Literary Check #1

1. The author sets up the contrast between the Jews by having a bad situation take place, say for example, when they were first made to wear the bright yellow star. They were worried about why they had to wear it and it didn't help that there were rumours going around that the camps were pure terror. Eventually, like how the main character had stated, after a little while, everything seemed to go back to normal just as once was. No matter how many people were deported before, it was like everything would wash over later because of how the story had been written. Of course later on things just didn't "magically get better" and eventually got real bad. I think Wiesel was trying to convey that the people living in this town were given false hope to keep themselves sane. If they hadn't, they would end up like Moshe the Beadle or Madame Schachter, what they thought were just crazy ad dellusional.      

a) 

1.  "Why do you weep when you pray?" he asked me, as though he had known me a long time. "I don't know why," I answered, greatly disturbed. The questions had never entered my head. I wept because-- because of something inside me that felt the need for tears. That was all I knew. (pg. 2) I feel like this is important because the narrarator is so deeply devoted to his own god that he doesn't know the reason behind his actions, but he still continues to do them because it was his religion. His values to always pray and study under the Jewish religion is strong, and something I can't understand because I never understood religion in the first place since I didn't have a religious family.
2. "Jews listen to me. It's all I ask for you. I don't want money or pity. Only listen to me." (Pg. 5) This part of the story is important because it's the first sign of how bad the place was where all of the Jewish people were being sent to. It was really disappointing that nobody believed Moshe in the first place, especially since his first thought wasn't to hide and disappear away from the public eye. He risked his life to try and warn his fellow people of the suffering they would be put through if they had gone and not heeded his words. 
3. "We wished the feast were over, so that we should not have to play this comedy amy longer." (Pg. 8) This part was honestly really sad to read. The people knew what was going on since the military officers were slowly stripping them of their religion and of who they were, but they continued to pretend that nothing was wrong and that everything was okay, as if they weren't scared deep down inside. It was like they were lying to themselves in order to keep themselves sane, truely a sad sight.
4. "They struck her several times on the head-- blows that might have killed her. Her little boy clung to her; he did not cry out; he did not say a word. He was not even weeping now." (Pg. 24) It was sad to see this woman hurt because she wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind, unlike the rest of the people traveling in the van with her. The other people in the van didn't like how scary she was acting about what their new lives would be like, and to keep their own minds somewhat sane? They beat her. In front of her kid too, without a shame in the world. He wasn't even crying after a while because the whole situation was so messed up. 
5. "Father," I said, "if that is so, I don't want to wait here. I'm going to run to the electric wire. That would be better than slow agony in the flames." He did not answer. He was weeping." (Pg. 31) How else was he supposed to react? His own son wanted to kill himself from an electric wire because he'd rather be shocked to death than to be burned alive. This madness was obviously affecting the son as well because he was thinking of running into the wire himself, to kill himself. He was only fifteen and so prepared to die without a real purpose.