1. Night
By Elie Wiesel

2. Chapter 5
Chapter opens with prisoners gathering in prayer for Rosh Hashanah.
Elie’s faith continues to deteriorate- refers to himself as a “former mystic”, does not fast on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year- symbolic of his rebellion against God
“Achtung!”- German for attention, instills fear in the prisoners…
Elie constantly begins to fear that his father will not pass the selection process
Elie avoids selection only by running fast to prove he is fit, active, healthy….

3. Chapter 5
Elie’s “inheritance:- a knife and a spoon. He sobs, showing how much he has been degraded and how much he fears his father’s death…
Akiba Drumer, previously so faithful, struggles with his faith, but it is still present somewhat.
Notice that the inmates do not say the Kaddish for him as Akiba had requested. They forget, are too concerned with survival….

4. Chapter 5
Elie’s right foot begins to swell for unknown causes in the infirmary (hospital).
His neighbor, suffering from dysentery, fears Hitler’s forces greatly, warns Elie that he should must leave the infirmary to avoid selection. (What would selection mean?...)
Elie’s operation goes well; his leg does not have to be amputated after all…..
Rhetorical questions throughout the narration make the reader think, heighten the mood, add drama and tension….

5. “A royal feast going to waste!” (Elie on the soup..)
Chapter 5
3 Types of irony
Verbal Irony: a statement in which a character says one things but means something else. It is typically intentional, is similar to sarcasm.
“A royal feast going to waste!” (Elie on the soup..)
Dramatic Irony: the reader knows more than the audience…
Situational Irony: what actually happens is not what one would expect or what would be appropriate.
“After the war, I learned the fate of those who had remained at the infirmary. They were,….liberated by the Russians…”

6. Chapter 6
CLIMAX- occurs when the Jews are running from Buna, and Elie’s father is on the brink of death.
What are the Jews typically referred to as all throughout the memoir?
As subhuman, as animals, “dogs,…swine, pigs”- powerful imagery, also a MOTIF
Other motifs: religion, religious traditions, and especially the use of the word “NIGHT.”

7. Strong personification
Chapter 6
Zalman: Polish boy who is trampled to death during the death march
Elie: “Death enveloped me.”
Strong personification
Jews run for at least 3 days….
“One died because one had to . No point in making trouble.”- understatement
All throughout, Elie uses words very minimally to make a more powerful statement.

8. Chapter 6 Theme: importance of father-son bonds
Rabbi Eliahu’s son intentionally lost his father during the death march, wanted to be rid of him
Elie: “Oh God, Master of the Universe!” Give me the strength never to do what RE’s son has done!”…Sons abandoned their fathers w/out a tear….”
Juliek’s last act- plays a Beethoven concerto- loaded w/ symbolism

9. Chapter 7
Theme: importance of father-son bonds continues- Elie protects his father’s dying body in the cattle car, prevents him from being buried half-alive
Prisoners who serve as “gravediggers”- verbal irony- & metaphor- emphasizes how degraded they have all become, survival mode at its most dramatic…
Prisoners are “ready to kill for a crust of bread.”
Flashforward: Elie can’t bear the sight of the Frenchwoman throwing coins into a fountain and watching the kids fight over it; the sight reminds him of the prisoners fighting over the food.

10. Chapter 7
On their way to Buchenwald in Germany, an unidentified man begs his son not to kill him over a crust of bread. The son kills the father for the bread, and then the son, too, is killed.
Elie on the above incident: “I was sixteen.”
Understatement- why?
A stranger strangles Elie for no reason, most likely due to insanity- shows again how they are almost not human anymore….
Meir Katz- once so physically and mentally strong- cannot protect Elie….
Chapter ends with their arrival at Buchenwald.

11. -Personification and Foreshadowing
Chapter 8
Elie begins to become like a father to his own weakened father, Shlomo, who suffers from dysentery.
Elie on his father: “He had already chosen Death…”
-Personification and Foreshadowing
Elie compares his father to a child and a “wounded animal.” He compares himself to Rabbi Eliahu’s son. Why?
At this point, how are Elie and his father like Mrs. Schachter and her son?

12. Chapter 8
Elie listens to the advice of the head of the block: save yourself! Elie does decide to give his father soup, but he can only tolerate water. Elie feels guilty- and conflicted- about viewing his Shlomo as a burden…
On January 29, 1945, Elie wakes up to find that his father has died.
Elie on his father’s death: “Free at last!”
Why are these words in his consciousness?

13. Chapter 9
April 5: SS guards order Jews to gather to prepare for liquidation and evacuation of the camp…
Falling action/denouement: American forces come to Buchenwald to free the prisoners….
Elie’s first thoughts as a free man- food
After the death of Shlomo, “nothing mattered.”
“From the depth of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me.”
Personification

14. Chapter 9
Resolution is achieved: Elie is at last free- looks into the mirror…
Elie refers to himself in the third person. It’s almost as though the person in the mirror is a stranger to him. He cannot recognize himself- highly symbolic.