Answer all questions thoroughly and hand-write on loose-leaf paper.
1. Describe the atmosphere at Buna. What does Wiesel imply by "well-dressed"?
2. Why do the officers take an interest in the young boys as they come into the camp? Why do you think Wiesel allow the reader to make assumptions before relaying the truth? How does the parenthetical insertion add to the fact that Night is a memoir rather than a piece of fiction?
3. Explain the conflict that ensues over Eliezer's shoes. How does the conflict negate everything the men and boys have been told about surviving in the concentration camps?
4. How is the situation with the shoes ironic?
5. How is animal imagery used in the first few pages of Section Four? What is the effect of this imagery?
6. Who is Juliek? How does Eliezer meet him? Describe the relationship between them.
7. Throughout the memoir Eliezer and the other prisoners are treated like animals. Cite an example of another image that Wiesel uses to describe how they were treated.
8. Who does Eliezer become friends with at the camp? What connection does he find between their lives? Explain whether or not you believe it is impossible to have true friends in the concentration camps.
9. Who is Alphonse? Explain the benefit of having Alphonse as a leader of the block. Why do you think Wiesel does not spend much time talking about Alphonse?
10. Why is Eliezer summoned to the dentist? How does Eliezer describe the dentist? What is ironic about his appearance?
11. How does Eliezer escape the dentist the first time? What does the dentist tell him?
12. How does Eliezer escape the dentist permanently? Why do you think Elie Wiesel includes the account of the dentist in his memoir when he does not lose his teeth to the dentist?
13. Explain how the following scene functions as foreshadowing: "In fact, I was pleased with what was happening to him: my gold crown was safe. It could be useful to me one day, to buy something, some bread or even time to live."
14. After reading about the interchange between Eliezer and the young French woman, characterize the young woman.
15. In the memoir, a majority of the animal imagery is associated with the Jews. How does Wiesel alter the animal imagery in the description of Eliezer's beating? Explain the purpose behind the change in images.
16. How does Wiesel interrupt the narration in the passage that begins with, "MANY YEARS LATER, in Paris, I sat in the Métro ..."? What is the effect of the interruption?
17. Cite the simile that Eliezer uses when describing the beating that his father receives. What image does it create for the reader?
18. Describe Eliezer's internal conflict while he watches his father getting beaten.
19. Read the confrontation between Franek and Eliezer. Using examples from the text, explain how Franek is different from the dentist who first tried to take Eliezer's tooth and how Eliezer tries to escape the situation differently than the first time. What might this story tell the audience about the characters of the two?
20. Explain Eliezer's statement: "I had lost my crown for nothing."
21. When Eliezer sees Idek with the young Polish girl at the depot, what results? Analyze the description of the scene and explain how it is different than the other brutal scenes in the memoir thus far.
22. Cite several examples of figurative language that are used in the section that begins with, "ONE SUNDAY, as half of our group,..." and ends with, "In the afternoon, we cheerfully went to clear the ruins." Explain what you believe to be the meaning that Wiesel is trying
to create through these images.
23. Explain the conflict that Eliezer faces as he is watching the Buna factory being bombed.
24. Explain the significance of the following lines by first explaining the situation in which the line is contextualized. "We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it would have claimed hundreds of inmates' lives. But we no longer feared death, in any event not this particular death. Every bomb that hit filled us with joy, gave us renewed confidence."
25. Explain the metaphor in the following line: "The last sound of the American plane dissipated in the wind and there we were, in our cemetery."
26. How has the tone in the camp changed since the invasion?
27. Describe the ceremony and the demeanor of the first boy who is hung in the gallows. How do Juliek and Eliezer respond? Why do you think Juliek and Eliezer react in the way that they do?
28. What is unusual about the hangings that Eliezer has seen in the camp? How does Eliezer explain the phenomena?
29. Provide an explanation for the parenthetical insertion in the passage beginning with, I WATCHED other hangings." How does this story relate to Eliezer?
30. Who is the sad-eyed angel?
31. Why does Eliezer refer to the three gallows that are going to be used to murder the young pipel "three black ravens"?
32. Why would the guards seem more worried to put to death the "sad-eyed angel"?
33. How is the people's response to this hanging different than the response to the previous hangings?
34. Explain the significance of this event for Eliezer in terms of his faith.
35. Wiesel is careful to use repeating images at the end of the fourth section in the murders of the two boys. Cite the repetition and explain its effect.