Discussion Questions For Night By Elie Wiesel

In the book Night by Elie Wiesel there are many instances where his use of imagery helps establish tone and purpose. For example Elie Wiesel used fire (sight) to represent just that. The fire helps prove that the tone is serious and mature. In no way did Wiesel try to lighten up the story about the concentration camps or the Nazis. His use of fire also helps show his purpose. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times scaled. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw

This book interested me because it is a great example of what so many people went through in concentration camps throughout Europe in World War II. So many books have been written about personal accounts of war hardships suffered by the Jews but so few capture the true problems faced by prisoners. The impossible decision between survival and family was a difficult one faced by many during this time. Elie had an unfaltering will to live when his father was alive with him but once his father died the reason for living disappeared. But he once was faced with the decision of helping to keep his father alive or let him die and have an extra ration of food. How can one be stuck with a decision like this and not choose survival? Only true unselfishness can cause you to help someone

I think the purpose for Wiesel writing Night was to tell others about what actually happened during the Holocaust and how he survived. It's important for future generations to be informed about what happened during the Holocaust. If the Holocaust happened again, we could use the information we read in Night and learn from his experience. For example, when Elie said "Hunger was tormenting us; we had not eaten for nearly six days," (page 114) we now know to try not eating all of your bread and soup at once because there might be times when you go days without eating.

After arriving at the concentration camp Gleiwitz there was a selection and Shlomo, Elie’s father, was chosen to die. Elie had a tantrum which caused order to disappear, and Shlomo to slip over to the side of men chosen to live. Three days later Shlomo, Elie and the other men at Gleiwitz were moved to another concentration camp (Dakers 50). The reason for being moved was another attempt to avoid the

Elie’s father, Shlomo, was with Elie through his hardest times. Elie cared for his father, loved him and lived for him. When Elie’s father got sick towards the end of the book took care of him and defended him until his death. Another example of when he cared and defended his father is when they were transported by the cattle cars, corpses were being removed. Elie’s father was identified as dead during his sleep, and the two “gravediggers” came over and tried to grab him. Elie tried his hardest to wake him up by repeatedly hitting to prevent him from being thrown out. Shlomo was a key factor in Elie’s survival. On page 86, Elie said,” My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me, out of breath, out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support.”. Even though Elie’s father was so important to him, he also caused Elie some trouble. This goes along with what Rabbi Eliahu’s son when he left him because he saw his father as a burden. The SS targeted Shlomo in the punishment of Elie. For instance, they knew Elie’s father couldn’t march in step, so the SS beat him and that affected

A little over 70 years ago, Elie Wiesel survived a situation that many people could not even fathom. In 1944, Elie and his family were brought to Auschwitz where he nearly experienced death many times.

At the beginning of the paperback Elie was a young 14 year old boy learning about religion and going to school. Elie had liked to learn about religion from a friend named Moshe, who happened to be a homeless man in his town. Moshe had gone missing for a while and returned back with stories about his grave experience, this encounter was the beginning of Elie’s emotional change. Moshe had tried to warn the townspeople but they would not listen to him, so when they all got put into ghetto’s it was a rude awakening for them. Inside the ghetto Elie had watched many of his friends walk out the gates and not return until it was his families turn to egress.

Strong bonds built upon trust and dependability can last a lifetime, especially through strenuous moments when the integrity of a bond is the only thing that can be counted on to get through those situations. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he writes about his life spent in the concentration camps, while explaining the experiences and struggles that he went through. However, not everything during that period was completely unbearable for Wiesel. When Wiesel arrived at the first camp, Birkenau, the fear instilled in him and the loneliness he would have felt forced him to form a stronger attachment to his father. That dependence towards his father gave Wiesel a reason to keep on living. In turn, his father was able to support Wiesel and make the experiences in the camps a bit more manageable.

Elie’s father died of dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion in Buchenwald, only weeks before the liberating army came to the gates of the camp. After the liberation, Elie described how their first act as free men was to throw themselves upon the provisions for such were the inhumane savages they had become.

