NIGHT Essay

Rebecca Martinez
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10P
8 January 2008
The Will to Live
-Many people go around in life not thinking of reasons to live or die, they just live. But many people haven’t been through such experiences as others have, where one longs for death or possess only one reason to live. It is a sad fate for those who have what they hold most precious, taken away or killed and have already been through so much tragedy that then lose their will to live because that person, who was taken away, was their last strand binding them to this earth. Such was the case of most Jews going through the concentration camps. Most felt they had every reason to die but only one to live. Many people don’t know the devastation and horror they felt going through life in those horrible places. Although many people have lived and died of diseases, many people don’t know what it’s like for them and that is just one devastating thing we suffer from in these times which doesn’t even come close to how the Jews must have felt. One might think that lying to a person to give them hope that their loved one might still be alive or giving hope to a person with a deadly disease is useless because the person is most likely going to die anyway. (What would be the use in renewing a dead man’s hope or will to live?) Giving hope to a faint hearted person and renewing their faith and desire to live would not be useless, but in fact, would be morally right, even if it meant lying.
-In the days of the Holocaust, Jews from many parts were sent to concentration camps where families were broken up, torn apart, and slaughtered. For many, the belief and hope that some part of their family was still alive was enough to keep them going. For others their faith in God was enough to keep them going. But once they stopped believing that their family might still be alive or that God was still with them in such a God forsaken place, they gave up and died. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, there are many people that the protagonist, Elie, comes in contact with who have these same feelings, including himself. In one incident, Elie’s relative Stein discovers that Mr. Wiesel and Elie are at Auschwitz; the same place as him. He finds them and asks if they have received news of his wife. Mr. Wiesel had not recognized him because he was more involved in the Jewish community than his family, but Elie recognized him almost at once. At his relative’s inquiry, Elie told him that his wife and children were doing great, that they were fine. Really Elie had not heard news of them for four years. After hearing this news, Stein wept with much joy. Every time after that, when Stein came to visit, he would have tears of joy and gratitude streaming down his face. At times he would tell Elie, “The only thing that keeps me alive…is that Reizel and the children are still alive. If it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t keep going.” (42). Later, a train came in from the area where his wife had been and he discovered real news; Elie never saw him again. Stein had been in the concentration camps for two years already and his hope that his family was still safe and well began to dwindle. Seeing Elie and hearing his words, even if it was a lie, that his family was okay renewed his hope of seeing them once more and being with them again. It helped him to carry on a little longer. Man has a strong will to survive and carry on which is evident through out history. Stein’s will to survive was probably at the breaking point, thinking all was lost and his family dead but because of Elie’s words he was not left to sink into a despair full of sorrow, doubt, and death. Even Elie himself was subject to the feelings that if his father died then there would be no reason to keep living. At one point he thought his father really was dead, that the cold winter and inviting sleep of death had taken him away, and began to think in that way. “My mind was invaded suddenly by this realization- there was no more reason to live, no more reason to struggle” (93). Elie’s father was what kept him going and kept him from dying. If it had not been for him, Elie probably would have died within the first couple months, if that. Lying to a person and telling him that his family was doing fine, might just help him to keep going, to not give up hope, to survive with the prospect of seeing better days.
-Although we no longer have those cruel concentration camps today which scarred so many with unforgettable memories, we do have other things in today’s society which leave people devastated, with a single hope and others without even one. Every year people fall victim to the deadly cancers of the world. Every year more and more people end up with other diseases like HIV, TB, and Sickle Cell Anemia. Statistics show that “More than half a million people die of advanced cancer each year in the United States..,” (American Cancer Society), “… the total number of people living in the USA with HIV/AIDS is…between 1,039,000 and 1,185,000.”(AVERT), there are “…14.6 million chronic active TB cases, 8.9 million new cases, and 1.6 million deaths..,” (Wikipedia), and one out of every four hundred African Americans has sickle cell anemia (Mama’s Health). People are living and dying every year from these diseases. When people receive the news of their diagnosis they have a choice either to fight the disease or let it consume them. Their desire to live and stay with their loved ones greatly influences their chances of survival. Life and Death is what these victims face. Frequently, doctors will not tell a person their conditions straight out and maybe even lie because they don’t want that person to think all is lost. They try to give them hope and make the patient believe that they can get through it. So even with a false hope, people can survive and get through some of the most difficult and life threatening illnesses. With faith, hope, and a desire to survive man can do most anything.
-Giving hope to a person to help them to keep going is not useless because no one can ever know what is going to happen from one day to the next. One day one might be healthy and fine and the next, sick in bed. One day a person’s family could be alive and well and the next, they could all be dead. All people need to believe in something. They need a reason to live, a reason to keep going, a reason to survive. It would have been so easy to just let go and die, not caring about anyone or anything, and for those who went through the concentration camps, not having to feel the pains of concentration life. Without a reason, life is not worth living. So if it is a lie that will keep a person going, even for a little while, so be it. For those of the early 1900’s, it was better to live and survive and find out some of one’s family was able to live through it all, then to doubt and die with no one at one’s side who really cared. It is better, over all, to try than to die.



