Book Review

S U B M I T T E D B Y:
Agawin, Andrian Julius
Mallari, Jericho
Manabat, Joe
Paclarin, Brandon
Pamittan, Ellyn
Regucera, Jersey Nicole
 Genre
Night by Elie Wiesel is an autobiographical memoir, it is written in first person,
contains an emotional truth, is informal in tone, and was written by the main
character of the book about a specific period in his life.

Setting
The setting takes place around the time of 1940-1945 during World War II.

The story takes place first in Sighet which is now known as Romania, this is
wear the author and main character is born Eliezer Wiesel. Then moved to a
Jewish Ghetto, a ghetto is a small area where a group of people are to take
refuge. And then in a cattle car pulled by a steam locomotive. To a series of
concentration camps by the Nazi regime. First there was Birkenau, then Auschwitz,
then Buna, and last Buchenwald.

Character Analysis
Eliezer
- the author and main character of the story, the one narrating his and the
Jews' experiences during the reign of the Nazis.

Shlomo
- he is Eliezer's father, a respected member of the Jewish community in their
homeland of Sighet. He was always present in the story because of how
much he is important to his son.
Moishe the Beadle
- he is the teacher of Eliezer on Jewish Knowledge. Moshe is the very first
character introduced in Night. And, despite only being present for the first
few pages, his values resonate throughout the entire story.

Plot
Written in chronological order, the story opens in Sighet (modern-day
Romania), Transylvania where Elie lives a normal life as a deeply religious Jew. But
when the Germans show up in 1944, Elie and the other Jews are first confined in
the Jewish Ghetto and then shipped out. After a horrible train ride, they arrive in
Birkenau, a concentration camp in Poland it’s the last time Elie sees his mother
and sister. Elie and his father managed to stick together, and after a march to
camp called Buna. They were assigned to work at the electrical factory. Labor
wasn’t difficult but the conditions were horrific. Elie watches as he and the other
prisoners slowly lose their humanity. Months later, Buna is evacuated by the Nazis
just before the Russians can liberate it. After a very long run in the middle of a
snow storm, Elie, his father and other prisoners are herded in cattle cars to take
them to the concentration camp: Buchenwald. His father died of dysentery after
the ride. Elie survived for the liberation of Buchenwald.

Conflict
Elie has two major conflicts. One with God and the other with his father. First
one, with God. The story started with Elie being very religious and believes in God.
But as the story unfolds and as life gets harder for Elie and his fellow Jews, he
began to question if God is real and where is He.
 And second, was his father. The two sticked together till the very end. His
father was not as young, and had to rely on Elie for his survival. In a scene when
his father gets beat up, Elie got angry with his father, asking himself why can't his
father fight back. At the end his father died crying for Elie, but Elie ignored him.

Climax
The apex of the story is when Elie's father dies of dysentery an inflammatory
disease of the intestine, in this moment that is haunting and reflective of Eliezer's
own sense of change and development that the father dying is one of the last
connections to his own past. The father begging his son for water, asking why his
son is being ignored, and Eliezer simply ignoring such cries only to wake the next
morning to the bed of his father being dead is a climactic moment because it
represents how different Eliezer's experience had made him.

Story Analysis
Night was a story of survival. It is a true story about what happened to
teenage boy during the World War II. It shows the brutality and inhumanity he
suffered just because he was Jewish. Knowing that he lived on to write this book,
we know already that he survived. But it is also about what part of him actually
survived. At the start he was introduced as very religious, he believed in the good
and all powerful God. But then numerous things was witnessed by Elie, which
made him question where God is. Yes he did survive physically, but his faith didn't.
 Comments/Recommendation
It's not very long but it didn't need to be. It is heart wrenching and infuriating
and inspiring. The real life, actual horror people inflict on one another, sick,
twisted, wretched, heartbreaking and utterly inhuman of what Nazi Germany
really did. - Andrian Julius Agawin

The book gave me an experience that how a prisoner survive and through
time passes by it made me think how Elie Wiesel thought of and handled the
holocaust. After reading the book it showed how life is critical. - Jericho Mallari