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"We cannot give up, we cannot give up, she kept repeating.
People's morale was not so bad: we were beginning to get used
to the situation. There were those who even voiced optimism" (Wiesel 20). This quote shows that even though their situation is not good, they chose to find their hope rather than losing it. Even though they are facing dehumanization and oppression, they still stay positive, optimistic, and make the most out of a bad situation. By doing this, hope remains with them which can help them get over the hump and slowly work towards freedom.

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"Some pressed up against the bars to see [the fire]. There was nothing. Only the darkness of night" (Wiesel 25).

A literary device that Wiesel constantly uses throughout the book is symbolism, and the two symbols he uses in this chapter are fire and night. This chapter introduces the appearance of Mrs. Schächter, a woman greatly affected by the loss of her husband and two older sons. She starts seeing fires after the third night on the train, but only at night. Here, Wiesel uses fire to symbolize danger and destruction, or simply the Nazis. Mrs. Schächter seeing it before arriving at the camp foreshadows the horrors of what will happen there. She also only sees this fire at night, and Wiesel uses the night to symbolize God's abandonment of them, since God is synonymous with light and goodness to them. But when it's night, the Jews feel the absence of God and, along with that, the absence of hope.

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“Moishe was not the same. The joy in his eyes was

gone. He no longer sang. He no longer mentioned

either God or Kabbalah. He spoke only of what he

had seen. But people not only refused to believe

his tales, they refused to listen” (Wiesel 7). This quote connects to the essential question “How is empathy a seed of social action” because Moishe had seen what was going on and no one believed him. He lost his joy and curiosity because he was in such fear of what was going to happen to him and the people close to him and no one would listen. It was not until after the bad things he had spoken of happened that the people around Moishe believed him. In society, empathy is not given often unless it benefits the one giving it. If they had listened and empathized with Moishe maybe some “social action” could have been taken and helped save them all. But, because it wasn’t they all suffered with him.

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In chapter 2 it states, “Who had screamed? It was Mrs. Schachter. Standing in the middle of the car, in the faint flightering through the windows, she looked like a withered tree in a field of wheat. She was howling” (Wiesel 25).

This passage connects to the essential question because Wiesel successfully uses his simile to reveal that Ms. Schachter was the angriest and most hysterical so she stood out from the others. Because Mrs. Schachter was already suffering being separated from her family, the whole situation was even more tough for her. The descriptive words help me visualize that she was like a withered tree that was lifeless and alone with agony. The withered tree in the middle of a field of wheat could be a symbol of Jews’ despair and abandonment during the Holocaust.

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"Strange-looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets and black pants, jumped into the wagon” (Wiesel 28)

Here Elie Wiesel calls the people entering creatures, and with historical evidence it can be inferred that these are Jewish prisoners. The point of Elie calling them creatures is to further show just how the Nazis were able to physically and mentally dehumanize the Jews. Making them out as non human is exactly what the Nazis wanted, and this physical treatment shows how it was possible.

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"...she looked like a withered tree in a field of wheat"(Wiesel 25).

The author compares Mrs. Schachter to a withered tree in this scene. Mrs. Schachter is a woman, who has gone mad from water deprivation. Along with the loss of her husband and sons, she starts to act out by screaming fire. In this chapter, we see the reactions and feelings from others to her crazy delusions. This specific quote is a simile, and it adds a lot to her character. This comparison gives the readers a good picture on how Mrs. Schacter is acting. We really get to picture what she looks like, and with this simile, we know she is really worn out. She must be tired from all the travel they have gone through. They are all living on barely any food or water. Mrs. Schachter is a withered tree.

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“Confidence soared. Suddenly we felt free of the previous nights' terror. We gave thanks to God” (Wiesel 27).

All throughout the first few chapters, the Jews attempt to keep themselves stable despite an incredibly difficult situation. This was done by focusing on small wins and everything that could possibly give them hope. They took life one day at a time, living in the moment, and assuming the best of their situation. No matter what happened the day before, and not knowing what was to come, confidence and hope was spread about their situation. The Jews didn't want to believe that things were hopeless, which in one way allowed the full depth of the situation not to settle in their minds. They chose this hope and perseverance by keeping wishes for the future and living in the moment, focusing on all of the positive they could find.

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"'They think I'm mad,' he whispered  and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes. Once, I asked him the question: 'Why do you want people to believe you so much? In your place I would not care whether they believed me or not… ' He closed his eyes, as if to escape time. "You don't understand,'  he said in despair. 'You cannot understand'" (Wiesel 7).

In the town of Sighet, the people did not want to be compassionate or empathic towards the story that Moishe the Beadle had, even if they may have thought he was mad. If they had just considered and thought about what he had to say, they may have been able to get out of town before it was too late and even save themselves. Being empathetic could have helped to save them and even if they did not understand Moishe, they could connect with him and try to hear him.