Works Cited
How Many People Get Advanced Cancer?. 16 January 2007. American Cancer Society. 7
January 2008 .

Sickle Cell Anemia. 2000-2007. Mama’s Health.com. 7 January 2007
.

Tuberculosis. 31 December 2007. Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. 7 January 2008
.

United States Statistics Summary. 25 April 2007. AVERT. 7 January 2008
.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. United States of America: Bantam Books, 1982.

NIGHT Vocabulary

Rebecca Martinez
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10P
8 January 2008

Vocabulary

1.) Prostrate- To kneel or bow down in humility, adoration, or submission.

2.) Interlude- A short piece of music, entertainment, or intervening episode between a longer composition, acts of a play, or a state of being.

3.) Reprieve- To postpone or cancel punishment; to bring relief.

4.) Rations- A fixed amount of food issued to a group of people.

5.) Dysentery- An infection of the lower intestine with symptoms of pain, fever, and severe diarrhea.

6.) Robust- Full of health and strength; vigorous.

7.) Quarantine- An enforced confinement or isolation to keep a contagious disease from spreading.

8.) Apathy- A lack of feeling or interest.

9.) Humane- Characterized by kindness, compassion, or mercy.

10.) Grimace- A contorted facial expression of pain, disgust, or contempt.

11.) Nocturnal- Most actively occurring at night.

12.) Livid- Discolored like from a bruise or pale from a shock; furious.

13.) Pious- Showing religious reverence.

14.) Interminable- Endless.

15.) Wizened- Withered.

16.) Morale- The state of a person’s or a group of persons’ spirits as in confidence, cheerfulness, or willingness to work toward a goal.

17.) Infernal- Of or relating to hell or a world of the dead.

18.) Refuge- A place of safety, shelter, or protection.

19.) Oppressive- Difficult to bear, causing physical or mental distress.

20.) Expelled- To force or drive out.

Answers to Night Questions

Rebecca Martinez
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10P
8 December 2007

Night: Answers to Questions

1.) Eliezer Wiesel was born in Sighet of Transylvania. It’s so small it doesn’t appear on maps.

2.) The cabala is a collection of very old Jewish writings that contain interpretations of Hebrew Scriptures and the secrets of Jewish mysticism.

3.)When Elie was young he wanted to know the truths of this world like why people pray, why they lived, and why did they breath, just simple questions that were unanswered for him. Elie was ignorant of the truths of cruelness and of those who killed the faith of many people, and of the understanding of hell.

