Novella Overview, Unit
Vocab. and Literary Terms
Allegory

– A work with two levels of meaning –
a literal one and a symbolic one.
Usually, they teach moral lessons
and/or criticize social institutions.

Example: Tortoise and Hare
Read “Terrible Things”

Journal #1: Terrible
Things

First, analyze the allegorical meaning of
Terrible Things. Then, write your
reactions to Terrible Things. What
lesson does it teach us about empathy
and apathy?
Elie Wiesel’s Night

Night is a memoir by Elie
Wiesel, age 15
Wiesel chronicling his
experience with his father,
Shlomo, in the Nazi Germany
concentration camps at
Auschwitz and Buchenwald in
1944–1945, at the height of
the Holocaust, toward the end
of the Second World War.
Wiesel was born on
September 30, 1928 in
Sighet, a village in the
Carpathian mountains in
northern Transylvania,
annexed by Hungary in
1940. With his father
Shlomo, his mother Sarah,
and his sisters—Hilda,
Beatrice, and seven-year-old
Tzipora—he lived in a closeknit community of between
10,000 and 20,000 mostly
Orthodox Jews.
Shlomo Wiesel
Sighet, Transylvania
Signet Ghetto, May 1944 after Jewish Deportation
As the Allies prepared for the liberation of
Europe in May and June of 1944, Wiesel
and his family were being deported, along
with 15,000 Jews from Sighet and 18,000
from neighboring villages. Wiesel's
mother and Tzipora were immediately
sent to the gas chamber. Hilda and
Beatrice survived, separated from the rest
of the family. Wiesel and his father
managed to stay together, surviving hard
labor and a death march to Buchenwald.
Elie Wiesel survived the
camps, but refused to
even talk about the
Holocaust for 10 years.
Finally, he felt compelled
to write about his
experiences.
The first draft was a 800+
book titled And the
World Remained Silent.
That was edited down to
roughly 200 pages, and
became the book,
Night.
Elie Wiesel, 2010
Literary Terms

Allegory – A work with two levels of meaning
– a literal one and a symbolic one. Usually, they
teach moral lessons and/or criticize social
institutions.
Symbolism – A symbol is a person, place or
thing that stands for something beyond itself.
A white dove might represent peace, for
example.
Literary Terms, cont.

Theme – The underlying message about
life or human nature that a writer wants
the reader to understand after reading
his/her piece.
TWM – live life to the fullest
Motif – A recurring subject, theme, idea,
etc, in a literary, artistic, or musical
work.
TWM – death, lessons
Literary Terms, cont.

Tone – The attitude a writer takes
toward a subject.
Mood – The feeling or atmosphere
a writer creates for the reader.
Literary Terms, cont.

Personification – A figure of speech
which human qualities are given to an
object, animal, or idea. “The walls have
ears,” for example. Or, “the cat smirked.”
Imagery – Descriptive words and phrases
that re-create sensory experience for the
reader. In other words, “painting a
picture” with words.
Vocabulary

Empathy - the ability to identify
with or vicariously experience the
feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of
another.
Apathy – lack of feeling, emotion,
interest, or concern.
Journal #1: Terrible
Things

ADD TO YOUR RESPONSE:
What lesson does it teach us about
Empathy?
Apathy?
Now, Turn and Talk

What do you already know
about the Nazi German
Holocaust?
Journal #2: Denial

Read the quote by Pastor Martin
Niemoller in your supplementary
reading packet. How can you relate this
to yourself and the extent to which you
care about the suffering of others? What
similarities do you see between it and
the story of Moshe the Beadle? Between
both these things and Terrible Things?
What is the common theme in all three
pieces?
Journal #3: Tone

Elie Wiesel’s tone in Night has been described as all the
following: sorrowful, angry, reflective, flat, and
detached. For this journal entry, find a passage from
Night that clearly communicates a particular tone.
Write that passage down, and describe Wiesel’s tone
in this particular passage. What is the mood in this
passage?
Journal #4: Inhumanity

Read Wislava Szymborska’s poem “The First
Photograph of Hitler.” What meaning do you find in
this poem? What is your reaction to it? If we all start
out as babies, then how do some of us grow up to be
so cruel and inhumane? Finally, what connection
can you make between this poem and what you’ve
read to far of Night?
Journal #5: Imagery

Imagery is the use of sensory details to create an image
in the reader’s mind, to “paint a picture” with words.
For this journal entry, find one good example of
imagery from Night. Write that passage down and
describe the image it creates in your mind. What
impact does this image have on you, the reader?
Journal #5: Reflection
First, read “38 Witnesses”
in your supplementary

reading packet.
No one can read Night without wondering how
one’s own behavior would have compared to
that of a victim or that of a free German citizen
witnessing the suffering of others. Discuss your
reactions to this novel and evaluate its impact
on your life. After reading, do you think you
could still be a silent witness to the suffering of
others? Explain.
Journal #6: Indifference
(Answer after reading “The Perils of
Indifference”)

1.
2.
3.
4.
What is indifference?
Why is it tempting to be indifferent?
How is indifference similar to inhumanity?
Why is it more dangerous than anger or
hatred?
5. What point is he making with the story of The
St. Louis?
6. Does Wiesel seem to think we’ve learned
from our past? Do you think we’ve learned?

 Other journal entries:
 38 Witnesses
 “The End and the Beginning”
 “The Butterfly”
 “The Perils of Indifference” (Test?)