Section: Literary Terms Date:
Heading: Night—Metaphor or Simile?
Metaphor: a direct comparison between two unlike things without using like or as
Simile: a comparison between two unlike things using like or as
Directions: Read the statements below selected from Night. If the statement is a metaphor, write M on the line before it. If the statement is a simile, write S on the line before it. Should the statement contain both, write M/S.
_____ 1. “Our backyard looked like a marketplace. Valuable objects, precious
rugs, silver candlesticks, Bibles and other ritual objects were strewn over
the dusty grounds—pitiful relics that seemed never to have had a home”
(15).
_____ 2. “Here came the Chief Rabbi, hunched over, his face strange looking
without a beard, a bundle on his back. His very presence in the procession
was enough to make the scene seem surreal. It was like a page torn from
a book, a historical novel, perhaps, dealing with the captivity of Babylon
or the Spanish Inquisition” (17).
_____ 3. “The doors were nailed, the way back irrevocably cut off. The world had
become a hermetically sealed cattle car” (24).
_____ 4. “In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls
wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space
until the end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any
hope of finding either” (36).
_____ 5. “He looked at us as one would a pack of leprous dogs clinging to life”
(38).
_____ 6. Thousands of lips repeated the benediction, bent over like trees in a storm”
(67).
_____ 7. “These human waves were rolling forward and would have crushed me
like an ant” (87).
_____ 8. “We started to march once more. The dead remained in the yard, under
the snow without even a marker, like fallen guards” (92).
_____ 9. “Men were hurling themselves against each other, trampling, tearing at
and mauling each other. Beasts of prey unleashed, animal hate in their
eyes. An extraordinary vitality possessed them, sharpening their teeth
and nails” (101).
Section: Literary Terms Date:
Heading: Night—Irony
Irony: a contrast between expectation and reality
Verbal Irony: when a person says or writes one thing but means another
Situational Irony: when an event turns out differently than expected
Dramatic Irony: when the reader knows something that one (or more) character is unaware
Directions: Read each statement below. Determine whether it represents verbal, situational, and/or dramatic irony. Write the type on the line provided. Then briefly explain the literal meaning of the statement on line A and tell why the statement is ironic on line B.
1. “What a shame, a shame that you did not go with your mother...” (33).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
2. “This one had an iron gate with the overhead inscription: ARBEIT MACHT FREI. Work makes you free. Auschwitz” (40).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
3. “Like the head of the camp, he liked children” (48).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
4. The SS offered us a beautiful present for the new year (selection)” (69).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
5. “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people” (81).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
6. Our ship’s passengers amused themselves by throwing coins to the “natives,” who dove to retrieve them. An elegant Parisian lady took great pleasure in this game. When I noticed two children desperately fighting in the water, one trying to strangle the other, I implored the lady:
“Please, don’t throw any more coins!”
“Why not?” said she. “I like to give charity…” (100)
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
7. “My father took his arm. And Meir Katz, the strong one, the sturdiest of us all, began to cry. His son had been taken from him during the first selection but only now was he crying for him. Only now did he fall apart. He could not go on. He had reached the end” (102).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______
8. “Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald, I became very ill: some form of poisoning. I was transferred to a hospital and spent two weeks between life and death” (115).
Type of Irony: ______
A. (literal) ______
B. (ironic) ______