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Night by Elie Wiesel
A 11th Grade Unit
Discussion Questions
Pre-Reading
1. Would you ever do anything to harm one of your parents or family members?
2. Are there times when it is best to stay silent when you see that something is wrong?
3. Are people who associate with criminals just as bad as those who commit the crime?
4. Would you do anything in order to live? How about to save someone you love?
5. Was there every a time when you felt judged based on your skin color, hair color, gender ? If so, please describe
Reader Response
Interpretive Community
1. What is the setting for the first part of the book? What is going on in the world at this time and how does Elie Wisel give examples of this?
2. Describe the conditions in the cattle car. What imagery does Elie use when describing these conditions?
3. In this passage, "THE EIGHT DAYS of Passover. The weather was sublime. My mother was busy in the kitchen. The synagogues were no longer open. People gathered in private homes: no need to provoke the Germans. Almost every rabbi's home became a house of prayer. We drank, we ate, we sang. The Bible commands us to rejoice during the eight days of celebration, but our hearts were not in it. We wished the holiday would end so as not to have to pretend. On the seventh day of Passover, the curtain finally rose: the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. The race toward death had begun." What is the speaker’s attitude in the passage? What aspect(s) of the text suggest this?How are words arranged in the passage? Does the author use simple or complex sentences? Are there unique uses of fragments or run-ons?
4. How does Elie's statement about his father, "My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even with family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin" serve as characterization?
5. Compare and contrast the relationship between the Rabbi and his Son with that of Elie and his father.
Critical Synthesis
1. How would you state or interpret in your own words the emotional changes Elie went through throughout the novel?
2. Can you explaining what is happening to the crowd as the little boy is being hung by the neck?
3. What facts or ideas show what Elie is going through at the end of the novel?
4. If Elie was female and somehow made it to Buna. Do you think the reactions to certain situations would be different? For instance, the boy hanging. Describe.
5. Does social status exist in the camps? If so how? Give specific examples from the text and describe how social status plays a role in camp life.
The students will be answering these discussions questions after reading the novel using discussion webs. The discussion web is a tool uses to help scaffold and structure classroom discussions. It helps students think about the main elements of an issue and identify opposing points of view. These questions are not from a particular chapter or section but from throughout the entire novel
Here is a Instructor Guide for the Discussion
Here is a Discussion Web Handout
1. What connections are there between this book and your life? Explain.
2. Who should or shouldn't read this book? Why?
3. How did you feel up to the point when Elie arrives at the concentration camp?
4. Choose a color for the book and explain why it fits the story.
5. Was there a time in the novel when you felt like crying? Describe.
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