Merchant of Venice vs. Night

In the third marking period we had to read two books. One was Night, which was one of the core novels for tenth grade. The other book we read was actually a Shakespeare play called Merchant of Venice. Night and Merchant of Venice were very different books. First of all they were set in different time periods as well as having very different plots. Night was set during the Holocaust and was about a little Jewish boy’s experience during WW2. Merchant of Venice was set in the late 1500’s and was a story about good friends, money, and love. The two books also had very different styles. Night had a very strong and matter of fact style to it, because the author was trying to illustrate the severity of the Holocaust to the readers. Merchant of Venice was more of a love story and was written as a play, in poems with old English. Another difference between the two books is the relationships between characters in the book. In Night the friends and family relationships were being torn apart. The only other relationships in the book were between the guards and the prisoners in the camp, which were very harsh and not very loving. All throughout Night there was a lack of love in the relationships and in their lives. Merchant of Venice was a love story, so the relationships in the book were being built stronger and had a lot of love. I thought that another interesting part the two books, was the portraying of human nature. In Night a very bad and scary part of human nature was shown. Night showed how horrible and cruel people could be. Although there were the few characters that had a good heart and were nice people, the overall outlook on humans was negative. In contrast, Merchant of Venice showed a variety of different types of people. There were some mean, nice, conceded, and funny people. There were many different characters and personalities shown in Merchant of Venice but in the end everyone came together and pretty much showed the good side of human nature.

One thing they had in common was they both had Jewish people in them. Merchant of Venice had a Jewish loan shark as a main character. He was depicted as a crazy rich man who nobody really liked. Night had many Jewish people in it, but focused on a little boy and his journey through all the concentration camps. Another similarity between the two books is that they are both set in Europe. Night was set in various parts of Europe because he traveled to many different concentration camps. Merchant of Venice was set in Venice and Belmont. Also I felt that both books were prejudice against Jews. There was only one Jewish man in Merchant of Venice and he was the outcast of the town. He was a crazy and angry man who was very rich. Throughout the book he was not liked and was known as “the Jew”. This is looked at as prejudice and discrimination on Jews, which relates to the hatred towards Jewish people in the Holocaust. In Night, all the Jewish people were the ones being imprisoned and treated like dirt. So both books have the Jewish people being looked at negatively. Religion also played a part in both books; I would say it created a barrier in them. In Merchant of Venice, the only Jewish man in the town was forced to convert to Christianity at the end. Many of the Christian people did not want to deal with the Jewish man because they felt he was different. At the end everyone was very excited that he converted to Christianity. In Night, the Germans created the religion barrier. All Jewish people were suddenly worth nothing and not allowed to practice their religion. The simple difference between religions was the only reasoning behind the horrible treatment the Jewish people received.

I enjoyed the style of Night better then Merchant of Venice because it was an easy read and also had a lot of feeling in it. Merchant of Venice was very hard to understand and did not have a very interesting plot.  Night had a more continuous plot, with something going on all the time. Merchant of Venice jumped around a lot with the characters it was focusing on and where they were. I also liked Night better because it let you get inside the main characters head, and really explained what the emotional struggle for people going through the Holocaust. In Merchant of Venice I never really got to know the characters very well and couldn’t completely follow what they were thinking.