Unit 6 Notes

Night by Elie Wiesel~ Double Sided Journal

Due Thursday, December 14th
Worth 28 points
Directions: As you read Night by Elie Wiesel, you will be responsible for keeping a double sided
journal. On the left hand side, write down important quotes from the text that stand out to you or
help to answer our three essential questions:

 What might Elie Wiesel's goals have been in writing Night, and how well does he
accomplish those goals?
 What is the central theme (message) of Night? How do the characters and their actions
develop the theme?
 What do we as readers gain from reading a book like Night? How do we gain it?
On the right hand side, write down your thoughts, feelings, and interpretation of the quotes you
chose. What does the quote mean to you? How did it make you feel? How did it help you
understand our essential questions? Why is it an important line?
You should have 10 quotes total by the end of this unit. I started this assignment for you,
please complete the rest of the chart. This document will be turned in on Monday 12/14/20 and
is worth 28 points. Make sure you work on this journal as you move through the text. DO NOT
wait until you are finished with the book before beginning. You should have quotes from various
sections of the text. This document will be an important part of helping you plan for and
complete your final project for this novel and semester.

Your Interpretation
Quote and Page Number What does the quotes mean? Why is it
important? What can you learn from it? How
does it make you feel? How does it help
answer our essential questions?

Quote 1: “Never shall I forget that night, the first
night in camp, which has turned my life into one
long night, seven times cursed and seven times
sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never
shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose
bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke
beneath a silent blue sky.” (34)
Quote 1 Interpretation:
As Elie arrives at Auschwitz, he is greeted by
first selection. He and his father follow the
line that passes a pit of burning babies. It is
difficult for even the most hardened reader to
not wince at this passage; it stands out as
the most horrible atrocity in a chronical of
horrible atrocities.

He writes three times in this passage: “Never

shall I forget.” Wiesel uses repetition of a
phrase at the beginning to highlight the
novel’s major theme- to never forget.

Quote 2: “Never shall I forget those flames which Quote 2 Interpretation:

consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget This is a continuation of the first quote in this
that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all section, the phrase “Never shall I forget” is
eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget repeated four more times. It highlights
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.” (34)
Quote 3: “One day I was able to get up, after
gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself
in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had
not seen myself since the ghetto. From the
depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.
The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine,
has never left me.” (115)
Quote 4: “The night was gone. The morning star
was shining in the sky. I too had become a
completely different person. The student of the
Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed
in the flames... A dark flame had entered my soul
and devoured it.” (34)
Quote 5:
“Why should I sanctify His name? The almighty,
the eternal and terrible master of the universe,
chose to be silent. What was there to thank him
for” (33)
Quote 6:
“Listen: you are in Block 17; I am responsible for
keeping order here. Anyone with a complaint may
come and see me. That is all. Go to sleep. Two
people to a bunk. Goodnight” Those were the first
human words” (41)
Quote 7:
“I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other
name” (42)
Quote 8:
“I felt no pity for him. 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. At
that moment in time, all that mattered to me was
my daily bowl of soup, my crust of stale bread.
The bread, the soup, those were my entire life”
(52)
Quote 9:
“Long live liberty! My cures on Germany! My
curse! My-“ the executioner had completed his
work. Like a sword, the order cut through the air;
“Caps off!” ten thousand prisoners paid their
another major theme of the novel- the
struggle to maintain faith in a world full of
evil.
Quote 3 Interpretation:
Showing that after he entered, even though it
was a short time, she was a completely
different person
Quote 4 Interpretation:
Shows that the terrible things that had
happened completely changed hi, as a
person
Quote 5 Interpretation:
It’s the beginning of when Elie starts to lose
his faith, abandoning what he knows. He
added this to show that turning from God is
not the right choice.
Quote 6 Interpretation:
As shown in this quote, the Jews were being
treated terribly, and though on normal terms,
the man may be considered rude but
because of the horrible treatment that the
Jews endured, what this man said was
considered “the first human words”
Quote 7 Interpretation:
The Jews had already been stripped from all
their possessions, life, and family, but they
continued until the Germans stripped away
their identity
Quote 8 Interpretation:
This quote is showing how callus he is with
life now. He was glad that a man died, to
save his gold crown. At this point he was
looking out for number one.
Quote 9 Interpretation:
This quote shows an even more callus view
on death. He didn’t know this man, and him
dying didn’t affect him in the least bit. He
doesn’t care if the man died or lived, he only
respects. “Cover you heads!” then the entire cares about food at this point, and living one
camp, block after block, filed past the hanged boy more day.
and stared at his extinguished eyes, the tongue
hanging from his gaping mouth. The kapos forced
everyone to look at him squarely in the face.
afterward, we were given permission go back to
our block and have our meal. I remember that on
the evening, the soup tasted better than ever…”
(62,63)
Quote 10: Quote 10 Interpretation:
“This time the lagerkapo refused to act as This quote is a parallel of the last one. In
executioner. Three SS took his place. The three both, people are executed. Bu in this one, he
condemned prisoners together stepped on the knew and loved the child. The death was
chairs. In unison the nooses were placed around devastating brutal, leaving them to watch the
their necks. “Long live liberty!” shouted the two chile he described as an angel slowly and
men. But the boy was silent. “Where is merciful painfully die. This part, he despises the
God, where is he?” someone behind me was death, and blamed God for the child’s death.
asking. At the signal, the three chairs were tipped
over. Total silence in the camp. On the horizon,
the sun was setting. “Caps off!” screamed the
lageralteste. His voice quivered. As for the rest of
us, we were weeping... “cover your heads!” then
the march past the victims. The two men were no
linger alive. Their tongues were hanging out,
swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still
moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…
and so he remained for more than half an hour,
lingering between life and death, writhing before
our eyes. And we were forced to look at him in
close range. He was still alive when I passed him.
His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet
extinguished. Behind me, I heard the same man
asking: “for God’s sake, where is God?” and from
within me, I heard a voice answer: “where is he?
This is where-hanging here from these gallows…”
that night the soup tasted of corpses. (64. 65)