Novella Overview, Unit Vocab. and Literary Terms Night Unit 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 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, age 15

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 close-knit 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”) 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? What point is he making with the story of The St. Louis? 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?)