Night Personal Response
“Night” by Elie Wiesel – Personal Responses
Chapter 1
• Moché the Beadle’s story is very disturbing. He had experienced horrible atrocities and risked his life to warn his fellow townspeople. However, the latter did not believe him yet alone listen to him. They called him the madman. This passage is hard for the reader, who knows what is going to happen to the Jews later on (situational irony). Moché was also foreshadowing what was going to happen to the Jews. This warning also brings about the postulation that many Jews could have escaped the Holocaust had they believed in the some firsthand testimonies.
• This naivety can also be seen on page 20: “The Germans were already in the town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict had already been pronounced, yet the Jews of Sighet continued to smile.”
• When Eliezer is leaving his house in Sighet, he said, “I thought of nothing” (page 30). I can empathise with him at this point and understand, to some extent, what he is going through. I have moved around several times myself and each time, I did feel nothing. It was a sort of emptiness that, paradoxically, filled my body. I hadn’t yet fully realised that I would never go back.
• “There were no longer any questions of wealth, of social distinction and importance, only people condemned to the same fate – still unknown.” This quote really marks me because it shows that when people are in a state of panic or uncertainty, they forget about the conventions of society, of any prejudices they once held and live together.
• On page 33, it is very ironic that the Jews of Sighet are trapped in their own synagogue, their house of prayer, especially on a Saturday. It must have been painful for them to see the broken altar and the torn down walls and hangings.
Chapter 2
• Madame Schächter is a very disturbing yet intriguing character in this chapter. She is foreshadowing the fire to come and even mentions the furnace. Again, it is a warning, which the people fail to
Chapter 1
• Moché the Beadle’s story is very disturbing. He had experienced horrible atrocities and risked his life to warn his fellow townspeople. However, the latter did not believe him yet alone listen to him. They called him the madman. This passage is hard for the reader, who knows what is going to happen to the Jews later on (situational irony). Moché was also foreshadowing what was going to happen to the Jews. This warning also brings about the postulation that many Jews could have escaped the Holocaust had they believed in the some firsthand testimonies.
• This naivety can also be seen on page 20: “The Germans were already in the town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict had already been pronounced, yet the Jews of Sighet continued to smile.”
• When Eliezer is leaving his house in Sighet, he said, “I thought of nothing” (page 30). I can empathise with him at this point and understand, to some extent, what he is going through. I have moved around several times myself and each time, I did feel nothing. It was a sort of emptiness that, paradoxically, filled my body. I hadn’t yet fully realised that I would never go back.
• “There were no longer any questions of wealth, of social distinction and importance, only people condemned to the same fate – still unknown.” This quote really marks me because it shows that when people are in a state of panic or uncertainty, they forget about the conventions of society, of any prejudices they once held and live together.
• On page 33, it is very ironic that the Jews of Sighet are trapped in their own synagogue, their house of prayer, especially on a Saturday. It must have been painful for them to see the broken altar and the torn down walls and hangings.
Chapter 2
• Madame Schächter is a very disturbing yet intriguing character in this chapter. She is foreshadowing the fire to come and even mentions the furnace. Again, it is a warning, which the people fail to