Night

This was easily the hardest book to read of any we have read in this class. It is a painful and terrifying thing to imagine. There are many descriptions in the book of children dying, and each description was as or more horrifying than the last. The one that was most disturbing to me was the hanging, when the small child who had the angel-like face, was killed.

A major theme in the book was the lost of this particular child's innocence. He frequently became angry with God when he wondered where he was and why he did not put a stop to any of what was happening. The clearest image of this for me was when he saw the smoke and fire where children were being burned, and how this first started to drain away his faith on the first night.

In the English classroom I have been placed in, they are reading the Diary of Anne Frank, and most recently they have been watching the movie as well. So lately I have gotten a double-dose of this event in history as described in literature. The loss of hope and faith in this book contrasts with the majority of Anne Frank's story, in that she spent most of her story telling others to continue having hope. She was a strong, optimistic child, while the child in Night frequently had thoughts of despair and suicide. Eventually though, Anne Frank also became overwhelmed with despair when she believed that her parents were already dead, when in fact her father survived to make sure her diary was published. This story also took place at a different camp, so the exact conditions experienced in each was different. Anne Frank's came experienced a much more slow suffering and death through the spread of disease, while death in this story happened more quickly, usually at the hands of those who held them captive.

I can tell from reading this story and even from watching the Anne Frank movie that this will be a very difficult subject for me to teach the kids about, as it remains something very difficult for me to process. I personally would not use this book in a middle school, and I would even feel hesitant about using it in a high school setting.