Essay Questions For Night By Elie Wiese

Honors English II
Essay Questions for Night by Elie Wiesel Directions:
In paragraph form, you need to answer THREE of the following essay questions.
There are six essay questions, but you will only complete three; you choose which prompts you wish to respond to.
You must provide specific examples from the story.
If a question has to be answered in terms of how you feel about something I expect MUCH more than "I don’t like it."
One paragraph responses will not earn full credit. I want LONG, DETAILED responses, which will require multiple paragraphs.
These paragraphs should not be repetitive
You will decide the length; be sure to include appropriate information but not fill your essay with “fluff”
You must also use parenthetical citations to show where you took your examples. The parenthetical citations will look like this: word word word (Wiesel 9).
Remember: if you take an example exactly as it is stated in the story, you must have quotations marks around it
You are expected to use correct spelling of names, places, and events in the novel
Grammar will count in the final grade; if you have any concerns, you may ask for proofreading assistance
You are expected to have the novel’s title in italics each time you acknowledge it (ex: In the novel Night, there are several significant events that occur during the night.)
Each essay should be its own document formatted according to all MLA guidelines.
This is due in KAN-ED by 4:00pm on May 19
You may turn them in earlier or as you get them done; however, once they are in KAN-ED, they can not be changed or corrected. ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than "things" which were a nuisance to them. Discuss at least three specific examples of events that occurred which dehumanized Eliezer, his father, or his fellow Jews.

2. After Eliezer’s father was beaten by Idek, a Kapo, Eliezer says, "I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry with him, for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak. That is what concentration camp life had made of me." Discuss what the last line signifies. Discuss how his attitude had changed. 3. Discuss why you think the townspeople remained complacent despite the advance of the German army (why did the villages surrounding the concentration camps do nothing to stop the NAZIs). 4. Discuss why Eliezer lied to Stein, his relative, about Stein’s family. Discuss whether or not you think he was morally right and what choices he had in the matter. 5. Discuss the significance of "night" in the novel. Cite examples from the story to support your answer. 6. There are quotes from the novel that are significant and poignant. Explain the relevancy of the following quotes (all):

1. “…Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes…” (pg 34)

2. Explain the author’s meaning when he says after the handing of the youth from Warsaw that "the soup tasted better than ever," (63) yet after the pipel was hanged, "the soup tasted of corpses" (65).

3. “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people” (81).