4.) Moshe the Beadle is a significant character because he foreshadows what is to come in the future and the horror and devastation they will see. Moshe tells Elie that the questions we ask bring us closer to God and he answers them but we can’t understand them ‘cause they come from the very depth of the soul and the only way to find the truth is within oneself. Every question has some kind of power but the power doesn’t lie in the answer. Moshe was prescient in his admonition to Elie because he knew what horrors were to befall the Jews of Sighet and the Jews in other places.

5.) The people of Sighet ignore Moshe the Beadle after he returns because they figure he just wants them to take pity on him and they don’t believe anything like that could have happened. They don’t realize how evil the Germans were or how close they were getting.

6.) Madame Schachter was a fifty year old lady who had been separated from her husband and her sons, except one, which completely broke her and she began to go crazy. In her crazy distress she would yell out “Fire! Fire! ...Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire! There are huge flames! It is a furnace!” No one believed her as there was no fire to be seen and thought she was crazy. She is similar to Moshe the Beadle because he also had news of an ill fate that was to befall many more people and tried to warn them to leave and to get away while they still could but he was not to be believe as she was not to be believed as there was no fire to be seen. Neither of them had proof of the brutality. Those on the train thought she was extremely thirsty and that’s why she was making exclamations of fire and the people thought that Moshe just wanted pity. Neither was the case, but both were to warn. Later on the train came to a concentration camp with mighty flames and a furnace were many died.

7.) I think it is so horrible that a young boy should ever have to witness what Elie did and to have his dreams and his faith ripped from him in the discovery of such evilness. No one should have to witness what all those Jews saw and heard as people were constantly delivered to the furnaces of the crematories. The inhumanity of it is very overwhelming. I don’t think anybody could ever forget what they saw, heard, and had to go through in those concentration camps and especially their first day when they discovered what was to become of them.

8.) The passage which is given is a memory that will live with Elie Wiesel for the rest of his life and remind him of what he lost and what his main desires became and what he strived for in those dark dismal days of his past. Elie’s theology changed at that time from being a firm believer in God to one whose faith was shaken and mostly destroyed. As time goes on and more terrible events take place, he loses all his faith and does not believe in God anymore. The passage given sets up the attitude he has toward God throughout the book and throughout his experience. It is also a snapshot of his whole experience and the feelings he had being in the concentration camps and for sometime after being freed.

9.) Elie’s understanding of God and his presences and absence change throughout Night with the events that happen. When really bad things happen they challenge Elie’s faith and he blames God and gets mad. In the beginning, Elie was very pious but as more and more bad things happened, he began to lose his faith and was finally consumed in the fiery furnace of the concentration camp of Auschwitz. He had not known how evil men could be until that time and then could not understand why God would let men do such vile things to his children. As life goes on in the concentration camps, Elie begins to settle into this new life and does not rebel against God but when holidays or something harsher happens than is usual, he gets angry at God and rebels. The first night after getting off the train at Auschwitz, him deciding not to pray anymore, the hanging of the young pipel, the fasting for Yom Kippur, and later on he prays to God, who he doesn’t believe in anymore, that he will have the strength not to do what a boy did to his father in abandoning him are all points in his life where he has continual changes toward God. Sometimes he’s really angry, sometimes he’s just mad, and something he’s not mad at all.

10.) In Night, the most of the horrific events happen at night including the death of many. In the winter, the nights were the hardest because of the extreme coldness of the weather and the welcoming invitation to sleep which led many men to their deaths. It not only represents death but fear and uncertainty. The night brought out the darkness in them and the terrible things they could do. But it also left darkness in their souls, to overtake them and make them less than men. It also marks many times for Elie like the last night at home, the last night on the train, and the last night at Buna. His whole experience was like one never ending nightmare in a formidably dark and long night.

11.) I think Night is such a slim book with out a lot of detail because people can only handle so much horror and evilness at a time. Elie Wiesel actually had a hard time getting his book of memoirs published because no one wanted to remember the devastation of the Holocaust and how many lives were lost to it. Nobody wanted to read something that sad and depressing.

