Night by Elie Wiesel: Chapter Summaries amp; Analysis

Review this article of Night by Elie Wiesel with your chapter summaries covering important information in the memoir.
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel won the Nobel Prize Peace Prize in 1986. I have never won the Nobel Prize Peace Prize. So see the book first and then come for a review!




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Chapter 1: Wiesel was raised in Sighet, a small town in Translyvania. He is really a strict Orthodox Jew that's tutored by Moshe the Beadle. When all foreign Jews are expelled, Moshe is deported. He returns to Sighet with horrific tales. Nobody believes him.
Fascists gain control in Hungary and invite the Nazis to come. The Jews of Sighet be in denial that anything bad may happen to them. Days later the town is ordered to evacuate. Eliezer's household is part with the last group. Their former Gentile servant, Martha, warns them of impending danger while offering them an area of refuge. They refuse.




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Chapter 2: Eliezer with his fantastic townsmen are packed into cattle cars and suffer terribly. One woman, Madame Schacter, continually screams of the fire. She is silenced by her fellow prisoners. As the train comes to Birkenau, they see smoke rising from chimnies and therefore are inundated with the horrific smell of burning flesh.
Chapter 3: The first selection occurs. Eliezer and the father lie relating to age and avoid the crematorium. As they walk to Auschwitz they pass a pit of burning babies. When they arrive in their barracks they're disinfected with gasoline, be given a tattoo, and they are dressed in prison clothes. Eliezer's father asks to venture to the bathroom which is clobbered with a kapo. The prisoners are then escorted to Buna, a work camp four hours away.




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Analysis: Wiesel emphasizes a persons failure to know just how evil humans could be. He and his awesome family are warned more than once to flee, yet they and the town find the truth impossible. Wiesel's primary goal in publishing Night is to prevent another Holocaust from happening. He emphasizes the call to be aware of evil in the world also to believe first hand accounts of computer.
His recounting with the miserable conditions around the cattle cars along with the horrific events he witnesses at Birkenau are examples of quality accounts that really must be taken seriously in order to prevent something as horrible from happening again.
Chapter 4: At Buna, Eliezer is summoned with the dentist to get his gold crown removed. He feigns illness. The dentist, he discovers, is hanged. Eliezer's only focus would be to eat and remain alive. He is savagely beaten with the kapo, Idek which is consoled by a French worker, whom he meets years following the war. The prison foreman, Franek, notices Eliezer's gold crown and demands it. He refuses. Franek beats Eliezer's father and that he gives up the crown.
Eliezer catches Idek having sex with a Polish girl. Idek whips him mercilessly and warns him that certain word of the items he saw will result in more severe punishment. During an air raid two cauldrons of soup remain unattended. A prisoner crawls to them and is shot just before eating some. The Nazis erect a gallows at camp and place three prisoners, the past one, a boy loved by all, causes the most jaded of prisoners to weep.
Chapter 5: It is late summer 1944 and another selection occurs. This time Eliezer's father is for the wrong side. He gives his spoon and knife to his son. Eliezer rejoices as they returns and discovers there was clearly another selection and the father still lives. Eliezer hurts his foot which is sent on the infirmary. He hears rumors of Russians approaching. The Nazis evacuate the camp ground. Eliezer assumes infirmary patients is going to be killed so he leaves. He discovers later that the patients were liberated the following day.
Chapter 6: The prisoners have to run 42 miles in a night within a blizzard. Those unable to keep up are shot. The refugees stay in a small village where Eliezer and his awesome father keep the other person awake to avoid freezing to death. Rabbi Eliahu enters a little shack occupied by Eliezer, searching for his son. Eliezer recalls--after Eliahu's departure--seeing his son desert his father, something he prays for strength never to do. Another selection occurs. Eliezer's father is provided girls number for friendship the death side. A diversion is created and his father switches lines.
Chapter 7: The survivors are packed into cattle cars and provided for Germany. The train stops frequently to take out dead bodies. Eliezer recounts how German workers throw bread into the cattle cars to witness the prisoners kill the other. Eliezer is nearly killed.
Analysis: Wiesel attributes his survival to luck and coincidence, two ideas that play a prominent role within the novel. Each selection is really a matter of luck and coincidence; being used on easier jobs can be a matter of luck and coincidence; leaving the infirmary can be a matter of luck and coincidence. Wiesel honestly portrays his feelings toward his father. He recognizes that his father gives him strength to remain; he acknowledges that his father sometimes becomes a burden.




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Chapter 8: Upon their arrival at Buchenwald, Eliezer's father is unable to move. Eliezer brings him soup and low, contrary to the advice of other prisoners who counsel him to keep it for himself. Eliezer's father, being affected by dysentary, begs for water. An SS guard becomes annoyed and knocks him within the head. Eliezer wakes up another morning and discovers his father's empty bed. He is more relieved than sad.
Chapter 9: Eliezer is just concerned with food during his remaining months at Buchenwald. On April 5, the evacuation of Buchenwald is ordered. Nazis murder thousands daily. On April 10, Eliezer's block is ordered to evacuate, yet it's cut short by air raid sirens. The next day the camping ground is liberated. Wiesel nearly dies from food poisoning. He recovers, looks inside a mirror, which is shocked by his appearance.
Analysis: Eliezer's reflection that he resembled a corpse ends the novel with a sense of hopelessness. Despite this hopelessness Wiesel dedicates his life to human rights.
For a pursuit involving Elie Wiesel's website, check the page.