Night

by Elie Wiesel **Introduction ** Hello class, as you already know my name is Connor. For my last and final book report, I have chosen to read Night by Elie Wiesel. This book is a literary memoir of the Holocaust. The story begins in Sighet, Transylvania and brings you through several different concentration camps during World War II. **About the Author ** was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighet, a town in Romania. He has written 57 books, Night being the most famous. Wiesel was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Other Awards Wiesel has won are the presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. For 10 years after the war, Elie refused to talk or write about his experiences during the Holocaust. Wiesel first wrote a 245-page memoir called Un di velt hot geshvign (And the World Remained Silent), in Yiddish. He then shortened it and translated it into French and was called La Nuit, and later translated into English as Night. ** Plot  ** The book begins with a introduction of Eliezer, the narrator. He is a twelve-year-old boy living in the Transylvanian town of Sighet. Eliezer is the only son of a Jewish family. His parents are shopkeepers and he has two older sisters, Hilda and Béa, and a younger sister named Tzipora. The book takes a turn for the worse when the Hungarians expel all the Jews in their country. One close friend to Eliezers Family, Moshe, was taken captive, escaped and came back and told everyone of how the deportation trains were handed over to the Gestapo at the Polish border, and how the Germans made the Jews dig mass graves only to be killed in them. No one believes him and thinks of him as crazy. Eliezer and his family later in the book are taken to a concentration camp and he is separated from his mom and sisters, who he never sees again, but reluctantly stays with his dad. Throughout the book there is a struggle for Eliezer to stay with his dad. They travel to several concentration camps through the book and there are many graphic images that are pictured in your head from reading on what was happening. **Characters ** Eliezer- Is the main character and the protagonist. He is a stand in for the author, Elie. Chlomo- A 50 year old man. Elizers father. Struggles to stay with Eliezer throughout the book. Only named once at the end of the book Moshe- Eliezer's teacher of Jewish mysticism Idek- Eliezer's Kapo. A prisoner who is in charge to police other prisoners. Hilda - Eliezer's oldest sister. Bea- Eliezer's middle sister Tzipora- Eliezer's youngest sister and other minor characters. In the book there are Flash-Forward about situations. For example: Eliezer starts to flirt with this girl on a train car. Right after he talks about that he flash-forward to after the war when he is on a bus and thinks he sees the same girl, just older. This made the book very interesting because it just added to the text and shows how real and personal this book really is. Throughout the book one theme was constant, the struggle to maintain faith and believe in God. In the book in various occasions he asks himself that if there was a God then why is he letting these things happen. Some symbols are fire, which could represent the cruelty of the Nazis. ** As my Review I loved this book. It was an amazing story with great detail. It was graphic though so I would only reccomment this to an older audiance and someone who would be able to handle reading graphic things. I thought that the book was very sad at times. But overall I thought the book was great especially because it was non-fiction.
 * Night **
 * In Depth Look at the Book **
 * Personal and Critical Review

The New York Times
"A slim volume of terrifying power."

Curt Leviant
"Wiesel has taken his own anguish and imaginatively metamorphosed it into art." -- Saturday Review