NIGHT
Elie Wiesel
History is a nightmare, from which I am trying to awake.
James Joyce
Words Students May Not Know:
delusion
resolve
revelation
deport
deportees
exterminate
annihilate
disperse
diplomacy
emigration
liquidate
abstract
pittance
optimism
billeted
jubilant
sublime
edict
prominent
apparatus
monocle
harangued
officiating
emaciated
infirmary
disheveled
dysentery
altruistic
quarantine
veritable
sabotage
infirmary
imprudent
untenable
dissipated
camaraderie
economize
anecdotes
treatise
antechamber
roused
relics
phylacteries
indiscriminate(ly)
surreptitious(ly)
convoy
surreal
lucidity
audible
benediction
inflection
apathy
spectacle
prostrate
fasting
oppress/oppression
conflagration
evacuate
farce
flit
hermetically
muster
elude
lulled
remorse
ascertain
convalescent
graven
illusions
tumult
imperative
interrogate
invectives
notorious
colossus
cauldron
lament
deluded
poignant
unprecedented
riveted
Allusions:
Spanish Inquisition: A time of torture and religious persecution during the late 15th Century
Captivity in Babylon: A time in ancient Jewish history when the ancient kingdom of Babylon defeated
the Israelites and took them “captive.”
“long night seven times sealed” [p 34:] Ancient documents were in the form of scrolls and were often
“sealed” with several wax seals. This also alludes to the “scroll” John saw in a vision as recorded in the
book of Revelation. This scroll has seven seals. When each seal is opened, an awful, global event takes
place.
“crime written all over his forehead” [p 38]: This alludes to ancient Jewish and New Testament
scripture that infers if something is written on one’s forehead, it is a declaration of what one believes or
who he or she is. Ancients are instructed to write the law on their foreheads; and in the Book of
Revelation, Christians will be sealed “on their foreheads” and the Anti-Christ will place his mark on
foreheads.
Allusions Continued:
“I concurred with Job” [p 45]: Job is a character in the narrative of the Book of Job in the Hebrew
scripture. He suffered greatly from a variety of hazards. He had dialogues with God about his suffering.
“The last judgment”: A judgment day that Jews and Christians alike believe will take place, when God
will judge all of humanity.
“Death Knell”: This alludes to a time when villages would ring a bell when someone in the village died.
John Donne’s famous quote, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee,” also alludes to the “Death
Knell.” Donne is indicating that all of humanity is connected and when one dies, we should all feel his
death.
Glossary of Terms:
Aryan: (in Nazi doctrine) a non-Jewish caucasian, especially of Nordic stock.
Talmud: the collection of Jewish law and tradition
Kabbalah: an ancient Jewish mystical tradition based on an esoteric interpretation of the Old Testament
Synagogue: a Jewish house of worship, often having facilities for religious instruction.
Zohar: a medieval mystical work, consisting chiefly of interpretations of and commentaries on the
Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament.
Rosh Hashanah: The Jewish New Year that occurs in autumn
Beadle: someone who works at a church or a Jewish synagogue and helps the clergy
Passover: A Jewish festival that commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and is marked
chiefly by the Seder ritual and the eating of matzoth. It begins on the 14th day of Nisan and is celebrated
for eight days by Orthodox and Conservative Jews outside of Israel and for seven days by Reform Jews
and Jews in Israel.
Rebbe: A Jewish spiritual leader or rabbi
The Red Army: The Russian Army. Russia, England, and the United States were allies against Germany
during World War II.
Zionism: the Jewish national movement of rebirth and renewal in the land of Israel - the historical
birthplace of the Jewish people.
Palestine: A country in the historical region of southwest Asia at the eastern end of the Mediterranean
Sea and roughly coextensive with modern Israel and the West Bank.
Fascism/Fascist Party: asystem of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator,
stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and
typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. A Facist Party is when fascist people come
together and they form a party and what they do is get people to join them. They believe in glorifying
the state/ country.
Anti-Semitic: One who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews
Hassid/Hasidic: A member of a Jewish mystic movement founded in the 18th century in eastern Europe
by Baal Shem Tov that reacted against Talmudic learning and maintained that God's presence was in all
of one's surroundings and that one should serve God in one's every deed and word
Ghetto: A quarter in a European city to which Jews were restricted.
Glossary of Terms Continued:
Shauvot: a festival, celebrated on the sixth and seventh days of Sivan by Orthodox and Conservative
Jews outside Israel but only on the sixth day by Reform Jews and Jews in Israel, that commemorates
God's giving of the ten commandments to Moses.
Gestapo: the German state secret police during the Nazi regime, organized in 1933 and notorious for its
brutal methods and operations.
Kaddish: a Jewish prayer for the dead
Messiah: the promised and expected deliverer of the Jewish people. Christians believe that is Jesus
Christ, but Jews do not their “Messiah” has yet come.
Mystic: a person who claims to attain, or believes in the possibility of attaining, insight into mysteries
transcending ordinary human knowledge, as by direct communication with the divine or immediate
intuition in a state of spiritual ecstasy.
Yom Kippur
Night, by Elie Wiesel
ELA-8/Detamore
Literary Analysis
Respond to the following prompts on a separate sheet of paper as you read the book.
Figurative Language:

List ten examples of figurative language Wiesel uses throughout his narrative. 1. Write the line
of figurative language 2. identify it as a metaphor, simile, personification, idiom, etc. 3. Explain
the literal meaning Wiesel is trying to convey with his use of figurative language.

