Essay/Term paper: Dawn

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Cliff Notes

Dawn by Elie Wiesel Chapter 1 Takes place in Palestine.

The narrator knows that he has to kill a man tomorrow. He

doesn"t know who it is but he knows what he has to do. The

man that was going to die was an Englishman. The reason

that he had to kill was because there is a war. Beggar. A

man that taught the narrator the difference between night and

day. Narrator met him while he was at the synagogue. The

man wears black clothes. The narrator met the man when he

was 12 years old. The narrator, as a child admitted to the

beggar that he was definitely afraid of the beggar. "Night is

purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and

dreaming." (4) The man wants to teach the narrator to

distinguish between night and day. The beggar taught the

narrator to look into the dusk and there would be a face that

would appear. Night has a face and day does not. The face

that appears is of a dead person. The night before the

narrator does what he has to do, he looks into the night and

sees his own face. There is going to be an execution at

dawn. All of the executions happened at dawn. The

"Movement" always kept their word. A month earlier there

was one of their fighters that had been on a terrorist

operation. He was hauled in by the police and they found

weapons on him. They hung the man. By law this is what

they were supposed to do. This was the tenth death

sentence by the mandatory power in Palestine. The "Old

Man" decided that things had gone far enough and now he

was not going to allow the English to rule any longer. The

Old Man ordered that a military officer be kidnapped. They

kidnapped Captain John Dawson who walked alone at

night. (6) This made the country very tense. The English

ordered a 24 hour curfew. They searched every house, and

also arrested hundreds of suspects. Tanks were stationed at

the crossroads, barbed wire barricades at street corners.

They did not find the hostage. The High Commissioner of

Palestine said that the whole country would be held

responsible for the murder of the Captain, if he was in fact

murdered. A few people got in touch with the Old Man and

told him not to go too far. They wanted the man that was

supposed to die, to live. If he died than the Captain would

die. The mother of the Captain demanded that the English

give up the young Jew so that she could have her son back.

The men told her that "The Jews will never do it." (8) The

Palestinians would not give up the Captain because it would

show a sign of weakness. The English would not agree to

the pardon because it would show a sign of weakness. It

was announced over radio that the Jew was to be executed

the next day. They said nothing about the Captain but

everyone knew that he would die also. The narrator asked

Gad who was going to kill the Captain who was going to kill

the Captain. He replied "You are." It was an order from the

Old Man. To Gad it was not a big deal. The narrator was

amazed by the whole thing. Definite connection to Night.

Foreshadow of events. Not wanting to Kill. But being

ordered. Chapter 2 The narrator"s name is Elisha. Age 18.

"Gad had recruited me for the Movement and brought me to

Palestine. He had made me into a terrorist." (11) The

narrator was held in Buchenwald, a prison camp during the

World War. The Americans liberated it and then they

offered to send him home. He rejected it because he knew

that his parents were dead and that his house and lands were

under the control of foreign hands. He went to Paris and that

is where he met Gad. He was offered asylum in France. He

wanted to learn the language and go to school. but Gad

came into his life. "The study of philosophy attracted me

because I wanted to understand the meaning of the events of

which I had been the victim." (12) "In the concentration

camp I had cried out in sorrow and anger against God and

also against man, who seemed to have inherited only the

cruelty of his creator." (12) Gad, one night, knocked on the

narrators door and walked in. The narrator did not have any

acquaintances in Paris. The person at the door said that he

knew everything about him. The narrator compares Gad to

God. "He said "I am Gad" in the same way the Jehovah said

"I am that I am."" (14) Also compared him to Meshulah, the

mysterious messenger of fate to whom nothing is impossible.

(15) "In the Hassidic legends the messenger is always

portrayed standing..." (16) the man would not sit down. The

struggle of the group was to make their homeland free from

outside intervention. "This was the first story I had ever

heard in which the Jews were not the ones to be afraid."

(17) Gad "Here is the dawn. In our land it is very different.

