Night-MeganReaugh

=Night by Elie Wiesel=

SUMMARY:

     //Night// is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesil, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, about a Jewish boy and his family who are being taken to a concentration camp in Auschwitz, Germany. There were 80 people on the train with him that were all to be taken to the same place. There was a woman on the train named Madame Schächter who became hysterical all throught the night. She and her young son had been seperated from her husband and her older sons before boarding the train. She shrieked to the heavens about seeing a fire and a furnace and that it was outside of the window. Everyone would look out of the windows and they saw nothing. People resorted to beating her just to get her to stop screaming. What seemed like eternities later the train finally came to a stop. Excited but not sure what was on the other side of the train door, the passengers began to grow hopeful and all to soon the train came to a start again. The night fell again and Madame Schächter began to scream again but this time when she screamed of a fire and the passangers looked out the window, she was correct. They were brought to a concentration camp where they were separated by men and boys and women and children. The narrator writes that that would be the last time he would see his mother and sisters again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Romania on September 30, 1928. He was deported to Auschwitz, Germany in 1944 and also survived Buna, Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz. He was liberated from the camps in April of 1945 after his fathers death in January. After his liberation, he spent a few years in a French orphanage before studying at the Sorbonne in 1948. He has written a number of books on the Holocaust since then but //Night// was his most famous. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

MY OPINION:

I liked the exerpt from //Night// because I find the Holocaust very interesting even though it was a horrible event. I would absolutely recommend this story to everyone. It was a gripping and interesting read.

LITERARY ANALYSIS:

I read the story //Night// by Elie Wiesel. It was an autobiography written about living through the Holocaust. There are many great literary tools to this story, such as the plot, the characters, and the setting. They made the excerpt from the story really come alive.

First, the plot was great. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The main character and his family were on a train. The train was controlled by Hungarian lieutenants and they were being taken to a concentration camp called Auschwitz. They were separated into two groups: Men and Boys and Women and Children to determine who would work and who wouold die immediately.

Next, the characters were a major part of the story. They weren't described in great detail but I pictured them very well. The narrator was a boy of 15. He was with his father, who was about 50, mother, and two sisters. There were about 80 other people on the same train including a woman and her young son who had been separated from her husband and two older sons. They all had one thing in common, they were all terrified.

Finally, the setting was the normal setting for the Holocaust; Germany. It started out on the train and stayed there for most of the excerpt. The chapter concluded in Auschwitz, at the "furnace" concentration camp.

In Conclusion, I liked the story //Night// for many reasons. I think the Holocaust is an interesting subject in history but, the literary tools made the story more vivid and teasing to the imagination. The plot, setting, and characters are just a few examples of how many tools put together a great autobiographical story.