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In chapter 2, Wiesel states, "The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing
eyes" (Wiesel 21). This quote relates to the essential question because Wiesel uses this metaphor to symbolize the destruction and terror the Germans have put the Jews through. Although they were not exactly being "consumed" by fire, it was very close to what the Germans did to the Jews. Wiesel uses the metaphor of when he looks at the stars and only see's fire that is rapidly spreading because the fire represents how the Jew population are being deported and tortured by the Germans. However, he also explains that if this fire were ever to be extinguished, no stars would be left, and there would be "unseeing eyes." Wiesel uses this metaphor to foreshadow some coming events because he explains that if the Jews were to ever be freed from the capture of the Germans, no Jew would be left alive, and there would be no witnesses to their torture- other than the other Jews or the Germans. In other words, this entire quote was a metaphor that foreshadowed many upcoming events.

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“He no longer mentioned God or Kabbalah. He spoke only of what he had seen. But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen”(Wiesel 25).

This quote connects to the essential question, “How is empathy a seed of social action?”. After Moishe returned and told he town what he had gone though, in the forest, people viewed him as crazy. By not believing him, and showing no empathy, they were unprepared for when the Nazis had come to their homes. This goes to show how empathy is a seed of social action, because without realizing the damage something does to others, one does not realize the damage it might do to themselves, making them careless and the oppressor more powerful.

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"The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear...We would no longer have to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled stares. No more fear. No more anguish"(Wiesel 11-12).
This quote illustrates how the Germans oppressed and dehumanized the Jews by forcing them to convert there community into essentially a prison. However, some people found hope in the belief that the the "prison" protected them from hate and hostility and allowed them to only live with people close to them.

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" "Who knows, they may be sending us away for our own good. The front is getting closer, we shall soon hear the guns. And then surely the civilian population will be evacuated..." "(Wiesel 21).

Although the community is under Nazi control they keep hope. In this quote, the people are hoping that people are coming to free them from the oppressive Nazis. This type of thinking, this hope, is what is keeping them from facing the true reality of their situation. If they where to step back and look at where they where, in a ghetto set up by Nazis, they would see that they are facing great despair, dehumanization and oppression, but they looked to hope to guard their fears of that. It's almost as if hope is used as a wall, keeping all fear out and keeping all of the good emotions in.

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"The few days we spent here went by pleasantly enough, in relative calm. People rather got along" (Wiesel 21).

Despite the uncertainty of the situation, the Jews managed to remain hopeful. Instead of enduring the despair presented to them by their oppressors, the Jews turned to one another for courage and optimism. With this newfound hope, the Jews were able to endure the hardships of everything they faced.

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"I wanted to return to Sighet to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time. Life? I no longer care to live. I am alone. But I wanted to come back to warn you. Only no one is listening to me” (Wiesel 7).

When Moishe had returned with his own experience of his old neigbors future he came to give a warning, to help save them, prevent them from going through what he did. Even when he described what happened, when he made it clear he did not want money, people pushed him away or called him mad. If the people were to empathize, listen, or try to understand something would have been done, their own escort from Sighet to camps could have beenn avoided, but they refused to see his trouble, it hadn't effected them after all, and it just seemed crazy.

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“There was joy, yes, joy. People must have thought there could be no greater torment in God's hell than that of being stranded here, on the sidewalk” (Wiesel 16).

The jews in this situation hadn't been able to imagine something worse than their current circumstances therefore they were able to believe that it would only begin to get better. The reason being it is hard for a person to completely understand a worse situation if they haven't yet experienced it and they definitely didn't envision being brought to an area just to be slaughtered.

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"You cannot understand. I was saved miraculously. I succeeded in coming back. Where did I get my strength? I wanted to return to Sighet to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time" (Wiesel 7). In chapter 1 Moishe felt the pain his people felt when they were killed which spurred him to try and save the rest of his town.

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"Of course, there still were unpleasant moments. Every day,
the Germans came looking for men to load coal into the military
trains. Volunteers for this kind of work were few. But apart from
that, the atmosphere was oddly peaceful and reassuring." (Wiesel 12)
This quote shows that the Germans were already dehumanizing the Jews by making them do harsh labor and volunteer for many things despite them not wanting to volunteer. They were beginning the process of dehumanization by making the Jews work for them despite this the Jews were hopeful were at peace because they were reassuring themselves that nothing worse could happen.

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"The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing
eyes" (Wiesel 21).
This quote shows that Wiesel uses literary devices effectively to achieve purpose and in this situation, he uses a metaphor to show how the Germans were dehumanizing and oppressing the Jews. When Wiesel used the words, "consuming" by conflagration, although they weren't actually being consumed by fire, this is effective because it shows how bad they are being treated. When he explains that it is rapidly spreading, this represents the Jews rapidly being deported and killed. Wiesel made a good use of a metaphor to achieve this purpose.

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“There are a thousand and one gates allowing entry into the orchard of mystical truth”(Wiesel 5).

This excerpt uses “library devices, as it depicts an image of gates and truth and one can compare this to Adam and Eve and the truth of how Adam and Eve found knowledge in the garden of “mystical truth”. This is an example of Wiesel’s use  of imagery and library resources and he is using this quote to engage the reader and show how Moishe in the quote uses an example of god and they are praying in the novel.

