Journal Practice (Night)

Critical Stance

Contrasting between the Jews panicking and the reassuring themselves to each new adjustment of their actions, the Jewish were aware of the news about what they were going to face, but chose to ignore it and be more optimistic about their futures rather than fear it.  The government, with every new action they take, are aware of the effects and have some doubt that what they're doing is making things better. They're more pessimistic about the future they are creating rather than believing that it will be a lot better than the present.

Quotes and Commentary

"I wept because - because of something inside me that felt the need for tears. That was all I knew," (Wiesel, 2).
The narrator felt the need to weep for a reason that seemed unknown at the time, which happened before the intrusion of Germans and travel to ghettos and the concentration camp, where a lot of sorrow took place. The tears, in this sense, are pretty clairvoyant to the story.

"Moshe had changed. There was no longer any joy in his eyes," (Wiesel, 4).
The book narrates a story of horror and tragedy, which took place later after Moshe witnessed an event presented by Jewish murderers. Watching an event, it would be reasonable that he lost his joy and changed for the worse.

"'The Jews in Budapest are living in an atmosphere of fear and terror. There are anti-Semitic incidents every day, in the streets, in the trains. The Fascists are attacking Jewish shops and synagogues. The situation is getting very serious,'"(Wiesel, 7).
The attacks by German Fascists are growing closer and news of them become worrying for the people in Sighet, building up to when they eventually come to take them. The atmosphere described can be noted of the narrator during his experience by the Germans later in the book.

"However, our first impressions of the Germans were most reassuring. The officers were billeted in private houses, even in the homes of Jews. Their attitude toward their hosts was distant, but polite,"(Wiesel, 7).
Much like the optimism emphasized by several Jews in the book, the Germans indeed didn't show any harm to them. From how they act, distant yet polite, it's mainly to throw the Jews off guard so they don't expect anything bad regardless of what they may have heard about them.

"The same day the Hungarian police burst into all the Jewish houses in the street. A Jew no longer had the right to keep in his house gold, jewels, or any object of value,"(Wiesel, 8).
With entry to the Jews' homes successful, the Germans were able to treat them as they would later in the book: with bold order and no say of the captives otherwise. The behavior of the event would grow later on and show much more harshness.