
Numb
In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, when Idek beats Eliezer’s father, Elie doesn’t react as predicted when he doesn’t spring to his aid. Contrarily, Elie stood still as he becomes angry over his father’s failure to avoid the attack.
"I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact, I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me." (Wiesel 52)
Elie used to be a boy who was heavily devoted to the cabbala with an innocent aura, but the numerous concentration camps he faced broke his spirit creating a selfish and independent conscience. Everyone at the camp experiences a change as they endure their stay at Auschwitz; they transition through stages of anguish to listlessness. Becoming prisoner of not only the camp but also their own pain and suffering. These people manifest all the Jews who were broken mentally, physically, and spiritually while being captive at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel survived these camps but his personal changes as a young man have stayed with him still. This quotation is the beginning of a change he would deal with for the rest of his life. Wiesel’s last line in the quotation, “That is what concentration camp life had made of me” is what brings all the preceding changes into view.
Wiesel’s attitude shifted dramatically when his life in Sighet progressed onward to the torment that waited in Auschwitz. He witnessed his mother being taken from him, youth cremated, honest men hung, and his father grow so frail that he begged for death. All that kept him living is for the hope that he and his father could escape. His life met another side of the world that he was never aware of before he came to Auschwitz. He watched his father’s inner core whither away before him without anything he could do to help. In the camp, everyone withered away slowly as hopelessness sunk into his conscience. “I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it.” (Wiesel 34) Eliezer felt the process of all the gradual changes that occurred everyday that he was at the concentration facility. He felt the lessons of the cabbala leaving him, as he doubted the justice of his God. All the lessons that he studied and wanted to learn more about as he was growing in Sighet began to appear as a waste of time.
Many of the Jews contrived elaborate reasons as to why their God would punish them with this martyrdom. Akiba Drumer concluded that they were being tested. “He wants to find out whether we can dominate our base instincts and kill the Satan within us. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it’s a sign that He loves us all the more.” (Wiesel 42) As the attitude’s became exposed to all the treachery that had been performed at the concentration camps, emotions grew numb and passive in reaction to dealing with emotions. Full-grown adults felt these pains; Wiesel’s pain was that much worse being a young boy suffering the same situation along with witnessing the deterioration of his father along the way. At some point, everyone grew to be able to stand the bleak road ahead of him. Life grew dull and endless as they started growing to except death conclusively. Prisoners grew tired of dealing with pain as to not fear death as it stared them in the eyes. “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.” (Wiesel 60) The deceased had already given their final efforts to live a satisfying life.
With those changes there was nothing left to go back to, resulting in taking advantage of the lessons he had learned at the concentration camps. He had learned how to avoid the outbreaks form Idek, like most of the hostages learned. His father’s carelessness didn’t hurt just him but Eliezer as well. Wiesel needed his father to be able to take care of himself so that Wiesel could in turn take focus on himself. This paroxysm of agony turned into enmity.The changes that Wiesel and the rest of the Jews encountered broke them mentally, physically, and spiritually. “That is what concentration camp life had made of me,” (Wiesel 52) refers to the rupture that came from the hole that was created while he had been at Auschwitz. Auschwitz made Elie skeptical of not only the cabbala but of his life as a whole. Taking the cabbala out of his life changed his morality, took away his hope, disposition, and introduced corruption. The center in which he revolved in was suddenly taken away, like a solar system without a sun; he had no basis in which to go on peacefully. Wiesel’s premature concentration experiences became a black hole filled with all the bewilderment that he witnessed. The last line signifies the process of Wiesel’s foundation deteriorating as he is trapped inside the interior of the camp. The narrator’s previous dispositions became almost passive of the disastrous conditions he was being introduced. The only significant focuses were his father, as his priority, and his survival. As chances diminished so did his humane ethics, which grew numb in a sense that he was overwhelmed by apathy. His senses became tossed into eternal disarray as all he had known was taken away from him. This made the concentration camp able to cease and take control of the rest of his life.
