Night Study Guide for Test

Night Study Guide

PART I: Vocabulary Matching

• Study Tip: Review the definitions and their corresponding vocabulary words. Create flashcards with the definition on one side and the word on the other.

  • Irrevocably – Unable to be changed or reversed

  • Cynical – Distrustful of human nature

  • Lucidity – Clearness of thought

  • Lament – To mourn a loss

  • Muster – To gather or collect

  • Emaciated – Abnormally thin and weak

  • Implore – To beg desperately

  • Penury – Severe poverty

  • Idleness – State of inactivity, laziness

  • Sage – Wise person, mentor

  • Dregs – The most worthless part of something

  • Unprecedented – Never done or known before

  • Apathy – Lack of interest or enthusiasm

  • Grandeur – Magnificence, splendor

  • Surreal – Bizarre, weird, unreal

PART II: Character Matching

• Study Tip: Review each character’s role in Night and their significance.

  • Tzipora – Elie’s younger sister who died in the gas chambers

  • The French woman – Comforted Elie after he was beaten; met years later

  • Juliek – Played his violin for prisoners until his death

  • Yossi – One of Elie’s good friends at Buna

  • Dr. Mengele – “Selected” prisoners for life or death

  • Idek – Kapo who whips Elie for catching him with a girl

  • Shlomo (Elie’s father) – Ultimately died of a blow to the head

  • Mrs. Schacter – Screamed about fire and flames on train

  • Rabbi Eliahou – His son left him behind during the march

  • The Pipel – Young, innocent boy hanged in front of prisoners

  • Moishe the Beadle – The Jews disbelieved his warnings of horrors ahead

  • Franek – Tortures Elie’s father to get Elie’s gold crown

  • The Dentist – Hanged for collecting gold teeth for his own profit

  • Hilda – Elie’s older sister who works in the family store

  • Elie – Survives the Holocaust but is a changed person

PART III: Multiple Choice Concepts

• Dehumanization in concentration camps

  • Herded on trains like cattle

  • Tattooed with numbers

  • Tortured and burned in pits

• Elie’s faith transformation

  • Starts religious but faith weakens due to suffering

  • By the end, his belief in God is nearly gone

• Elie and his father’s relationship

  • Becomes closer through hardship but later Elie sees his father as a burden

• Symbolism of "Night"

  • Represents suffering, loss of faith, and eternal darkness of the soul

• Repetition of "Never shall I forget"

  • Emphasizes the importance of memory and never forgetting the atrocities

• Irony of Elie’s inheritance (knife and spoon)

  • Symbolizes how much his father has lost

  • Normally, an inheritance is valuable, but in the camps, even basic utensils are precious

• Final scene of the memoir (Elie sees a corpse in the mirror)

  • Loss of innocence, identity, and spiritual faith

  • Emphasizes how much he has suffered

• Central themes in Night

  • Mankind’s capacity for cruelty

  • Death and survival

  • Loss of faith

  • The importance of remembering history

PART IV: Passage Analysis

• You will be given two passages from the book to read and answer questions concerning main ideas, tone, literary terms, and meanings.

PART V: Reflective Writing Topics

• You will be asked to identify several issues/ideas which appear in Night. You will briefly describe how they appear, are developed, and/or utilized throughout Elie Wiesel's memoir.

  • Issues/Ideas to consider: Family Bonds, Power, Survival, Human Nature, Identity, Integrity, Relationships, Friendship, Autonomy, Loss of Innocence, and others.