"Night" Quote Analysis, #5-6

Hah, I've been citing wrong this whole time.
FIXING STARTS NOW.

"'I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.'" (Weisel 87).
We did this quote for part of our quiz, but it's so epic I just had to do it here as well.
This quote is extremely ironic, as Hitler is the one that is doing all this to the Jews, yet the Jews believe in him because he's kept his promises. This shows a lot about Hitler, and how he is such an amazing speaker as well. Everything he has told is the truth, and even though he's a twisted man, he hasn't lied once.
This also shows a lot about the Jews, and how they've been lied to so much, they can only trust the man that is taking out millions and millions of them. It gives the reader a strong sense of pity for the Jewish community, and shows how horribly they were treated mentally as well as physically.


"I quickly forgot him. I began to think of myself again." (Wiesel 92).
At first glance, the reader will have the immediate feeling of "Ohmygoodness! Elie is so selfish! Like, OMG I can't read this book anymore. He's all mean now! blah blah blah."
In reality, I find this quote extremely sad. Elie was a child who was full of love and hope, and after a few months in concentration camps, he's seen so much death that he has no choice but to dismiss it. He's surrounded by so much death, he can barely let himself get upset any more. If he had gotten sad, he's be overrun by depression.
This shows a strong change in Elie's personality, as I stated above. He went from an innocent, caring child to a hardened mess. He can only worry about himself now, if he wants to stay alive and healthy.

"Night" Quote Analysis, #3-4

"This conversation cannot have lasted more than a few minutes. It seemed like an eternity to me."
-"Night", Wiesel, page 41

Fear is evident in this quote, showing how Elie's horror is dragging out time longer than it really is. He is fearful for not only his life, but being separated from  his father as well. The word "eternity" especially shows how the time seemed to drag on for Elie.
It could also be interpreted as not fear, but anticipation. Elie had lied about his age, and was probably quite nervous and eager (I'm not sure eager is a good word here, but whatever) to hear whether he would be discovered for his lie.

"Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and turned my dreams to dust."
-"Night",Wiesel, page 43

Again, fear is strong in this quote, but it also shows a major loss of hope. Elie is defying his God and saying his dreams are basically crushed. The figurative language really expresses the loss of hope, filling the reader with a sense of dread and fear.
Saying that the moments 'murdered my God' is really shocking here, as Elie is Jewish and therefore has strong faith in his God. He's saying that the times were so bad, he gave up on his God.
Which is bad. Very, very bad.

"Night" Quote Analysis #2

"She [Madame Schachter] continued to scream, breathless, her voice broken by sobs. 'Jews, listen to me! I can see a fire! There are huge flames! It is a furnace!'"
(Elie Wiesel, "Night," page 34)

Foreshadowing is the main thing I sensed in this quote. After the characters left the ghetto and got onto the train, Madame Schachter's terrified words about fire and a furnace could only foreshadow one thing: a Nazi death camp. The author really shows how fearful Madame Schachter was, and how the other Jews must have felt when they pulled into Auschwitz.

It can also show two different things about Madame Schachter- how she has very fiery and persistent personality, or the fact that she is going crazy. With just this quote, you would infer that she is crazy- what king of lady would see fire in the middle of the night? But if you continued to read and saw that they were arriving at Auschwitz, you would see that perhaps she isn't a crazy as she looks.

"Night" Quote Analysis #1

"We drank, we ate, we sang. The Bible bade us rejoice during the seven days of the feast, to be happy. But our hearts were not in it. Our hearts had been beating more rapidly for some days. We wished the feast were over, so that we should not have to play this comedy any longer."
(Elie Wiesel, "Night," page 20)

This quote really spoke to me in a way I couldn't quite pinpoint. It seems to show how hard the Holocaust was for Jews- even before all the famous stuff really happened. Somehow, even during one of the most festive times of the year for a Jew, this quote shows how nobody really enjoyed it.

The part of the quote that says, "We wish the feast were over, so we should not have to play this comedy any longer," is the part that really stuck out to me. At first glance, my thought was, "Oh, they're just putting on a show in hopes of keeping their family members in good spirits." But when I really thought about what happened in this period of time, something struck me: The author is getting across that they weren't just putting on a show for their family members- they were also doing it for themselves! They knew this was a bad time for Jews, and that things were only going to get worse. But in the happy setting of the holiday, they tried to fool themselves into cheering up and getting in the merry spirit. But they couldn't. That's what the quote really says. They were trying to be happy in this dreadful time, but no matter what, they couldn't.