Night, by Elie WieselThemes and Symbols

Assignment

For each chapter in Night, write down a direct quote that supports each Theme.

For each chapter, write down a direct quote that uses one of the Symbols, and explain what the symbol represents Organize your examples by chapter and write them in a notebook you can hand in at the end of the semester (50 points)

Theme: A Crisis of Faith

periods of intense doubt and internal conflict about one's religious beliefs.

A crisis of faith demands reconciliation or reevaluation before one can continue believing the crisis requires a harsh decision: either

understand how the cause of doubt fits into the belief, or drop the belief.

What to Look For: Examples of people questioning their beliefs, doubting the existence of God, or being unable to understand how such things could happen.

Theme: Inhumanity Toward Others

Although we would like to believe that, in the face of a crisis, we would be brave and kind, the opposite is often true

When people divide themselves into “us and them” it becomes easy to be cruel to “them”

What to Look For: Examples of people exhibiting casual

cruelty to others who are “different” Examples of victims turning against each

other

Theme: Silence

The Holocaust continued as long as it did partially due to the silence or lack of intervention of other individuals or nations

Often, prisoners remained silent during the torture or murder of other prisoners

Many Jews felt that God remained silent and allowed the atrocities to continue

What to Look For: Examples of Wiesel or others struggling with their own or others’ unwillingness to speak up or intervene, as well as their reasons for doing so.

Theme: The Father-Son Bond The Nazis’ goal was to destroy Jewish culture

completely, starting with the destruction of family bonds

The ability or inability to maintain a family bond is symbolic of the strength of the culture

What to Look For: Examples of Wiesel’s description of his

own relationship with his father. Examples of the family bond breaking

down or remaining strong

Symbols

Night Fire Corpses & Death

What to Look For: Examples where these things represent a larger idea.