Night Elements

Question 1

Setting

Answer 1

Sighet, Transylvania; Aushwitz-Birkenau; Buna; Gleiwitz; Buchenwald; during World War II

Question 2

Characters

Answer 2

Elie Wiesel, Sholomo Wiesel, Moishe the Beadle, Idek, Juliek, Yossi, Tibi, Madame Schacter, Bea, Hilda

Question 3

Protagonist

Answer 3

The Jews, represented by Elie Wiesel

Question 4

Antagonist

Answer 4

The Nazis

Question 5

Conflict

Answer 5

The innocent Jews are harshly and unfairly treated by the severe, “evil” Nazis, acting out of Antisemitism, and Elie Wiesel is a teenager who witnesses the Nazis’ acts of sheer brutality and clear immorality.

Question 6

Climax

Answer 6

Elie’s father is beaten to death, and is sent to the crematorium at Buchenwald.

Question 7

Protagonist cannot accept:

Answer 7

The loss of his own friends, family, and freedom, and the fact that his God would abandon the Jewish people

Question 8

Resolution

Answer 8

Elie Wiesel and the Buchenwald camp are liberated by the United States, and Wiesel is sent to a hospital because of food poisoning, and the Jews never seek revenge.

Question 9

Theme statement

Answer 9

When a Jewish family experiences the horrors of the Holocaust, the son is exposed the harshness of the Nazis through the camps.

Question 10

Theme (3 examples)

Answer 10

Suffering/torture

1. When Elie is beaten for no apparent reason by the Kapo, Idek, merely because the Kapo was prone to fits of anger.
2. On the train to Buchenwald, the Jews are forced to go without food, except for the snow and a few pieces of bread thrown into the Jewish boxcar, which creates tension.
3. In Buchenwald, Sholomo, Elie’s father, is struck with dysentary, and is forced to cope with that illness in the extremities of the camp, to the point, where his thirst ultimately causes his death.