Night Journal Topics
PART 1:
Over the course of the reading of Night and the break, you
need to respond to one of the journal prompts in each of the following
categories.
Possessions:

If you had to leave your home today and could only take what you
could carry in a small backpack, what would you take? Why are these
things of value to you personally?

What are your most prized possessions? Why?

How would giving up all of your material possessions change your
views on what is important in life? How would your priorities change?
Identity:

In what ways do you feel the place or places you consider “home”
have shaped you? How much of an influence do the places you are
from affect your identity? Explain.

What are some of the ways in which your identity is repressed on a
daily basis? Think about school rules, parents' rules, etc. How does
this repression make you feel?

What are some ways in which a person’s identity can put them at a
disadvantage in today's world? What are some examples of these
disadvantages you see on the news or around the community?
Relationships:

Who are some of the most important people in your life? Why?

Who do you feel has mostly impacted who you are today? How?
What attributes do they possess that you value?
Describe this
person and a fond moment you have of them.

What do your family members expect of you? What and whom do
they want you to become? Do you agree with what they want for
you? Why or why not?
Freedom:

Address the following in a journal entry about freedom: How do you
define freedom? What freedoms are important to you? How much
freedom should people have? How is your freedom limited?

If you were forced to give up your home, possessions, family, and
freedoms, what affect would this have on you?

Describe a time when your freedom was taken away from you. Have
you ever been grounded, told you could not do something that you
wanted to do? What was your response?

Do you have more freedom or less freedom than your parents had at
your age? In what ways might your freedoms be different from theirs?
In what ways might your freedoms be similar to theirs? Why?

How much freedom should people have? When is it okay to limit
freedom? When is it not? Provide examples from texts, movies,
speeches, historical events to support.
Resistance:

How would you define resistance? In what ways can a person resist
things? Does resistance need to be an open or shown action? How
have you shown resistance in your life? What were you resisting and
why?

In what ways do we see Elie and the prisoners around him resist?
What are he/they resisting? How? Why?
Beliefs, Values and Challenges:

When have you been faced with a time your beliefs were challenged?
What challenged your beliefs? Why? How did you handle it?

What has been your greatest life challenge? Were you able to
overcome this challenge and what did you have to do?

What is something you have sacrificed to help someone else?
Describe the situation and your feelings.

Respond to the following quote from Joseph Joubert: “It is better to
debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without
debating it.”

Respond to the following quote from Rollo May: “The opposite of
courage is not cowardice, it is conformity.”
Part 2
Choose one of the following to complete AFTER we finish Night.

Apply Emily Dickinson's poem "Crumbling is not an Instant's Act" to the
process Elie Wiesel goes through. How does his faith in God "crumble?" His
faith in humanity? His faith in himself and his ability to withstand the
dehumanization?

Identify two moments in Night that were pivotal in Elie's progression from the
boy he was at the beginning to the "corpse" he sees staring back from the
mirror at the end. Why did you choose these?
Directions: Choose ONE of the following to complete AFTER we finish Night.

What scene sticks with you the most from the book? Why? What effect has it
had on you? What affect has it had on your coming to understand Elie, other
prisoners, the Holocaust in a new way? What message do you feel this scene
might convey about life and human nature? Explain.

Are you satisfied with the ending of the book? Why or why not? In what ways
has the reading experience challenged, shifted, or affirmed your
understanding and beliefs about the Holocaust? How about humanity? What
questions or thoughts are you left with? How has the reading of this book
possibly been different from other Holocaust literature you’ve studied? How
do you feel about the text now that we are finished?