12.) Night is a memoir of a tragedy and a triumph. Elie Wiesel memories are horrible and tragic but he got through the concentration camps and survived. He was triumphant over all those trials and tribulations and escaped the jaws of death and the gates of hell. He made it. He survived. And even though he lost all those he care about, he survived and became a free man once more. It was tragic what happened but Elie Wiesel was triumphant.

Questions for Consideration: Elie Wiesel's Night

1) Where is Wiesel's childhood home? Locate the country on a map.
2) Wiesel opens Night by relating his youthful desire to study the cabala. What is the cabala?
3) Wiesel says that when he was young, he wanted to study the cabala in order to know the truths of this world. What kinds of truths is he referring to? After you complete Night, return to this question: what kinds of truth was the young Elie ignorant of?
4) Why is Moshe the Beadle a significant character? What does he tell Elie about answers, questions, and the truth? After you complete Night, return to this question: why was Moshe prescient in his admonition to Elie?
5) Why do the people of Sighet ignore Moshe after he returns from his escape? Why don't they listen to him?
6) Who is Madame Schachter? In what ways is she similar to Moshe the Beadle? (Think about prophetic figures and how people often ignore them.)
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) What is the context of this passage? How has the young Elie's theology changed? As you continue reading, ask yourself how this passage speaks to the rest of Night.
9) How does Elie's understanding of God and God's presence—or absence— continue to change throughout Night? When is he most angry with God? When is not angry at all? Mark passages throughout Night that illustrate his changing attitudes toward God.
10) What literal and figurative (symbolic or metaphorical) meanings does night have in Night?
11) Why do you think Night is such a slim book? Surely Wiesel could have included much more detail.
12) Is Night a memoir of tragedy or triumph? Can it be both? If so, why? If not, why not?

Journal Entery

Date: 1 January 2008

Entery Number: 10

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pg. 95-96

People through out the years have always had an interest with creatures tearing each other apart. Sometimes for something as small as a piece of bread. This was the case in the cattle cars in which the Jews were contained, where Elie Wiesel witnessed men's madness and willingness to kill for something they desired most. Bread. "One day when we had stopped, a workman took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon. There was a stampede. Dozens of starving men fought each other to the death for a few crumbs. The German workmen took a lively interest in this spectacle." Men fighting men, brothers fighting brothers, sons fighting fathers, all for a piece of bread. It's crazy and really sad. "'Meir. Meir, my boy! Don't you recognize me? I'm your father...you're hurting me...you're killing your father! I've got some bread...for you too...for you too....'" It's absolutely insane that anyone could do that to their father. It's crazy what harsh conditions and lack of food can do to a person. Other workmen and people joined in, throwing bread and watched as the went crazy and killed for food. The first guy didn't know that he was to start what soon became a death rampage for food but the others after him did. The first guy was just being generous not knowing the consequences of his actions but the others after him and maybe him later on just wanted to see them fight and to see to what extent the men would go to for food. People can be so mean, so simpleminded, and very uncaring. Men's desire to see blood has lasted through out the years and nothing good has ever come from it.

Journal Entery

Date: 1 January 2008

Entery Number: 9

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 89-91

It was so sad when Juliek died. He seemed like a really awesome person. (For me, him being musically inclined was a big part of it). Juliek had fallen down, then Elie fell on top of him, and then another guy or some big mass fell on top of Elie, suffocating him. Some how Juliek was able to get out from under Elie and the dead man on top of Elie and began playing his music in the silent winter night with death all around him. "I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek's soul were the bow. He was playing his life. THe whole of his life was gliding on the strings-his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again...When I awoke, in the daylight, I could see Juliek, opposite me, slumped over dead. Near him lay his violin..." I almost felt like crying at this point which was surprising because throughout this book I got mad, sad, completely astonished/flabbergasted, but I never could really cry. But at the time of this boy's death I felt that way. Juliek wasn't even a main character really at all but the discription of his last night, his last song he ever played-Beethoven's concerto, and him dead in the morning light with his violin laying near him was awesome but very sad. I don't know why it had such an impact on me but it did. It was just really sad.

