If you have any questions, please contact me via email -­‐ [email protected] SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENTS FOR ENGLISH II (H) STUDENTS READING ASSIGNMENTS: PLEASE READ THE TEXTS LISTED BELOW IN THEIR ENTIRETY BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS MEETING. I will not be collecting your texts to check annotations, but you should get in the habit of doing so. • The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel o Please make sure you read the entire trilogy, which consists of his memoir Night, and two novellas, Dawn and Day. • The Book of Job in the New American Bible. This is the bible you purchased for religion class during your freshman year. It is important that you read this version of the text. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS: Respond CLEARLY AND CONCISELY to all four of the questions below. THESE QUESTIONS ARE DUE ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS. NO EXCUSES. Formatting this Assignment 1. Typed – You DO NOT have to type the actual questions themselves, only your answers. 2. MLA format 3. Quotes (and you must have quotes in your responses) should include correctly formatted parenthetical citations. Do not worry about including a Works Cited page for this assignment. THE BOOK OF JOB QUESTION 1. While Job’s questions and complaints often come close to charging God with wrong, he never crosses the line and humbly submits to God when told that the answers to his questions are beyond his ability to understand. Given this idea, rather than focus on the question, “Why does God allow the righteous to suffer?” answer the question: According to the text, how should the righteous suffer? NIGHT QUESTION 2. Eliezer witnesses one of several public hangings while in Buna. “Where is God now?” asks a prisoner next to Wiesel who also sees the hanging. “Where is He?” answers Eliezer, though talking only to himself, “Here He is—He is hanging there on the gallows . . .” What does Eliezer mean by this? How have Eliezer’s thoughts and feelings changed since he identified with Job while in Auschwitz? DAWN QUESTION 3. Describe the character called Gad—Gad the soldier, the friend, and the human being. Why does he keep repeating the phrase “This is war” throughout the novel? DAY QUESTION 4. How does Gyula make the hero not only realize but appreciate “why the earth is still revolving and why man is still looking forward to tomorrow”? How is Gyula able to convince the hero to reject the alternative of suicide? Finally, why does Gyula set fire to the portrait he has painted of the hero? ON THE DAY OF OUR FIRST CLASS MEETING, YOU WILL BE GIVEN A TEST ON YOUR SUMMER READING BOOKS. This will be an OBJECTIVE test (50 questions) worth 100 points. The test will consist of a combination of the following types of questions: • Character Identification – You will be given a fact about a character and you will have to identify which character is being described. • Quote Identification – You will be given a direct quote from the text and you will have to identify the speaker of that quote. • Plot Questions – You will be asked basic questions regarding what takes place in each text. • Literary Devices – You will be asked to identify basic literary devices within a passage. (i.e., simile, metaphor, personification, allusion, irony, symbolism, tone) ON THE DAY OF OUR SECOND CLASS MEETING, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT THE TEXTS. Be sure you know how to FORMULATE A STRONG THESIS and how to SELECT STRONG QUOTES from a specific passage to support that argument. STUDY GUIDES Questions to help guide your reading can be found below. You WILL NOT have to submit answers to these questions for a grade, but you should be able to answer them. THE BOOK OF JOB – New American Bible 1. Prologue (Chapters 1-­‐2) a. What was Satan’s accusation to God concerning Job? b. What were Satan’s challenges to God concerning Job? c. Who were Job’s friends and how did they respond to his suffering? d. How did Job respond to the things he suffered? 2. The First Cycle of Speeches (Chapters 3-­‐14) a. What two things does Job curse? b. What does Job view as the problem with suffering? c. Job’s three friends offer their counsel. What does each of them tell him? d. What does Job request from God? e. How does Job view the life of a man? f. How does Job compare himself to a tree? 3. The Second Cycle of Speeches (Chapters 15-­‐21) a. What things does Eliphaz tell Job? What is Job’s response? While Job has not lost his faith, what has he lost? b. What things does Bildad tell Job? What is Job’s response? While suffering, in what things does Job affirm his faith? c. What things does Zophar tell Job? What is Job’s response? While they might prosper in this life, what does Job say about the wicked? 4. The Third Cycle of Speeches (Chapters 22-­‐28) a. What wisdom and counsel do Job’s friends offer to him? b. According to Job, what is the true source of wisdom? 5. Job’s Final Summary of His Case (Chapters 29-­‐31) a. What things had Job done during the days when he was respected by the multitude? b. Who mocks Job in his present state of suffering? c. How does Job summarize his current state of existence? d. What does Job would make him deserving of God’s punishment? e. What is Job’s final request as he ends his discourse? 6. Elihu’s Speeches (Chapters 32-­‐37) a. Why was Elihu angry with Job? Why was he angry with Job’s three friends? b. Why does Elihu speak at this particular juncture when he did not speak before? c. According to Elihu, in what ways has God made an effort to save man from death? d. According to Elihu, what is the reason for Job’s suffering? e. What wisdom and counsel does Elihu impart to Job? f. What are Elihu’s final words to Job? 7. The Lord’s Speech (Chapters 38-­‐42) a. How does the Lord speak to Job? b. What is the point of God’s first discourse with Job? How does Job respond? c. In His second discourse, what questions does God ask Job? d. What does God challenge Job to do in order to prove he could save himself? e. What two creatures are used to describe God’s power and strength? Explain. f. What does Job admit after hearing God? How does he react? 