Night by Elie Wiesel:
Chapter One Close Reading Questions & Vocabulary
Vocabulary:
1. Surreptitiously
2. Ghetto
3. Antechamber
4. Waiflike (Waif)
5. Liquidate
6. Juxtaposition
7. Surreal
8. Conflagration
9. Reify
10. Motif
11. Memoir
Close Reading Questions:
For Closer Consideration:
1. How would you characterize
young Elie based on his
descriptions of himself at the
beginning of his memoir? Choose
at least two quotes from the text
(one direct and one indirect
characterization) to support your
answer. Include page numbers.
2. On page 12, Elie writes: “The
ghetto was ruled by neither
German nor Jew; it was ruled by
delusion.”
What literary device is this quote
an example of? What effect does it
have on the reader’s
understanding of Elie’s
description of the ghetto and the
living conditions Jewish people
were initially subjugated to under
Nazi rule?
3. Page 14: “The shadows around
me roused themselves as if from a
deep sleep and left silently in
Response:
every direction.”
What were these shadows Elie
speaks of? Is this excerpt an
example of foreshadowing,
metaphor, or both? Why? What
does this foreshadow about the
destiny of the people around him?
Explain.
4. Page 14: “The ghetto was awake.”
What literary device is this
excerpt an example of? How
would his message have been
different had he instead written,
“The people living in the ghetto
were awake”?
5. Page 15: “My throat was dry and
the words were choking me,
paralyzing my lips.”
How would the sentence have
been different if Elie had said “...
and my words were choking me”?
Why did he choose not to write
that the words were his? (Wasn’t
he the one saying them?) What is
the effect his stylistic decision to
personify the words? Analyze
what Wiesel might be trying to
teach his reader about the power
of words and ideas.
6. Page 15: “People clung to hope.”
What is the effect of Wiesel
choosing to reify “hope”? Analyze
why Wiesel is giving people
abstract qualities yet either
personifying or making abstract
ideas concrete throughout this
chapter.
7. Page 16: “There was joy, yes, joy.
People must have thought there
could be no greater torment in
God’s hell than that of being
stranded here, on the sidewalk,
among the bundles, in the middle
of street under a blazing sun.
Anything seemed preferable to
that. They began to walk without
another glance at the abandoned
streets, the dead, empty houses,
the gardens, the tombstones…”
Explain Wiesel’s use of juxtaposition
between job and tombstones in this
paragraph. What is the march from joy
to death reflective of?
8. Page 17: “Open rooms
everywhere. Gaping doors and
windows looked out into the void.
It all belonged to everyone since
it no longer belonged to anyone.
It was there for the taking. An
open tomb.”
Analyze the literary devices Wiesel uses
in these lines (there are at least three).
What effect do these literary devices
have? What theme or themes is Wiesel
building in his memoir already?
9. Page 18: “The verdict had been
delivered.”
What is the verdict Wiesel speaks of?
Of what crime were Elie and the rest
of his family (and people) guilty?
Who was the unnamed “jury” that
had sentenced them and what
authority did this body have to do so?
10. Page 19: “They were the first
faces of hell and death.”
To what is Elie comparing the
police in this line? Thinking ahead
(based on what you know about
the Holocaust), predict why this
metaphor might be appropriate.
Is there another metaphor he
could have used more effectively?
Why or why not?
11. Page 20: “Oh God… have mercy
on us…”
What does this say about Elie’s faith
at this point of his journey into
“hell”? Based on what you know
about his character so far, how do
you predict this will (or will not)
serve him in the concentration
camps?
12. Page 20: “People who owned the
things we were using now. They
had been expelled. And we had
already forgotten all about them.”
What does this say about the mindset
of individuals who are in danger?
What do it say about the process of
organized dehumanization?
13. Page 20: “NIGHT. No one was
praying… The stars were but
sparks of the immense
conflagration that was consuming
us.”
What literary device(s) are used in these
lines? What motif do we see being used
and built upon throughout the memoir at
this point in our reading? Analyze why
Wiesel may have chosen this particular
motif and assess whether it is the most
effective decision he could have made in
his writing. Explain.