Night Questions

Luis Acevedo
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10
1 January 2009
Night Questions
1) Wiesel's childhood home is in Sighet. The country that Sighet resides in is Romania.

2) The Cabbala is the Jewish Bible.

3) The kind of truths that Wiesel was referring to in the beginning was the truths about religion and the afterlife and the will of God. His religion would pave the way to the truth about the world. The kinds of truths that Elie was ignorant of was the truth of the cruelness of man. He didn't realize that not everyone wanted to go into His kingdom and he didn't realize how barbaric the world truly was.

4) Moishe the Beadle was a significant character because he warned Elie and his people about the terrible things that were to come if they didn't leave their homes. He became a prophetic symbol. He tells Elie that the truth lies within the question and the question, not the answer, is more important.

5) The people of Sighet ignore Moishe after he returns from his escape because they think that is impossible and he is a poor man so they think he has gone insane. They have heared other news that says that the war is almost over and of course they take that news instead of Moishe's. The people ignore Moishe because maybe they don't want to hear the truth he has to say. Mostly though, because they think he is insane.

6) Madame Schachter is an old woman who was on the cart alongside with Elie and his father. She is similar to Moishe the Beadle because she warned them of flames and burning bodies and they ignored her just as Moishe had warned them about the soldiers and the troubles to come. They are both prophetic figures. Both ignored, and that caused the overall downfall of the people in this piece.

7) Consider this passage on pg. 32:Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desires to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.

8) The context of this passage is that what Elie witnessed is forever engraved into his mind. There, in that concentration camp, his religion turned to nothing. He no longer begged for mercy for he knew that he would receive nothing for his pleas. His hope was shattered. The cruelness of man was the only reality for him now.

9) Elie's understanding of God and God's presence changes throughout Night. In the beginning, he didn't know a lot about His work and actions. Elie then begins to learn more about His mystical action through the help of Moishe the Beadle. He was readily instilled into the learning of his religion and he would pray often. However, once he reached the concentration camp, Elie then begins to believe that there is no God. Elie believes that if there is, He remains silent, and this upsets Elie. Elie believes that His absence is unacceptable. By the end, Elie does not pray anymore. The first time that he denied prayer, but did it hesitantly, was when they first arrived at the camp and they were being directed towards the flames. He refused to say Kaddish for himself. What was more, was that he was upset at his father for saying Kaddish. When fellow inmates die, such as Akila Drummer, he no longer prayed for him. They soon forgot about prayer. The next time Elie prayed was when he heared of Rabbi's son and he prayed for Him to give Elie the strength never to do what Rabbi's son did. Elie prays very less frequently because he no longer believes that prayer will do anything anymore.

10)The symbolic meanings that night has in Night are plentiful. Night being such a powerful piece with a lot of cruelty depicted, only negative connotations can be derived from night in the piece. The word night represents an oblivion. The darkness that comes with the night sky envelops all else that was during the days that the sun would shine brightly. The darkness engulfs everything and a pure black is left. Because of the black, nothing can be seen, and since nothing can be seen, nothing is known. When nothing is known, the mind tends to create things on its own. Confusion. Being in such a camp, it would create awful things. The awful things that the mind creates becomes reality and what the people are. Because the night is darkness, all their beliefs are omitted. Everything the people once were, are no longer. They, by the SS soldiers, are easily mended into what they would want them to become. Machines.

Night is such a slim book because it is so powerful because it is slim. Every sentence that the book contains sends a tingle down the reader's spine. It contains no sort of “fluff”. Everything is powerful, and anymore included in there would probably skew away from its strength. Anymore would make it weaker.

12) Night is a memoir of tragedy. It can not be both for the Jewish people did not gain anything. They lost everything. Even when they were saved from the camp all the gained was simple freedom, which, they already had before. They did not gain anything but lost everything for they lost years in that camp, they lost what they once possessed, they lost their religious beliefs. They did not gain anything in that camp. It could be said that they gained the understandment of life and death, but is that really something would want to gain?