Night Focus Questions

Name: Date: Period: Night Focus Questions pg. 85-115 pg. 85-97 1. What happens to anyone who cannot keep up with the march? They are shot by the SS guards or trampled. 2. What horrible realization does Elie come to concerning Rabbi Eliahou and his son? How does Elie respond to this? Rabbi Eliahou began to slow down while running next to his son. His son noticed his father slowing down but he continue running, eventually abandoning his father. Elie is worried that one day he might want “to be rid of” his father if his father is too weak and becomes a “burden” for Elie. 4. What is Juliek’s (young child who plays the violin) last act? Juliek played the violin in the crowded barrack and was found dead the next morning, trampled over by other people. 5. How does Elie help his father when the selection is made? When his father was sent to the left (where the weak prisoners were sent), Elie ran after him which spurred other prisoners to “switch sides.” At the end of the commotion, Elie and his father were on the “right” side and avoided death. pg. 98-103 1. How does Elie again help his father when they are on the train to Buchenwald? Elie slaps his father to wake him to show the other passengers that he is alive (he will not be thrown off the train). 2. How many people were in their train car to start the journey? How many are now left? Where have they arrived? 100 people were there at the start and 12 now remain. They arrived in Buchenwald (a concentration camp in Germany). pg. 104-112 1. Describe Elie’s father’s health at this point in the story. Very poor. He is suffering from dysentery. He can barely move; he is confined to the barracks. 2. Elie uses personification to describe Death. What effect does this have on the reader? Name: Date: Period: Wiesel makes Death seem like an actual person, a person Wiesel is “arguing with.” This shows the struggle for Wiesel and his father to stay alive under these brutal conditions. 3. What is the advice given to Elie by the head of the block (regarding his father)? How does Elie feel about it? The Blockaltest (head of the block) suggests that Elie stops giving his dying father his portions of food. He says that it’s “every man for himself” here and Elie cannot help his father anymore. Elie realized that “deep down” the Blockaltest was right. He instantly felt guilty and then continued to give his father his food. 4. What finally happens to Chlomo (Elie’s dad)? Be specific. From the bunk above, Elie leans over his father as he mumbles Elie’s name. Elie then falls asleep and the next morning finds another sick person in his father’s bed. It’s assumed that his father was taken away before daybreak to the crematorium. pg. 113-115 1. What is supposed to happen on April 5th? Everyone is ordered to go to the Appelpatz (center of camp) but the Jewish prisoners are warned by other prisoners that they will be killed so Elie remains in his block (barracks). Apparently, the resistance (Allied Forces) are incoming and going to help the Jews. The Germans now plan to evacuate the Jews since they know they will soon face Allied Forces. 2. What is the resistance movement? How do they help the Jews? The resistance movement involved Allied Forces (U.S., British, Soviets, etc.) who were liberating concentration camps throughout Europe. There is talk that these forces are close by and will save the prisoners at Buchenwald. On April 10th, Americans liberate Buchenwald. 3. What is there “first act as free men”? What did no one think about? Prisoners were starving and desperately wanted food. Wiesel writes, “That’s all we thought about [food]. No thought of revenge or of parents. Only of bread.” 4. At the very end, Elie writes, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (115). What does this metaphor mean? What effect does it have on the reader? Wiesel is comparing his body to a corpse. This shows that he feels dead both inside and out after what happened. The gazed that “never left me” reveals that Wiesel will never forget what he endured during this time and how this experience changed him.