Wednesday In-class Comments

1. Please read the posts from the last few days.
2. Comment on as many posts as you wish.
3. When commenting, you must:

• put your name
• write it as a letter starting "Dear _______ (person who wrote the initial post)"
• summarize the post you are writing about ( "Your post said....")
• clearly identify your purpose (disagree, agree, find interesting...)
• explain your reasons
• follow up with a question ("Can you further explain...", "Why did you say...")
• use formal standard written English

4. Check for any letters to you and respond to them if necessary.

Tuesday's Discussion Groups: A debate

Last night, not everyone described their conversations well enough for readers to understand the discussion. Please be more descriptive. Also, some of you have really careless mistakes that are posted online for the world to see. Be sure to show your best work.

Suggestion: Look at Marina's post from Monday to see how detailed your post should be.

Topics for Tuesday night (please number your responses):

1. List the questions your group discussed today in class.
2. Describe how the group interacted.
3. Describe part of the discussion where someone disagreed with what was being said. Describe the different points of view in detail.
4. What did you learn from the disagreement/debate?

5. Read the blog posts from Monday night and:

• identify a post you find most interesting
• explain why you find it interesting

Monday's Class Discussion: An interesting comment

Please describe an interesting point that was made in your group today. Be sure to:

1. tell which question you were discussing
2. describe the interaction
3. summarize what you learned or felt was an interesting analysis
   

Four Sources and Summaries from Voices of the Holocaust

This post is not due until Friday April 24th. You must:

1. identify your color character as assigned in class
2. list the best four sources that give you insight into your color characters voice/lack of voice during the Holocaust (author, title, date of publication, date you viewed it, url if needed)
   
3. summarize each source
4. explain what you learned about your color character from each source
5. How much blame should your color character take (a lot, some, a little, none)? Why?
   

The Final Chapter: Elie's Voice

"The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me" (Wiesel 109).

1. For whom did Elie Wiesel write this book?
2. Why did he call it Night?

Chapter Eight: Voices of the past

1. Whose voices do you think Elie Wiesel remembers the most from the time when his father was dying? Why?

2. If it had been you, whose voice would haunt you the most? Why?

Chapters six and seven: voices of death and betrayal

1. What keeps Elie and his father alive?
2. Why does the author write about Rabbi Eliahou and his son (86)?
3. Why does the author write about Juliek and his violin?
4. How do others outside of the Jews react to the running, dying, starving, empty band of Jews? Be sure to cite three reactions from these chapters.
5. Explain what each cited incident from #4 says about how others reacted to the Holocaust.

Chapter Five: New Voice, Great Void

1. Elie begins the chapter observing two holy holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, with his fellow Jewish prisoners. What does each holiday represent? Research to find out why these holidays are observed.

2. Who observes this holiday with Elie? How is it observed?

3. What is Elie's voice about his God now? How does he feel? Why?

4. WHOSE VOICES ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT IN THIS CHAPTER? Why? Who is the real God in Elie's life? In the life of the people?

5. Elie describes his father by saying "His voice choked" (71). What does this symbolize?

6. To whose voice should Elie listen in your opinion?

Chapter Four: symbols and descriptions

1. What do possessions represent? Explain.
Examples:
a. teeth
b. shoes
c. soup
d. blanket, washbowl, soap

2. What does the author begin to add to the characterization of young Elie? Why?Look back at how Elie is developed in the first 30 pages and look closely now. Explain the difference between Elie then and Elie now. Cite pages.

3. What do the symbols add to the story?

Chapter Three: The Writer's Voice

Look at chapters one through three to answer the following questions:



1. To whom does Elie actually listen? Cite pages.

2. What happens when he does listen? Cite examples.

3. Identify when Elie, the character, uses his voice. What is the outcome?

4. How does Elie Wiesel, the writer, convey his messages about his experiences?

a. Give examples of tools or techniques he uses to convey emotions in the story.
Think of recurring images and words.

b. What does FIRE represent? What does NIGHT represent? What do TEARS represent?

c. Why does he use imagery and vivid description?

c. Why doesn't Mr. Wiesel just tell his feelings about his story explicitly?

Chapter One: Missing voices

1. List who uses their voice in chapter one, citing page numbers.
2. Explain who each person is.
3. Describe what he/she says (the subject) and to whom.
3. Discuss whether or not each person's voice is heard.
4. In your opinion, whose voice is missing or unheard? Why?