Night by Elie Wiesel: Chapter Summaries amp; Analysis

Review this article of Night by Elie Wiesel with one of these chapter summaries covering 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 look at book first and after that come for a review!




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Chapter 1: Wiesel was raised in Sighet, a tiny town in Translyvania. He can be 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 allow the Nazis into the future. The Jews of Sighet be in denial that anything bad could happen to them. Days later the location is ordered to evacuate. Eliezer's family is part of the last group. Their former Gentile servant, Martha, warns them of impending danger and offers them a spot of refuge. They refuse.




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




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Analysis: Wiesel emphasizes the human failure to understand just how evil humans may be. He with his fantastic family are warned repeatedly to flee, yet they and town find the truth impossible. Wiesel's primary goal in publishing Night is always to prevent another Holocaust from happening. He emphasizes the requirement to be aware of evil inside world and believe quality accounts of it.
His recounting in the miserable conditions on the cattle cars along with the horrific events he witnesses at Birkenau are examples of top notch accounts that must definitely be taken seriously in order to prevent something as horrible from happening again.
Chapter 4: At Buna, Eliezer is summoned from the dentist to own his gold crown removed. He feigns illness. The dentist, he discovers, is hanged. Eliezer's only focus would be to eat and grow alive. He is savagely beaten from the kapo, Idek which is consoled with 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 particular word of what he saw will result in more severe punishment. During an air raid two cauldrons of soup remain unattended. A prisoner crawls for many years and is shot before eating some. The Nazis erect a gallows at camp and hang three prisoners, the last one, a boy loved by all, causes perhaps the most jaded of prisoners to weep.
Chapter 5: It is late summer 1944 and another selection occurs. This time Eliezer's father is on the wrong side. He gives his spoon and knife to his son. Eliezer rejoices while he returns and discovers there was clearly another selection and his father still lives. Eliezer hurts his foot which is sent for the infirmary. He hears rumors of Russians approaching. The Nazis evacuate the camp. Eliezer assumes infirmary patients is going to be killed so he leaves. He discovers later that this patients were liberated the following day.
Chapter 6: The prisoners are forced to run 42 miles in one night within a blizzard. Those unable to keep up are shot. The refugees stop in a small village where Eliezer with his fantastic father keep the other person awake to prevent freezing to death. Rabbi Eliahu enters a little shack occupied by Eliezer, trying to find his son. Eliezer recalls--after Eliahu's departure--seeing his son desert his father, something he prays for strength not to do. Another selection occurs. Eliezer's father is sent to the death side. A diversion is created and his father switches lines.
Chapter 7: The survivors are packed into cattle cars and shipped to Germany. The train stops frequently to eliminate dead bodies. Eliezer recounts how German workers throw bread into the cattle cars to witness the prisoners kill one another. 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 often a matter of luck and coincidence; being assigned to easier jobs can be a matter of luck and coincidence; leaving the infirmary is really a matter of luck and coincidence. Wiesel honestly portrays his feelings toward his father. He understands that his father gives him strength to carry on; he acknowledges that his father occasionally 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 coffee, contrary to the advice of other prisoners who counsel him to hold 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 the following 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, but it is cut short by air raid sirens. The next day the camp is liberated. Whatsapp Friendship Wiesel nearly dies from food poisoning. He recovers, looks in the mirror, and is also shocked by his appearance.
Analysis: Eliezer's reflection which he resembled a corpse ends the novel with a sense of hopelessness. Despite this hopelessness Wiesel dedicates his life to human rights.
For an action involving Elie Wiesel's website, go here.