8. Epilogue a. What does God say to Job’s three friends? b. What did the Lord do when Job prayed for his friends? c. How does Job’s story end? NIGHT 1. Compare Wiesel's preface to the memoir itself. Has his perspective shifted in any way over the years? 2. In his Nobel lecture, presented in 1986, Wiesel writes of the power of memory, including the notion that the memory of death can serve as a shield against death. He mentions several sources of injustice that reached a boiling point in the 1980s, such as Apartheid and the suppression of Lech Walesa, as well as fears that are still with us, such as terrorism and the threat of nuclear war. Will twenty-­‐first-­‐century society be marked by remembrance, or by forgetting? 3. How does the author characterize himself in Night? What does young Eliezer tell us about the town, community, and home that defined his childhood? How would you describe his storytelling tone? 4. Why doesn't anyone believe Moishe the Beadle? In what way did other citizens around the world share in Sighet's naïveté? Would you have heeded Moishe's warnings, or would his stories have seemed too atrocious to be true? Has modern journalism solved the problem of complacency, or are Cassandras more prevalent than ever? 5. As Eliezer's family and neighbors are confined to a large ghetto and then to a smaller, ghostlier one whose residents have already been deported, what do you learn about the process by which Hitler implemented doom? How are you affected by the uncertainty endured by Sighet's Jews on their prolonged journey to the concentration camps? 6. With the words "Women to the right!" Eliezer has a final glimpse of his mother and of his sister, Tzipora. His father later wonders whether he should have presented his son as a younger boy, so that Eliezer could have joined the women. What turning point is represented by that moment, when their family is split and the gravity of every choice is made clear? 7. At Birkenau, Eliezer considers ending his life by running into the electric fence. His father tells him to remember Mrs. Schächter, who had become delusional on the train. What might account for the fact that Eliezer and his father were able to keep their wits about them while others slipped into madness? 8. Eliezer observes the now-­‐infamous inscription above the entrance to Auschwitz, equating work with liberty. How does that inscription come to embody the deceit and bitter irony of the Nazi camps? What was the "work" of the prisoners? Were any of the Auschwitz survivors ever liberated emotionally? 9. Eliezer's gold crown makes him a target for spurious bargaining, concluding in a lavatory with Franek, the foreman, and a dentist from Warsaw. Discuss the hierarchies in place at Auschwitz. How was a prisoner's value determined? Which prisoners were chosen for supervisory roles? Which ones were more likely to face bullying, or execution? 10. Eliezer expresses sympathy for Job, the biblical figure who experienced horrendous loss and illness as Satan and God engaged in a debate over Job's faithfulness. After watching the lynching and slow death of a young boy, Eliezer tells himself that God is hanging from the gallows as well. In his Nobel lecture, Wiesel describes the Holocaust as "a universe where God, betrayed by His creatures, covered His face in order not to see." How does Wiesel's understanding of God change throughout the book? How did the prisoners in Night, including rabbis, reconcile their agony with their faith? 11. After the surgery on Eliezer's foot, he and his father must face being marched to a more remote camp or staying behind to face possible eleventh-­‐hour execution amid rumors of approaching Red Army troops. Observing that Hitler's deadliness is the only reliable aspect of their lives, Wiesel's father decides that he and his son should leave the camp. The memoir is filled with such crossroads, the painful outcomes of which can be known only in retrospect. How does Wiesel respond to such outcomes? Do you believe these outcomes are driven by destiny, or do they simply reflect the reality of decision-­‐
making? 12. In his final scenes with his father, Eliezer must switch roles with him, becoming the provider and comforter, despite advice from others to abandon the dying man. What accounts for the tender, unbreakable bond between Eliezer and his father long after other men in their camp begin fending for themselves? How does their bond compare to those in your family? 13. What is the significance of the book's final image, Wiesel's face, reflected in a mirror? He writes that a corpse gazed back at him, with a look that has never left him. What aspects of him died during his ordeal? What aspects were born in their place? What do you make of his observation that among the men liberated with him, not one sought revenge? 14. Wiesel faced constant rejection when he first tried to publish Night; numerous major publishing houses in France and the United States closed their doors to him. His memoir is now a classic that has inspired many other historians and Holocaust survivors to write important contributions to this genre of remembrance. What is unique about Wiesel's story? How does his approach compare to that of other memoirists whose work you have read? DAWN 1. What contemporary insights does Elie Wiesel's preface yield? How was your reading affected by this nonfiction commentary preceding a novel? 2. In a lecture delivered as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Wiesel reiterated his belief that while it is crucial to remember the past, a "holy war" is a contradiction in terms. What does Dawn reveal about the makings of a "holy warrior"? Could Elisha's dream for Israel have been realized without war? Discuss your reactions to Elisha's recruitment, in which Gad promises to turn his future into "an outcry first of despair and then of hope. And finally a shout of triumph." 