Dialectical Journal One Night Chapter One Analysis

The essay goes into great detail of his relationship with his father. He describes his father as cruel (65), bitter (65), and beautiful (64). He does mention the bad in length. On the flip side, he tells us some of the good as well. Throughout his storytelling, the reader gets a glimpse into his life and the way he feels. His feelings evolve during the extent of the essay.

"... , for no such crime has come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it." (Page 5)

Chapter 5: Paul explains about how unsanitary the camps are, explaining that he and his friends had gotten louses (lice) in their head, and they try to attempt to get it off. Haie tries to cheer up the rest of the soldiers by telling them that he might have got the lice from the hospital, but he is the one who laugh the most, for 30 minutes straight. After trying to get the lice off themselves, they hear that Himmelstoss got in trouble for harassing the soldiers, and the magistrate’s son caught him in the action. Hearing the news that Himmelstoss got in trouble for his wrongdoings, Paul and the rest of the group start planning out what they should do or say to Himmelstoss when he comes back to the camp. When talking about what they should do

Paragraph 1 tone : He seems nervous about this trip He says ,“We’ve all been up since midnight, starting our predive checks after a couple of restless hours of sleep, and the whole team is running on adrenaline. These are the roughest conditions I’ve dived in so far on the expedition” The way he says that they’ve been up the whole night doing checks without sleep and how this is one of the roughest conditions he has dived in so far just gives the sense of nervousness if he will make the challenge.

Pg 379- “In Sugamo prison, as he was told of Wantanbe’s fate, all Louie saw was a lost person, a life now beyond redemption. HE felt something that he had never felt for his captor before. With a shiver of amazement, he realized that it was compassion.”

1) “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment” (O’Brien 20).

One day, Equality 7-2521 who was filled with joy, sang during dinner and was told off by a Council Member. He tells the Council Member the reason that he sings is because he is happy. The Council Member then retaliates that the reason he should be happy is because he lives with his fellow brothers. After that occurrence, while in his tunnel, Equality 7-2521 meditates on the meaning of happiness and realizes that it is forbidden to be unhappy and that his brothers are unhappy because they are afraid. What makes Equality 7-2521 happy is when he is in his tunnel performing experiments and pursuing his study of light, but in order to do so, he must sneak away because to his and everyone else’s knowledge, the society in which they live in reject an individual’s freedom to pursue individual happiness because true happiness should come from living beside/with your fellow brothers. When one is only able to achieve happiness through a group of people in a society, it is to be expected that its citizens will feel as if life is meaningless and painful. From what Equality 7-2521 has witnessed, it is evident that the flame of independence inside him is growing.

An interesting passage is, “I have nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered. After my father’s death, nothing could touch me anymore” (Wiesel 82).

Chapter 4 was insightful in public opinion, because there is a lot to say about it. The political socialization unit was something we all know, but it also allows time to look into the lense of children, I looked at this more intently because I am taking a juvenile delinquency course and we read about exposure to environments as well as the family molding a child is very impactful.

“Would it be scarier if I told you that I would kill you or just hurt you really bad?”

Protagonist goal - I believe that the protagonist's goal was to act in whichever way he wanted. He never wanted to please anyone but himself.

This encounter that he describes is an important aspect of his book, in that it represents an encounter with another person struggling through the same pain, and same tourture that he is experiencing. This can be looked at as a simile towards the conditions in the country of Argentina.

They stand from the counsel, join the hands of one another and speak, not to bring the affair into great jeopardy by disagreement and their stubbornness; the affair was easy, whether they stay or remain, if only they thought on the same thing and agreed on the same thing; on the other hand they saw no security in disagreement. Until the middle of the night, the disagreement continues. At last, Cotta was overpowered, he gives up: Sabinus’s opinion overruled. It is announced that they will march at dawn, the rest of the night, (they) remain awake, since every soldier was observing their property, to see what could be carried with them, and out of the winter quarters, what he would be compelled to leave behind. This is suggested to show why they could not stay without danger, and how the danger would only increase if the soldiers become weak and want to sleep.

The book had affected the narrator to a great extent. At first he did not care for the book, until the stranger selling Bibles said “the number of pages in this book is literally infinite. No page is the first page; no page is the last”. This intrigued the narrator’s mind. After he had bought the book, he began investigating. He noted down things in the book. He began losing sleep from the investigation and when he actually got sleep, his dreams were about the book. As it states in the short story, “At night, during the rare intervals spared me by insomnia, I dreamed of the book”. He had grown an obsession with the book, which altered his lifestyle and forced him to hide the book in the library.

He writes in a language, and he uses a lot of metaphorical features. We as readers are very confused about the way he has chosen to describe the story, but we are also very fascinated by the action. So whole this short story tells us that he has had a tragic life and how he helps others achieve a good life and you can say here that he has a good point.