Here the Dawn is gray; in Palestine it is red like fire." (19)

"You are listening to the voice of freedom . . ." (20) Was

said by a girl every night on the Movements own radio

station. There were only about 5 people who knew who this

woman was. The narrator and Gad were 2 of them. Gad

and the woman were lovers. The English wanted to get hold

of her identity just as bad as they wanted to know the Old

Man. John and David. People from the bible. The narrator

walks over to look in the mirror. He only sees eyes. He was

told "Death . . . is a being without arms or legs or mouth or

head; it is all eyes. If you ever meet a creature with eyes

everywhere. You can be sure that it is death." (22-23) The

story started with a child crying and now as the narrator

begins to sob because of what he has to do, the child stops

crying. Same age group as in Night. Terrorist by choice.

Jews fighting the group of people who helped save them

during the war. Held in prison camp during the war. Parents

died in camps. Stranger comes to door and walks right in.

Both stories have Jews fighting for freedom. Chapter 3 The

narrator believes that he has killed before in raids on camps

and convoys but he did not feel bad about planning the

raids. They were at night. The movements plan was to kill as

many English as possible. That was all. The Captain was

being held at a Professor of Language"s house. This is where

they held prisoners and people wanted by the police. There

was a dungeon built in the basement. When the dogs

searched the house they smelled him and came within inches

of him but there was a wall between them. For the first 6

weeks that the narrator was in Palestine, he was taught how

to use a variety of weapons and how to kill people

effectively with bare hands. And how to escape from any

prison. On the last day of training a masked man came to

talk to them. The narrator believes that it was the old man.

The first time that the narrator killed, he and 4 others raided

a camp where they surrounded a group of soldiers and then

began firing on them. He says that he will never forget that

night. (28) The second time that he killed, he and a group of

men went and set mines on a corner of a road. When 3

trucks came around the corner one of them hit a mine. The

other trucks stopped and the men got out of the back. They

were all killed. When he goes out to kill he calls it "putting on

the gray colors of the SS." The woman came home and she

stated the Old Man had been crying. (30) One night they

had an operation where they went onto an army base with

false documents that stated that they were supposed to pick

up Tommy guns and ammunition. They almost got away but

the man at the gate received a message that the order was

not in proper authority. They already had everything loaded

and they clubbed the gate guard over the head. The guard

woke up and started firing at the group. David got shot and

that is when he was captured. The narrator was not there

but Gad was the organizer of the operation and takes blame

for the capture. The narrator is used to losing friends every

day. "This is war." is used frequently. Like they are trying to

justify what they are doing. Escape from any prison. Training

came a little late. Losing lots of friends to war. Chapter 4

One man was reported on by a neighbor and he went into

an asylum where a friend worked. The police finally found

him and the doctor said that the man thought that he was

dead. They gave him 24 hours of interrogation and then they

took him back to the asylum. They slapped him, and got no

reaction, they also tried to make him eat, and he would not.

Playing dead had changed the mans hair colour from brown

to white. Gideon was called the Saint. Because he looked

like a Jewish saint and because he always remained

inconspicuous. His father was a rabbi. The woman was

saved by a head cold. The police brought a group of women

in and had an analyst listen to their voices. The voices were

compared to the voice on the radio. The woman had a cold

that day and her voice was not the same. She was quickly

eliminated from the suspects. (40) The narrator was once

saved by laughter. During his stay at a prison camp, he was

supposed to go outside in very cold weather in his rags. The

cell block was getting cleaned. He thought that the exposure

would kill him because he had a cold. When the cleaning

crew found him the leader grabbed him by the throat. The

narrators head swelled up and he looked funny. The leader

let him go and started to laugh uncontrollably. The man

forgot his intention to kill. Catherine was a 26-27 year old

that spoke little German and while the narrator was at a

summer camp in Normandy after the war. She was the only

person that could talk to him. He did not know French and

none of the other kids except Catherine could speak

German.(48) Catherine taught him what women did to men.

LOVE? They just happened to meet back up at Palestine.

On a walk one night Catherine told him that some of the

other girls spoke German. The narrator expressed that he

had nothing to say to them. She replied. "You don"t have to

say anything, . . . all you have to do is love them." (50) She

taught him about women and how and what love is. They

went under a tree every night and she taught him how to do

many things. She liked to make love to little boys who were

going to die. This is why she was there that night. Death

playing tricks. Chapter 5 The narrator has a dream where all

of the people in the room are people that he had known or

killed. He kept on asking people why they were all there but

no one would answer. The only person that answered was

the beggar who said "This is a night of many faces." (56)

The beggar told the narrator to go and talk to a child. The

child looked like himself at that age. The boy said that all of

the people were there to witness him, the narrator, become

a murderer. They are there to help with the execution

because they know the narrator cannot do it himself. The

narrators mother could only say "Poor boy, poor boy."