3. Early in the novel, Elisha recalls his childhood encounter with a beggar, whom he meets in a synagogue. What does the beggar's advice about distinguishing night from day indicate about the nature of dawn? How does this advice influence Elisha as he looks into the faces of his fellow human beings throughout Dawn? 4. Do you agree with Ilana's assertion in her Voice of Freedom broadcast that she and her fellow fighters are not murderers, but that the Cabinet ministers are? How does Elisha view God's commandment not to kill? 5. How were you affected by the narrator's recollections of Catherine from his days in Paris? What does this scene tell us about his experience with love, and its inability to restore his former life with his family? 6. Does the memory of Elisha's parents weigh on his conscience? Does it spur his admiration for the freedom fighters, or does it make him feel shame? Had they survived the Holocaust, would his parents have shared his passion for Zionism? 7. Characterize the Old Man's influence over the other characters in the novel. What is the source of his power? Is he wise? 8. Discuss the scene in which Elisha's fellow soldiers recall the various ways in which they escaped a brush with death. How do they view death and fate? How do they view their ability to save a life? 9. Like Elisha, the reader does not meet John Dawson until the end of the novel. Were you surprised by his personality? Did he meet Elisha's expectations? What is the nature of their conversation? Why might Dawson think he could persuade Elisha to spare his life? 10. What motivates Elisha to go through with killing Dawson? Were you surprised to see him do it at precisely the moment Dawson uttered his name? Does Elisha seem to achieve his intended result? 11. Inhabited by ghosts, with a timeline in which memories are always present, is Dawn a surrealistic novel? Or is it a quite realistic portrait of a Holocaust survivor? 12. As in Night, Wiesel concludes Dawn with an image of the narrator seeing his own face. How does Elisha's image of himself compare to Eliezer's image of himself after being freed from the Nazis? DAY (also published under the title THE ACCIDENT) 1. What does Wiesel's new preface convey about the timelessness of this novel? How do his voice and outlook compare to those of Day's narrator? 2. By reading the initial scene, what were you able to discern about the relationship between the narrator and Kathleen? How do they resolve their conflicts? Are they good communicators? Is their relationship unusual or typical? 3. Dr. Russel probes Kathleen, trying to determine the depth of her commitment to the narrator because "Love is worth as much as a prayer. Sometimes more." Is the narrator's life proof of this? Or has love harmed him? What kind of love does Dr. Russel prescribe? 4. What was the narrator's time in Paris like? What do his memories indicate about this chapter of his life? In what way did it serve as a bridge to his life in the United States? Does he describe any locale as being a place where he truly felt at home? 5. What is your interpretation of the stranger Eliezer meets on board a ship bound for South America? Why is it dangerous for them to feel mesmerized by the sea? Why does the Englishman end the conversation by repeatedly saying, "I'm going to hate you"? Why is Eliezer grateful to hear those words? 6. In what way did the narrator's grandmother affect his impressions of God and death? What did she want him to believe? Did she prepare him for such a devastating tragedy as the Holocaust? 7. The narrator tells us that when he first met Kathleen, he instantly felt as if they were kindred souls, so much so that their friends think they had met previously. What is the source of Kathleen's emptiness? Does she understand him as well as he understands her? Could anyone fill the narrator's emptiness? 8. When the narrator meets with his lawyer, he expresses relief that a large corporation, rather than an impoverished cab driver, would have to pay a hefty sum as compensation for the accident. What trait does this signify in the narrator? Why is he not a vengeful person? 9. Why is it so difficult for Dr. Russel to comprehend the narrator's suicidal feelings? What does the existential conversation between doctor and patient represent in terms of everyday life? What contemporary chasms exist between the deeply wounded and their zealous but misguided healers? 10. How did you react when the narrator revealed his name as "Eliezer, the son of Sarah"? Is it appropriate to view him as a version of the same protagonist featured in Night and Dawn? If so, what does his past seem to predict about his future? 11. Discuss the role of the two Sarahs in the novel: the narrator's beloved mother, and the young girl whose capacity for love was extinguished by a brutal Nazi officer. What is the effect of reading about these two women in sequential scenes? 12. Will Eliezer be able to live up to his agreement with Kathleen, in which she will accept his help if he will accept hers? 13. What accounts for Eliezer's bond with Gyula? Why was he the only one able to guess the truth, that Eliezer had indeed seen the cab coming? What is Gyula trying to achieve by burning the painting in the novel's final scene? 14. In light of the ending, reread the novel's epigraph from Nikos Kazantzakis. Is its message about the pain of love and loss sustained throughout Day? Besides regaining his physical health, does the narrator experience any other degree of recovery? 15. There are several parallels between Elie Wiesel and the protagonist in Day: they share the same first name and hometown, and both were involved in a serious car accident in New York during the 1950s. Yet only one of the books in the trilogy, Night, is a memoir. What distinguishes the experience of reading a novel? How was Wiesel's Holocaust remembrance enriched by his blending of memoir and fiction across these three books?