Night Response

Night Response

            Eli Wiesel’s Night is one of the most important books a secondary teacher can be familiar with. Teaching Holocaust related materials is a requirement in several different years of English classes in secondary education and will also be touched on in Social Studies Classes. Night is so important because it is a very easily accessible novel for many students. It is written strictly as a narrative without the sort of psychological analysis that comes with other works about the Holocaust such as Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man. Wiesel’s narrative tells the story of a journey that no one who hasn’t lived it will ever fully understand, but Wiesel does his best to make the story readable.

            One of the most important things to remember when teaching this text is that it is a very sensitive and monstrous subject to teach. As a teacher it can be difficult to breach such a sensitive topic like this so the students must be adequately prepared. Before teaching this book, even in an English class, I would recommend at least some historical background on the Holocaust: what it is, how it happened, and the aftermath. This can be taught separately from World War II, and probably should be taught separately for maximum impact.

            Dangers in this book include depictions of violent deaths, terrible conditions, and many depictions of the brutality that is possible by man. I think it is likely that there could be parents that wont want their students reading this material so having an alternate piece of curriculum prepared may be a good backup plan even though, hopefully, you wouldn’t have to use it. Because of the sensitivity of the issue teachers should make sure that they include this work in their syllabus so that parents are aware of the unit well in advance.