In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, when Idek beats Eliezer’s father, Elie doesn’t react as predicted when he doesn’t spring to his aid. Contrarily, Elie stood still as he becomes angry over his father’s failure to avoid the attack.
"I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact, I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me." (Wiesel 52)
Elie used to be a boy who was heavily devoted to the cabbala with an innocent aura, but the numerous concentration camps he faced broke his spirit creating a selfish and independent conscience. Everyone at the camp experiences a change as they endure their stay at Auschwitz; they transition through stages of anguish to listlessness. Becoming prisoner of not only the camp but also their own pain and suffering. These people manifest all the Jews who were broken mentally, physically, and spiritually while being captive at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel survived these camps but his personal changes as a young man have stayed with him still. This quotation is the beginning of a change he would deal with for the rest of his life. Wiesel’s last line in the quotation, “That is what concentration camp life had made of me” is what brings all the preceding changes into view.
Wiesel’s attitude shifted dramatically when his life in Sighet progressed onward to the torment that waited in Auschwitz. He witnessed his mother being taken from him, youth cremated, honest men hung, and his father grow so frail that he begged for death. All that kept him living is for the hope that he and his father could escape. His life met another side of the world that he was never aware of before he came to Auschwitz. He watched his father’s inner core whither away before him without anything he could do to help. In the camp, everyone withered away slowly as hopelessness sunk into his conscience. “I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it.” (Wiesel 34) Eliezer felt the process of all the gradual changes that occurred everyday that he was at the concentration facility. He felt the lessons of the cabbala leaving him, as he doubted the justice of his God. All the lessons that he studied and wanted to learn more about as he was growing in Sighet began to appear as a waste of time.
Many of the Jews contrived elaborate reasons as to why their God would punish them with this martyrdom. Akiba Drumer concluded that they were being tested. “He wants to find out whether we can dominate our base instincts and kill the Satan within us. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it’s a sign that He loves us all the more.” (Wiesel 42) As the attitude’s became exposed to all the treachery that had been performed at the concentration camps, emotions grew numb and passive in reaction to dealing with emotions. Full-grown adults felt these pains; Wiesel’s pain was that much worse being a young boy suffering the same situation along with witnessing the deterioration of his father along the way. At some point, everyone grew to be able to stand the bleak road ahead of him. Life grew dull and endless as they started growing to except death conclusively. Prisoners grew tired of dealing with pain as to not fear death as it stared them in the eyes. “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.” (Wiesel 60) The deceased had already given their final efforts to live a satisfying life.
With those changes there was nothing left to go back to, resulting in taking advantage of the lessons he had learned at the concentration camps. He had learned how to avoid the outbreaks form Idek, like most of the hostages learned. His father’s carelessness didn’t hurt just him but Eliezer as well. Wiesel needed his father to be able to take care of himself so that Wiesel could in turn take focus on himself. This paroxysm of agony turned into enmity.The changes that Wiesel and the rest of the Jews encountered broke them mentally, physically, and spiritually. “That is what concentration camp life had made of me,” (Wiesel 52) refers to the rupture that came from the hole that was created while he had been at Auschwitz. Auschwitz made Elie skeptical of not only the cabbala but of his life as a whole. Taking the cabbala out of his life changed his morality, took away his hope, disposition, and introduced corruption. The center in which he revolved in was suddenly taken away, like a solar system without a sun; he had no basis in which to go on peacefully. Wiesel’s premature concentration experiences became a black hole filled with all the bewilderment that he witnessed. The last line signifies the process of Wiesel’s foundation deteriorating as he is trapped inside the interior of the camp. The narrator’s previous dispositions became almost passive of the disastrous conditions he was being introduced. The only significant focuses were his father, as his priority, and his survival. As chances diminished so did his humane ethics, which grew numb in a sense that he was overwhelmed by apathy. His senses became tossed into eternal disarray as all he had known was taken away from him. This made the concentration camp able to cease and take control of the rest of his life.
