Irony: Night Chapter 1

The audience knows something that the characters in the story does not

Sarcasm. Saying one thing but meaning the opposite.

When the opposite happens of what is expected.

“The deportees were quickly forgotten. A few days after they left, it was rumored that they were in Galicia, working, and even that they were content with their fate” (Wiesel 6).

“But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen. Some even insinuated that he only wanted their pity, that he was imagining things. Others flatly said that he had gone mad” (Wiesel 7).

“Thereafter, life seemed normal once again. London Radio, which we listened to every evening, announced encouraging news...and so we, the Jews of Sighet, waited for better days that surely were soon to come” (Wiesel 7-8).

“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).

“And thus, my elders concerned themselves with all manner of things-- strategy, diplomacy, politics, and zionism [a movement for the re-establishment and protection of the Jewish nation] -- but not with their own fate” (Wiesel 8).

“The news spread through Sighet like wildfire. Soon that was all people talked about. But not for long. Optimism soon revived: The Germans will not come this far. They will stay in Budapest” (Wiesel 9).

“The Germans will not come this far. They will stay in Budapest. For Strategic reasons, for political reasons… In less than three days, German Army vehicles made their appearance on our streets” (Wiesel 9).

“Still, or first impressions of the Germans were rather reassuring” (Wiesel 9).

“Three days after he moved in, he brought Mrs. Kahn a box of chocolates. The optimists were jubilant: ‘Well? What did we tell you’” (Wiesel 10).

“‘The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…’ (Poor Father! Of what then did you die?)” (Wiesel 11).

“Little by little, life returned to ‘normal’. The barbed wire that encircled us like a wall did not fill us with real fear. In fact, we felt it was not a bad thing” (Wiesel 11).

“People thought this was a good thing. We would no longer have to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled stares. No more fear. No more anguish. We would live among Jews, among brothers” (Wiesel 12).