Night Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1

Elie Weisel was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the small town of Sighet. Because he was interested in learning the Kabbalah, Ellie got the opportunity to meet Moishe the Beadle, a foreign Jew who taught Elie the Zohar, the Kabbalistic works, and the secrets of Jewish mysticism. One evening, all of the foreign Jews were expelled and taken to a foreign land. As months passed, everything went back to normal until one day, Moishe appeared back into the town of Sighet. Having escaped his hostages, Moishe comes back to tell his mortifying story and worn the rest of the community about the Gestapo. Unfortunately, no one believes him.

In the spring of 1944, little by little, the Hungrarian government establishes new rules in Sighet to all the Jews. Eventually, the Jews are taken into small ghettos surrounded by 19 foot barbed-wire fences. They are happy there, but not for long because one day his dad receives the news that they will all be getting transported to another place where no one knew about. Ultimately, the day arrives where all the Jews must evacuate their homes and leave the town. First, Elie’s family is taken away to another ghetto, but a few days later, the cattle cars come and take them away. 1)“Jews, listen to me! That’s all I ask of you. No money. No pity. Just listen to me!” -Moishe the Beadle weeps and pleads for the town to believe his story about the evacuation of the Jews, but no one believes him. This line is very important because it shows foreshadowing and dramatic irony. 2)“The Bible commands us to rejoice during the eight days of celebration, but our hearts were not it in. We wished the holiday would end so as not to have to pretend.” -This line shows how the Jews started to lose hope and faith, and how fear started to take over.

Chapter 4

A)

It proves that Night is a nonfiction novel because it presents a real life character that he met in the Kommando, which he later encounters with. It is based on real life people and real events that happened to both of them.

B)

Since Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust, it sets the mood for the story more realistic, because his tone is very deep and fearful. He being a survivor and writing this book shows that he wants to speak for the lost ones who can’t speak for themselves. He wants to share his dreadful story to the rest of the world and want in return nothing but respect for the survivors and non-survivors. Undeniably, it makes him more reliable as a narrator because he is stating his personal thoughts the whole time, which makes the story more interesting.

C)

Knowing that Night is an autobiography makes the readers feel for him and all of the other prisoners. One takes the novel more serious because everything is very realistic and intense. Not to mention, very little biased information is present because he experienced the Holocaust so he tells what he lived through.

D)

Wiesel’s tone is more calm and relaxed after the war when he is talking to the French girl. He uses the words beautiful, dreamy, and sweet. Those words were never used when he was talking about the Holocaust.

Chapter 7

The prisoners are herded into the cattle cars and are being taken away to Buchenwald. The SS tell them to throw out all of the dead people; this made everyone glad because then they would have more room. The workers would throw pieces of bread into the trains and that caused dozens of starving men to desperately fight for bits of crumbs. Once, Elie experienced an emotionally scarring event, in which he witnessed a son beat up his own father for a piece of bread; eventually they both died. On the third night of their journey, Elie was awakened by two hands strangling him, and fortunately, Meir Katz saves him. Afterwards, Meir Katz tells Elie’s father that he can no longer survive. When they arrived at Buchenwald, 12 out of 100 prisoners were still alive, that included Elie and his father.

1) “Suddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight.” -This statement made by Elie shows how hopeless he is. It shows how he is tired of fighting for survival and
finally reaching the breaking point.

2) “When they withdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me, the father and the son. I was sixteen.” -This statement is emotionally disturbing because he witnessed a father and son relationship fall apart with his own bare eyes at a young age.