Miss Grace
Grade 10: English
Character Development: Graphic Organizer Sample
Night by Elie Wiesel
Quote
I looked at my house in which I
had spent years seeking my God,
fasting to hasten the coming of the
Messiah, imagining what my life
would be like later. Yet I felt little
sadness. My mind was empty.
(ch.1, pg. 55)
What are You, my God? I thought
angrily. How do You compare to
this stricken mass gathered to
affirm to You their faith, their
anger, their defiance?... Why do
you go on troubling these poor
peoples wounded minds, their
ailing bodies?
(ch.5, pg. 4-11)
One day I was able to get up, after
gathering all my strength From
the depths of the mirror, a corpse
gazed back at me. The look in his
eyes, as they stared into mine, has
never left me.
(ch.9, pp. 65-66)
Eliezers Religious Views
Claim: Eliezers faith is important to him because he feels remorseful about leaving his home
because thats where his foundation for his faith was created.
Connection: On leaving his home for transport to a concentration camp, Eliezer leaves some
of his religious pursuits behind, along with his childhood home, and some of his innocence.
Hes looking at his house, thinking about all the memories hes leaving behind. He states that
he is feeling sadness because its a separation from a safe haven to somewhere unknown. This
also foreshadows that there will be trouble because he states his mind was empty.
Claim: Although Eliezers faith is shaken due to the experiences he went through at the
concentration camp, yet he still tries to understand God and seeks him for answers.
Connection: The just and loving God he knew as a child is dead to him. Eliezer tries to find
out what this new God he discovered is all about, asking, "What are You, my God?" But in the
face of what Eliezer sees as Gods indifference to suffering, Eliezer seems to determine that
God is not a being that he can praise. He is questioning God, which shows that he still believes
that there is a God who is watching over all his troubles. Although there are so many events
which make him wonder why God is allowing all this pain, it does not make him doubt Gods
existence.
Claim: Eliezer expresses his faith in God to be dead.
Connection: The corpse-image reminds him how much he has suffered and how much of
himselfhis faith in God, his innocence, his faith in mankind, his father, his mother, his
sisterhas been killed in the camps. At the same time, he manages to separate himself from
this empty shell. The image of the corpse will always stay with him, but he has found a sense
of identity that will endure beyond the Holocaust. This shows that his faith is no longer the
same from when he was younger and is equivalent to death.