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"Yes, we even doubted his resolve to exterminate us.

Annihilate an entire people? Wipe out a population dispersed throughout so many nations? So many millions of people! By what means? In the middle of the twentieth century!" (Wiesel, 8)
Wiesel uses this quote to show the core of the Nazi hatred of Jews. Their racism was built around hate and prejudice, and so they were able to dehumanize the Jews to themselves and their people. In this way racism and prejudice, rooted in hate, destroy any roots of apathy towards the them of them vs us.

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"Tragically for those who had already been deported, it would be too late. As for us, chances were that we would be allowed to go on with our miserable little lives until the end of the war." (Wiesel 21).

The Jews of Sighet refused to believe that what happened to their peers would happen to themselves. They would tell stories and ideas of a "vacation" that no one truly believed in order to keep hope and raise their spirits. The Jews believed they could persevere through the persecution maybe even until the war was over. They were given opportunities to escape both early in the book and later at this point when their friend Maria suggest they leave the ghetto to a safer shelter.

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"Moshe had changed. There was no longer any joy inn his eyes. He no longer sang. He no longer talked to me of God or of the cabbala, but only what he had seen"(Wiesel 4).

Moishe had changed he escaped to warn the people about what is happening yet no one believed. He came back to help but it looked these people didn't want help. They would just ignore his stories and wouldn't take the help. If they had believed Moishe from the beggining maybe they could of avoided camps.

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"NIGHT. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes" (21).

Wiesel claims that the Jews did not want the night to pass quickly, implying that the night and their sleep was an escape from the impending doom that was to meet them. The stars were also used as a metaphor for the "fire" of fear and hate that was consuming them, taking over the night sky (their peace).

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One way that the Jews in Sighet chose hope and perseverance over despair in the face of dehumanization and oppression is by looking at the "positive" side of things in a delusional way, perhaps, in an effort to not accept what was happening.  In Chapter 1, Wiesel writes that "The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear. In fact, we felt this was not a bad thing; we were entirely among ourselves. A 11 small Jewish republic…A Jewish Council was appointed, as well as a Jewish police force, a welfare agency, a labor committee, a health agency—a whole governmental apparatus" (Wiesel 11-12).  Thus, despite that they were surrounded by barbed wire and that they knew that something was going on, they decided to find reasons why the ghetto's were a "good" thing so that they would not have to accept what was happening. This is one way how the Jews chose hope and perseverance over despair in the face of dehumanization and oppression.

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"The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don't die of it" (Wiesel 10).

An author effectively uses literary devices to achieve a purpose because it helps interpret and understand the greater depth of the ideas and it provides more information about what the theme of the story is. Symbolism is used to show the symbol of the star and that when the Jews wear it, they will be killed, Elie's and his dad believe the star is a meaning for there religion and it won't hurt to wear it.

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"Night. No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly. The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes"(Wiesel 18).

This relates to the essential question because the author used a literary device, metaphor, in this quote. The metaphor symbolizes how much pain, destruction and terror they are going through. Those "stars" were eating them, hurting them but the stars represent the germans. The jews are constantly in terror because of the germans therefore they are the stars. When Wiesel says "dead stars, dead eyes" it represents if they ever get freed there would be no jews alive. This quote used literary devices to express the people on what the germans are doing to them and how much terror there is.

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Empathy is a seed of social action because social action happens when the magnitude of one's suffering is understood, striking a cord within the responder that makes them fully compelled to act. When Moishe came back from the forced labor camp in the first chapter and tried to share his story, Elie tried, "to understand his grief. But all... [he] felt was pity" (Wiesel 7). People could not fathom Moishe's pain and therefore were not able to empathize with him. Without this empathy, there was no action or effort to assist the suffering. There is a difference between feeling poorly for someone and having the empathy or the connection/calling to make a change. A general lack of understanding and disbelief at what Moishe and the other survivors went though was what stopped the villagers from doing something.

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“ To the last moment, people clung to hope” (Wiesel 15).

There are times in which the only thing one can do is hold on to hope.  It is the only thing that keeps others going until the end. Hope is what allows others to continue the race, to continue the way of life because there's no other choice. One can either choose to give up and let the problems take over or choose to stand strong with hope and keep going.

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"[Moishe] no longer mentioned either God or Kabbalah. He spoke only of what he had seen. But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen. Some even insinuated that he only wanted their pity" (Wiesel 7).

This quote directly connects with EQ #3 because it is showing how people are willing to not believe you if they do not understand you or even try to understand you which could lead to them shunning you out in the open. It is shown that because Moishe was sharing something that seemed so bizarre and out of place, people didn't want to believe it and would rather believe he has gone crazy and made up a bunch of false stories.

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"Look at the fire! Look at this flames! Over there!" (Wiesel 27).

This quote connects to the EQ because the author uses a metaphor. The fire symbolizes the fear and the dangers ahead of them. He also uses foreshadowing through Mrs. Schachter as a way to warn the other characters about what would happen to them.