They told the man in the dungeon that he was going to die at

dawn and the man said that he was hungry. The narrator

thought that it was impossible for the man to be hungry. The

stomach tells a man when he is about to die and that same

stomach told the man that he was going to die. But he was

also hungry. The little boy wants the narrator to give the

prisoner the food. The narrator states that he does not want

to be alone with the prisoner. The boy states that all of the

people that are with him will go also. The little boy told the

narrator that the ghosts do not go to the synagogue at

midnight to pray, they go to eat. Gad ended up taking the

food down to the prisoner. The narrator admits to his friends

that he is afraid. (65) He said that he was afraid to laugh at

the man. The narrator tells how his mother said that there

will always be a golden goat beside him no matter how old

or rich he gets. The narrator is extremely worried. He says

that the goat has returned to him. He lost it just as he was

going into the prison camp. Ilana, the radio girl, sounds like

the narrators mother. "He who has killed one man alone is a

killer." (69) There were two different kinds of light in the

room. White, around the living. And black, around the

ghosts. The narrator approaches the ghost of his father and

asks him not to judge. He went to the ghost of his mother

and he starts to cry. He tells her that she did not give birth to

a murderer but to a soldier. (73) The narrator sees people

that were his friends that he did not know were dead. The

boy finally speaks and says that they are not there to judge.

They are there because the narrator is there. They have

been, and always will be with him. The beggar brushed

against the narrator and he realized that the beggar was the

prophet Elijah. Gad came from watching the Captain eat and

he said that the man was not hungry but he ate with good

appetite. Dawn is at 5 o"clock and it is now 4 o"clock. Gad

handed the narrator a revolver. The narrator asked if the

prisoner had laughed. Gad replied "no" The stories that the

prisoner told were funny but Gad said that he did not laugh.

The narrator feels that David, the prisoner of the English, will

come to the rescue. The narrator wants to go down and get

to know who he is murdering. He wants to do this because

war is shooting into the night and hoping that the enemy has

been hit and is dead. You never know them though.(80) "I

had never seen a hostage before." (80) The narrator does

not want anyone, including the ghosts to go with him to the

dungeon. The Beggar states that the narrator has regained

his identity. The gun is symbolized as alive. (82) Trying to

convince himself that what he is about to do is the right thing.

Foreshadowing? Chapter 6 The cell was less stuffy than the

room that everyone was in. The hour is moving extremely

slow. "Under other circumstances he might have been my

friend." (85) The Captain knew that it was his killer. In the

bible Elisha, The name of the narrator, is the deciple of

Elijah, who has been the beggar. The Captain was about 40

and the executioner is 18. The Captain has a son about the

same age. The son does not look unhappy, but the Cap.

says that the narrator looks unhappy and has anxiety. To

block his feelings the narrator starts thinking about David.

The Captain asks for some paper for a letter that will be sent

to his son after the execution. The nazis referred to. (90) The

narrator knew an artist who had his right hand cut off by the

Nazis. The Captain had hands like the artist. The narrator

cannot hate the Captain, even though hate is needed for

murder. The narrator is going over what is going to happen

to David.(96) The Captain asks "Why must you try to hate

me ...." (97) The narrator thinks that this is a good question

and says "In order to give my action a meaning which may

somehow transcent it." (98) It is now ten to 5. From this

point on every min. is talked about. Feelings etc. Three

minutes to five and the narrator promises that he will mail the

letter the same day. The Captain does not want a blindfold.

All of the ghosts enter the room with one minute to go. The

boy ghost says that this is the first time that he has seen an

execution. (100) The Captain is smiling. The narrator asks

why and the Captain says. "I"m smiling . . . because all of a

sudden it has occurred to me that I don"t know why I am

dying." (101) The captain"s last word was the name of the

narrator. The ghosts started to leave the cell and the Captain

walked beside the little boy. A child began to cry again. For

the first time the narrator saw a face in the darkness. It was

his own. Elisha restored breath to a boy, by laying on him,

who stopped breathing.