There are multiple, universal themes in this autobiography. List two universal themes that you
see in Wiesel’s narrative. For each theme, explain why you believe it is a theme in the book,
citing specific examples from the story that support the theme.

Mood: What is the mood in this book? Is there a shift in mood? If so, where does it happen in
the book? Why does the mood change?

Tone: What is the tone in this autobiography? (Remember to consider one’s tone of voice…)

The following excerpt from page 34 of Night is like a poem. What elements make it poetic? Be
specific in your answer, citing specific attributes that make these lines sound like a poem. Cite,
at least, three attributes that make this excerpt poetic. Then, respond to this excerpt. Which
part of it moves you the most? Why?
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp that turned my life into one long night seven times
sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a
silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.
Student’s Name:________________________________________________________________
Night, by Elie Wiesel
ELA-8/Detamore
In retrospect I must confess that I do not know, or no longer know, what I wanted to achieve with my
words. I only know that without this testimony, my life as a writer – or my life, period – would not have
become what it is: that of a witness who believes he has a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy
from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory.
Elie Wiesel
1. How did Moishe the Beadle change? What caused this change? [pp3-8]____________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why is Moishe so frustrated? [p.7]__________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. How did the German soldiers behave when they first arrived in Sighet? [pp. 9-10]____________
_________________________________________________________________________________
4. What is ironic about the following statement? The Germans were already in our town, the
Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already out – and the Jews of Sighet were still
smiling.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
5. List the edicts that were first to affect the Jews of Sighet. [pp10-11]_______________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
6. What does Wiesel mean when he says, “The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was
ruled by delusion.” [p 12]?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
7. Briefly describe the scene at the Synagogue [p.22]:_____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
8. How many people were loaded into each cattle car (train car)? [p.22}______________________
9. What had “totally shattered” Mrs. Schacther? [p 24]____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
10. To what concentration camp had the Wiesel family been taken? [p 27]_____________________
11. What did the inmate tell Elie and his father to lie about? [p 30] ___________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
12. After Elie walked past the horrible pit of fire, his father said, “Do you remember Mrs. Schachter
on the train?” To what irony is he referring? [p 34]
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
13. What created “true equality” among the men in Elie’s barrack? [p 35]___________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
14. “In a few seconds, we had ceased to be men” [p. 36]. Explain what the author means:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
That night, the soup tasted of corpses.
15. What does ARBEIT MACHT FREI mean? [p 40]____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
16. “It was spring. The sun was shining…It was a beautiful day in May. The fragrances of spring
were in the air. The sun was setting.” What is ironic about Wiesel’s description of the weather
on page 40?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
17. What was Elie Wiesel’s tattoo number? [p 42]____________________________________________________
18. Why didn’t the Jewish dentist from Czechoslovakia take Elie’s gold crown? [pp 51-52]
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
19. How did Elie’s gold crown cause him trouble again? [pp 54-56]_________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
20. What happened to Elie after finding Idek with the Polish girl? [pp 56-58]______________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
21. What is your reaction to the event described on pages 64-65? Write down your reaction,
thoughts, etc. to this event.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
22. INFER: Wiesel says, “The bell. It was already time to part, to go to bed. The bell regulated
everything. It gave me orders and I executed them blindly. I hated that bell. Whenever I
happened to dream of a better world, I imagined a universe without a bell.” Why does
Wiesel hate the bell so much?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
23. What is the tone in the following excerpt?
What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare
to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their
anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master
of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and
this misery? Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s
wounded minds, their ailing bodies? [p 66]
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
24. “Were there still miracles on earth?” What “miracle” is Wiesel referring to? [pp 75-76]
__________________________________________________________________________________
25. What was wrong with Wiesel’s foot? [pp 79-80]________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
26. What is ironic about Elie and his father’s decision to be evacuated with the other? [p 82]
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
27. How does the snow add to the scene of the evacuation? [p 84]____________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
28. Why does Wiesel hate his body? [p 85]_______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
29. What did Juliek do before he died? [p 93-95]__________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
30. How did the prisoners quench their thirst after leaving Gleiwitz? [p 96]_____________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
31. INFER: What would cause a son kill his own father for a piece of bread?____________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup, my crust
of stale bread. The bread, the soup – those were my entire life. I was nothing but a
body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach. The stomach alone was measuring
time.
32. Wiesel never did learn why someone would want to strangle him in his sleep [p 102]. What
would your guess be?
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
33. What literary technique is being employed in the following line? “I knew that I was no longer
arguing with him [father] but with Death itself, with Death that he had already chosen.” [p 105]
_________________________________________________________________________________
34. What “test” did Elie not pass on page 107?___________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
35. On what date did Elie Wiesel’s father die? [p 112]______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
36. What was their “first act as free men?” [p 115].________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
37. What does Wiesel mean when he says, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was
contemplating me.”? [p 115]
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
SHORT ESSAY:
James Joyce, an Irish writer, said, “History is a nightmare, from which I am trying to awake.” How does
that quote apply to Elie Wiesel and his autobiography? Cite examples from the book to support what
you say.
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Wiesel’s faith is greatly challenged throughout his narrative. Cite specific examples from the text that
reveal that his faith is being challenged. Do you think he turned his back on God, permanently?
Why/why not?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________