Journal Entery

Date: 1 January 2008

ENtery Number: 8

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pg. 78

Elie and his father should have stayed in the hospital as sick people. They would have finally been freed from concentration life. They did not know this at the time but they should have stayed and if they were worried that the SS and others were going to kill the sick, they could have hidden. Or they could have stayed in the hospital till almost everyone was evacuated and then escaped into one of the blocks that had already been evacuated. After the war Elie found out what had happened to those that had stayed in the hospital. "They were quite simply liberated by the Russians two days after the evacuation." In the hospital, Elie met this really doubtful guy that told him that Hitler was going to kill all the Jews by midnight and that the Russian army would not save them. So Elie made his decision partially based on fear and doubt and was evacuated with all the rest not to be liberated till much later. He was so stupid for believing that guy. That same guy believed Hitler was the only true prophet because he had kept his word so far which is completely insane. Elie should have stuck with his hospital plan and he and his father would have been liberated.

Journal Entery

Date: 31 December 2007

Entery Number: 7

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 60-62

How could the SS hang a little boy? It's vile and indescribably cruel. I don't see how anybody could do such a thing. "One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place, three black crows... Three victims in chains-and one of them, the little servant, the sad-eyed angel." "The two adults were no longer alive...But the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive...For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes...That night the soup tasted of corpses." How could some one be that cruel? I don't understand. Why didn't they just shoot him or something after seeing that he was still alive for a long time after the adults had died? Why did they just leave him to hang and die in agony? Why did they have to kill him? He was just a boy. He did know some valuable information about men who had hidden some weapons but after what happened to the other two men, the young boy, and the Dutch Oberkapo I doubt they would come clean, so really it was of no use in torturing him and then hanging him. They might have been able to get info out of him by being nice and sweet talking him, but they didn't have to kill him or at least not in that agonizing way. I just can't comprehend how those men and the SS could be that cruel. They are totally inhumane.

JOurnal Entery

Date: 29 December 2007

Entery Number: 6

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 52-53

Personal gain and greediness. That's what Franek was up to. Franek was a foreman and had noticed Elie's gold crown. He tried to persuade Elie to give it to him but he wouldn't. "But alas, Franek knew where to touch me; he knew my weak point. My father had never done military service,and he never succeeded in marching in step...This was Franek's chance to torment my father and to thrash him savagely every day." They ended up giving into Franek but and Elie had to give up a ration of food and his tooth to a dentist who pulled his tooth out with a rusty spoon. Just going to the dentist and getting a filling is painful and that's with shots to numb the nerves. Imagine not having anything to numb the pain and having a rusty old spoon to pull it out instead of actual dental tools. THat would hurt so bad. But anyway. Franek was a real jerk. He beat Mr. Wiesel just to get Elie to give him his tooth and after he finally gave it up he had one of his rations taken away so that the dentist could take out the tooth. What a sleezy guy. After that Franek was a little nicer to him but it didn't last long.

Journal Entery

Date: 14 December 2007

ENtery Number: 5

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pg. 46

THe Kapos all seem to be rather greedy and wanting nothing nice for the Jews but willing to strike a bargain with them. An assitant of the head of Elie's tent asked Elie if he wanted to be put in a good unit and of course Elie said yes but he wanted to stay with his father. "I can arrange that. For a small consideration: your shoes. I'll hive you some others." Elie refused even when he added, "I'll give you an extra ration of bread and margarine" but his shoes were taken from him in the end with no deal. Elie made a very stupid choice in not giving up his shoes for the offer of staying with his dad and getting an extra ration of food. He knew his shoes would be taken away any way so it was stupid of him not to make the deal. The dentists were a little like the assistant; wanting the best or most of value. "Actually he was not looking for decayed teeth, but gold ones. Anyone who had gold in his mouth had his number added to a list." THe Germans were not nice people and had very twisted minds on just about all topics. They were harsh, greedy, and some of the leaders were homosexuals. Yikes. Thank goodness they aren't so much like that today, or at least not quite in the same manner.

