Saturday, April 19, 2008

Night Chapter 1

The Story Night By Elie Wiesel starts off as many books do. You are introduced to his town, his family and most importantly Elie, himself. The year is 1941. Elie lives in Sighet, a small town in Transylvania. Elie is the only son of a Jewish family. His parents are shopkeepers in Sighet and are very well know in the town. He has two older sisters named Hilda and Bea. He also has one younger sister named Tzipora. Elie spends much of his time, against his father's bidding, reading the Jewish mystical texts called Caballa. Elie befriends a Jewish man who is called Moshe the Beadle. Soon it is reported that all foreign Jews are to be deported. This is where the story turns towards its main part. Moshe was a foreign Jew and therefore he is deported. All foreign Jews were told to wear a yellow star to identify themselves. Eventually Moshe returns to the town extremely upset. He tells the town that at the border the deportation trains were handed over to the Germans. When the trains were handed over Moshe was taken to a concentration camp. His leg was shot and he was thrown in a pit, somehow he had managed to escape. The town thinks he is crazy and that he is lying. He tells Elie to flee but Elie ignores his request. When German troops invade the town they tell them to surrender or die. The Jews are crowded into a small area in the town. Elie's family is of the last Jews to leave the town and they watch as the rest of the Jews are tortured. When Elie's family is taken away they are put on a cattle car and are headed for Auschwitz.

2 comments:

Brian said...

I like your summary for the book. How do you feel about what the people are going? Do you think the optimists are idiots? Also, try making multiple paragraphs instead of one.

Pat Johnson said...

Good summary Bowman.You pretty much covered everything that happened in the book so far. Fix it so it looks like three paragraphs.