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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. 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. ."..
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