Journal Entery

Date: 13 December 2007

Entery Number: 4

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 38-39

In the concentration camps there were many cruel men and SS members but luckily for Eliezer the prisoner who was in charge of his block was semi-nice. "Comrades, you're in the concentration camp of Auschwitz. There's a long road of suffering ahead of you. But don't lose courage. You've already escaped the gravest danger: selection. So now, muster your strength, and don't lose heart. We shall all see the day of liberation..." and he goes on. With so much cruelity and harshness all around, I bet is was nice to have someone to give them words of strength and courage. These first real human words and a good nights rest greatly improved the Jew's morale of Elie's block and that day was not as hard to bare as the day before had been. Nice "leaders" were probably hard to come by so Elie was pretty lucky.

Journal Entery

Date: 12 December 2007

Entery Number: 3

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 23-24

It's really sad what harsh conditions can do to people. Before, the Jews lived happily in their little community, nice and friendly to each other but that kindness no longer existed in their crammed little cattle car on the train. "'Look at the fire! Flames, flames everywhere....'Once more the young men tied her up and gagged her. They even struck her. People encouraged them:'Make her be quiet! She's mad! Shut her up! She's not the only one. She can keep her mouth shut...'They struck her several times on the head-blows that might have killed her." THis lady, Madame Schachter, had been separated from her husband and her sons except her youngest, and began to go mad; constantly seeing flames. Her screams distressed the other "passangers" and so they tried to shut her up. THeir attempts were not brutal at first but she kept at her screaming and they couldn't take it any longer. It's really sad that they could just do that to someone they had known for a long time. Just being in such closed courters with the stress of the war and this mad lady's yelling, it turned them violent. It really is sad.

Journal Entery

Date: 12 December 2007

Journal Entry: 2

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 13-14

"The Hungarian police struck out with truncheons and rifle butts, to right and left, without reason, indiscriminately,their blows falling upon old men and women, children and invalids alike. One by one the houses emptied, and the street filled with people and bundles...The heat was intense. Sweat streamed from faces and bodies. Children cried for water...There was plenty, close at hand,... but they were forbidden to break the ranks." THe Hungarian police didn't need to be so abusive. Just yelling at them was sufficent enough to get them out of their houses. THey didn't need to go hitting them and especially the old people, the little children, and the sick. That's just extremely mean. Then having the people stand out in the scorching hot sun just standing there waiting for the order to move, without water or the chance to sit down. It's just really cruel. Image what it must have felt like if you were a little kid standing in the heat begging your mother for water and her unable to get it for you and you knowing it was just within the house, a few yards away. It's crazy how mean people can be.

JOurnal Enteries

Date: 11 December 2007

Entry Number: 1

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pg. 4

It's absolutely cruel and quite insane what happened to those foreign Jews that were taken from Sighet. One of them Moshe the Beadle managed to escape and came back to Sighet to warn the others what had happened and what was probably to come. Of course no one believed him because he was poor and they thought nothing like that could ever happen which was a big mistake on their part and very narrow minded. The stories that Moshe the Beadle came back with were horrifying. "Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets..." Moshe also told of this young girl who took three days to die and of a tailor who begged for death right in front of his sons. The Gestapo slaughtered all those people in cruel ways just because they were Jews. It's crazy to think that anyone could be that prejudice. It's really sad that all those people were sentenced to death because someone thought they were better than another. What's even sadder is that this way of thinking still exists in the world today. Those men were extremely cruel and vile and it just amazes me as to how they could be that evil and to do those things to other human beings. It just appalls me.

NIGHT by Elie Wiesel