Night Unit Test Review
30. Explain the symbolism of the bell.
Dictates the behavior of prisoners symbolizing authoritarianism
29. Explain Eliezer's symbol of protest on Yom Kippur. How does it make him feel?
Eating on Yom Kippur symbolizes loss of faith. spiritually empty
34. To what does Eliezer compare an injection of morphine (p. 80)? How is if fitting in this scene?
False rumors of liberation
prisoners fighting for bread on the train
He emphasizes the prisoners' animalistic behavior through passive voice
13. On page 37, explain the literal and figurative symbolism behind the black flames that Eliezer claims to have devoured his soul.
He saw the actual flames causing his childhood to be consumed by the flames.
31. What is Eliezer's "inheritance"? (p. 75) How does he attain it? Explain the symbolism when Elizer returns the "inheritance" to his father.
Knife and spoon. By returning it symbolizes his faith in his father's survival.
Bitterest winter month
October 29 1944
37. What metaphor does Eliezer use to describe the men as they prepare to leave the camp?
Poor clowns peaking their ghostly faces from layers of prisoner clothes
Autumn and winter months Elie is in Buna
Spring of 1944 to Jan 1945
Annhilate an entire people? Wipe out a population dispersed throughout so many nations? So many millions of people! By what means? In the middle of the twentieth century!
The author uses rhetorical questions to convey a tone of disbelief. The irony is that the events the questions ask are going to happen.
25. Wiesel is careful to use repeating images after the descriptions of the different hangings. Explain the repetition, and how it differs slightly.
The first hanging, the soup tasted good because he is happy to be alive. The second hanging, the soup tasted like corpses because of the sad-eyed angel.
The year the book begins and Elie's age
1941 Elie is 12
Elie's tattooed number
A-7713
Camp is liberated and age
April 10 1945 Elie is 16
16. Describe the atmosphere or tone at Buna. What does Wiesel imply by "well-dressed?"
Buna is empty and dead, however the prisoner's are "well-dressed" preparing for a funeral
"At first, my father simply doubled over under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning"
simile This shows that Elie can't stand up for his dad, but he becomes mad at his father when he knows he should be mad at the Kapo.
The year Elie is first deported and his age
spring of 1944 (Elie is 15) to the spring of 1945
"In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We have arrived. In Birkenau" (28).
The syntax is a series of sentence fragments. The fragments equate fear as he is confronted with absolute evil for the first time. When you're scared, you speak in fragments.
26. What is the irony of beginning this chapter with Rosh Hashanah? Describe the atmosphere at the observance of the Jewish holiday.
They are supposed to be celebrating the last day of the year but its really the last day of their lives.
"NIGHT. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes" (21).
We associate night with darkness, fear, the unknown, and monsters. In this quote, night is a comfort. Moishe and Ellie always speak at night. Ellie has epiphany, clarity during night (realizes something). Night was comforting in the beginning but it'll change. Conflagration means big fire just as Holocaust means big fire. The Jews are the extinct stars. The world is the unseen eyes.