Elie reflects on the first night at the camps, he says “Never shall I forget the night at that camp that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed...Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the natural silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live…” (pg.34). Elie was explaining that was the night it all changed for him, how it will always be apart of him. After seeing what this camp had to offer, to still even be alive was a privilege. He knew then, Auschwitz was just a Jews death sentence waiting to happen. He will never forget because it will always be stuck with him, that it was so horribly traumatizing that one could be so evil to innocent people. Think about Elie’s motivation it seems to go up and down, there were different things that would build his hope up but at the same time deprive him from it. The author illustrates this point when he states “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me” (pg.86) When Elie and all the other men were told to march on, the SS officers told them to increase their pace more and more and soon found themselves running at full pace for hours and hours. The SS officers had orders to shoot anyone who could not sustain the pace. Elie was explaining how his foot was aching and he was so exhausted and desperate for it all to be over, but never seemed to end. He was so reckless at this point, but he remembers his father. Elie tells us “My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me. He was running next to me out of strength, desperate. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his soul support?” (pg.86-87). This simply proves that this was the only reason that Elie was to go on was because he wanted his father to go on.

In the story Elie was whipped savagely by the Kapo, and all he can think about is his father. Later in the new camp Elie's father is giving up on life and Elie tries to make him move. There is an allied air raid and for the first time Elie leave his father.(wiesel pg. 106) This proves he finally gave up on his father. He started off in the story really caring about his father sacrificing his own safety just so he could stay close to him. After his father was struck ill in the new camp he gave up on him. In the story Elie wanted to keep his shoes even if that meant he would get tormented even more. This show he has a very strong will and loves things that give him a glimmer of hope. At the end when his father died he stopped caring and lost all hope in surviving the

“Never give up hope, no matter how dark things seem” -Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: the Clone Wars. In the beginning of the story Elie is hopeful at every turn. He has a bright, hopeful future and then he and his family are taken away. When they are in the ghetto Elie is hopeful that he and his family won’t have to leave. He hopes he and his family will be okay. However his hope is taken away from him. He and his family arrive and they take his group near a crematorium. Elie is hopeful that he and his father won’t be taken into the crematorium’s deadly fire. But when he gets inside the camp he wishes that he would have been killed by the deadly fire. Later on in the story Elie meets his Uncle Stein. His Uncle asks him how his wife and sons are doing. Elie doesn’t have a clue but lies and says they are okay. This renews Uncle Stein’s faith but later on his village comes to the camp and Stein discovers that they died a long time ago. This news crushed Stein and he died days later. He lost his hope. Elie watches this scene unravel and hopes that he won’t lose his last bit of hope, his father. However he would soon lose him. “No! I yelled. He’s(Elie’s dad) not dead! Not yet!” Elie on page 93 in Night. Elie’s last bit of hope, his only reason for living, is his father. His father slowly starts to fade away and Elie can’t let him die, because then he’ll be dead soon after. However what happened in their relationship might have been worse than him just dying. One day when he, his father, and a group of other prisoners are being transported. The prison guards began to throw bread in their transport and then men began fighting to the death. Elie watches a son attempt to

In night there were many times when Elie and his dad wanted to give up but they did not because they had each other. They used family to get through the terrible things that were happening to not only them but millions like them. Before the concentration

At the point where Chlomo dies, Elie has split emotions. The real part of Elie wants to mourn for Chlomo, yet the cruelty he endures gives him an emotionless personality. “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep” (106). The last moments of Chlomo’s

In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel is a young boy who struggles to survive after being forced to live in the brutal concentration camp of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, death and suffering is rampant, but due to compassionate words and actions from others, Elie is able to withstand these severe living conditions and overcome the risk of death in the unforgiving Auschwitz. As shown through the actions and words of characters in Night, compassion, the sympathetic pity for the suffering or misfortune of others is critical to the human experience because it enables humans to empathize with each other, empathizing which allows us to feel the need to assist others which can often be vital for survival.