ENG 10 CP Mr. Wheeler Night by Elie Wiesel 1. Night Study Guide

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1 ENG 10 CP Mr. Wheeler Night by Elie Wiesel 1 Night Study Guide Test Format: The test will contain 60 problems and is comprised of the following sections: matching, multiple choice, and passage interpretation. Instructions: Included below is a comprehensive list of terms, topics, and details from the text and the historical Holocaust that either will appear directly on the exam itself in a question or answer, or will be useful in aiding your understanding of the material that will appear on the exam. A list of questions is also provided to help you review key scenes, characters, and themes in preparation for the exam. Holocaust Terms and Events anti-semitism Arbeit Macht Frei ( Work Makes You Free ) Aryan death camp death marches Endloesung der Judenfrage ( Final Solution of the Jewish Question ) euphemism Gestapo ghetto Kapo Kommando Kristalnachti ( Night of Broken Glass ) Nuremberg Laws pogrom propaganda S.S. (Schutzstaffel) Zindel Grynszpan Jewish and Hebrew Terms and Concepts Cabbala/Kabbalah Genesis 22 Hebrew Job Kaddish Messiah Mysticism Passover Pentecost Prophet of doom (archetype) Rabbi Rosh Hashanah Semitic Synagogue Talmud Theodicy Torah Yiddish Yom Kippur Zohar Night Characters Moishe the Beadle Schlomo Hilda Bea Tzipora Madame Schächter Stein (relative from Antwerp) Hersh Genund Franek Dutch oberkapo the pipel ( sad-eyed angel ) Akiba Drumer Idek Rabbi Eliahou Tivi Yossi Juliek Lewis Hans Zalman Meir Katz Dr. Mengele Hitler Night Details and Plots Points A-7713 tattooing numbers on prisoners arms cellblocks bells kapos being prisoners selection (surviving selection) roll call hangings death marches labor prisoners vs. prisoners

2 ENG 10 CP Mr. Wheeler Night by Elie Wiesel 2 Literary Terms Geography Elie Wiesel the Man anaphora devolutionary plot dramatic irony foreshadowing memoir (epiphanic and episodic features) metaphor mood narrator plot (narrative structure) point of view simile style tone voice Sighet Transylvania Romania Galicia (forest) Germany Hungary Poland Buna Auschwitz-Birkenau Gleiwitz Buchenwald Paris Aden Motifs Night Silence Fire Biographical info Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech Themes Testimony (the importance of) Deicide (spiritual crisis/loss of faith) Father-Son Relationships Loss of Innocence Key Passages from Night **Below is really a list of some key passages, though there are many others. The idea here is to remind you of the power of Wiesel s idiosyncratic narrative style. Look back at passages we discussed directly in class to anticipate what might appear on the exam in addition to those appended here. I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask him the real/right questions There are a thousand and one gates allowing entry into the orchard of mystical truth. Poor Father, of what then did you die? It was like a page torn from a book, a historical novel, perhaps, dealing with the captivity in Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition. Never shall I forget Long live liberty! Where is He? This is where hanging here from this gallows the inheritance I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. master of nature, masters of the world I was sixteen (fifteen). Free at last! a corpse gazed back at me.

3 ENG 10 CP Mr. Wheeler Night by Elie Wiesel 3 1. Why does Moshe the Beadle teach Eliezer that asking the right questions is essential to understanding God? 2. Does Eliezer apply these teachings in the concentration camps? Explain. 3. In Night, Elie Wiesel describes concentration camp life. In each box below, note how the procedure named contributes to the Nazis control and dehumanization of the prisoners. tattooing numbers on prisoners arms ringing bells to regulate time having prisoners serve as Kapos of cell blocks selection 4. What is Wiesel s tone when he refers to his father s knife and spoon as the inheritance? Explain your answer. 5. Why does Eliezer describe the prisoners as masters of nature, masters of the world during the death march from Buna to Gleiwitz? 6. There are many unimaginably horrific circumstances that pit sons against fathers following the evacuation of Buna. Describe two of these instances below. 7. During the long run after Buna, what does Eliezer say was the only thing that kept him from giving up? 8. In the shed, taking a brief break from the march to Gleiwitz, what does Eliezer pray for? 9. What piece of advice does the head of the cellblock give to Eliezer in Buchenwald regarding survival? Why does he give him this advice? 10. Describe Eliezer s reaction to his father s death on the dawn of January 29, Upon being liberated from Buchenwald, what was the prisoners first act as free men? 12. What do you think might be the significance of the title, Night? Explain your answer.

4 ENG 10 CP Mr. Wheeler Night by Elie Wiesel What act do you think Wiesel considers the greatest crime in this novel? Who is guilty of this crime? DIRECTIONS: In each box, write down as much as you can about the role that each character plays in Night. What were their significant actions? 14. Moishe the Beadle 15. Schlomo 16. Madame Schächter 17. Franek 18. Akiba Drumer 19. Idek 20. Rabbi Eliahou 21. Tivi & Yossi 22. Juliek 23. The sad-eyed angel 24. Meir Katz

5 ENG 10 CP Mr. Wheeler Night by Elie Wiesel 5 BROKEN PROMISES: Comparing Genesis 22 and Night INSTRUCTIONS: Use the following terms to answer the questions below. Genesis: The first book of the Old Testament and Torah. Genesis gives an account of the creation of the world. (Abbr:) Gen. Parable: A brief story used to teach some moral lesson or truth. Theodicy: A justification of the justice and holiness of God in establishing a world in which evil exists. GENESIS 22: Abraham s Sacrifice of His Son, Isaac 25. What does God command Abraham to do upon a mountaintop in Moriah? 26. Once Abraham arrives there with Isaac, what happens? 27. What happens to Abraham as a result of his actions? 28. Taken allegorically, Genesis 22 functions as a parable for believers of the Jewish faith. What would the moral lesson or truth be to the parable of Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, Isaac? 29. What is a pipel? NIGHT (pp ): Sacrifice of the Sad-Eyed Angel 30. Who is the sad-eyed angel? What effect might the word angel be intended to have on Wiesel s readers? 31. What happens to him in this section? Why? 32. What does Eliezer think to himself when another prisoner asks, Where is God now? What does this response symbolize? 33. How is the fate of the sad-eyed angel different from the fate of Isaac in the story of Genesis 22? 34. Apply your answer to the preceding question to the Jews experience in the Holocaust and explain why Eliezer reacts the way he does to the fate of the sad-eyed angel. Is there room for theodicy in Eliezer s religious beliefs?