“Night,” by Elie Wiesel is one of those books that can be
taught in either English or History courses. This works well for secondary
education teacher. In poverty based demographics Social Studies and Language
Arts are studied simultaneously. Although, I would not use this book at the
middle school level, I can see some teachers using it for advanced eighth
graders. When I first read this book, it was my 11th English course
and we read it as a class. I remember our discussions were amazing because Eliezer
is young and we put ourselves in his situation.
The story
follows Eliezer from being a school boy to his transition into the most
notorious Nazi death camp in Auschwitz. Just like many other men and women, he
was herded into Auschwitz. Like many children and teenagers, he was separated from
his family upon arrival. Most that go through this never got to see their
families again. He talks about the many cruelties he went through upon arrival
and eventually put to work in slave like conditions. Eliezer is a Jew so he was
subject to numerous beatings on a daily. At one point, a guard wanted the gold
tooth in Eliezer’s mouth so he gruesomely pried it out of the bone with a
spoon. The story progresses with Eliezer really falling into a huge depression
like state. He does not find his faith and really doesn’t care about the people
around him anymore. Being so malnourished and seeing so many deaths around him
finally got to him.
I definitely
see this book being on my classroom shelves in the future. I enjoyed reading it
again, and even noticed some things that I forgot about, like the tooth. I can
see a lesson built around this book with the assessment being a presentation
about the holocaust. Most kids now a days don’t even know about the holocaust,
so this is a great resource for that knowledge.
