Knowing, Belief, and Madness

The difference between knowing madness and belief is that if you believe something you don't have facts but you aren't crazy about it and its not proven wrong. If you are mad you are crazy about something that is proven wrong. In the book the book Mrs. Schachter was mad because she was thought that there was a fire outside the cattle cars window and it was proven that there was none when everyone else in the cattle car saw that there was no fire. Knowing belief is shown when everyone on the cattle cars still thought that they might be going to a better place but no one knew for sure if it the place that they were going was going to be good or bad. Knowing belief is when someone says when they are 3 that 5+5=11 they believe that but it becomes mad when someone that is 10 still believes that 5+5=11.

Knowing is when you have proof of something. You need to have some kind of evidence or you have to have seen it for yourself. Believing something means that you may have some proof or evidence but you haven't seen it for yourself which means you have to trust the person or thing that is giving you the proof or evidence. For example in Night on pg 39 "We thought that nothing could frighten us anymore." After seeing so much they BELIEVED that nothing could be worse. Madness is a form of crazy I guess you could say. When you don't know what your talking about or talking crazy. You may not be right in the head either.

I think knowing is when you have a strong belief and have something to support it.

I think belief is when you are taking a leap in the dark. No evidence of where you are going, but you think, you believe it is the right way.

I think madness is more about who believes you. If you are mad then you have no credibility because you can't think about anything, but the thing driving you mad.

Mrs. Schachter on the train believed that she had seen the fire, even though there was no evidence. Everyone on the train knew that there was nothing there because they looked and saw nothing. "Some pressed against the bars to see. There was nothing." She was thought as a mad woman because she had her husband and two older left on another train and "The separation had totally shattered her." People thought she had just been an emotional wreck and they just said "She is mad, poor woman..."

What does it mean to know?

To know means to actually have a fact inside your head, and realizing what that fact means and if it is true or not. For example, I know that my birthday is in November because it is a fact- it has been written on my birth certificate and I celebrate my birthday on the same day in that month every year. These two things supporting the fact/the thing I know actually make it true, which really does make it something that I know rather than something that I just believe. You need to have evidence to support something that you know, which doesn't really apply to something that you believe. In Night, Ellie knew that the Germans were killing Jews by throwing them in the fire pit because he saw it with his own eyes, "Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes ... children thrown into the flames." Ellie knew that the Germans had planned to kill them because he had real evidence.



What does it mean to believe?

To believe something is to think (not know) that something is real without having any evidence. Someone may have told you some 'evidence' but that doesn't mean it is true. For example, I used to believe that Santa Clause was real, but only based on Christmas movies and what my parents told me. But, was all of that evidence actually true? That is believing. While in the cattle cars, the Jews believed that they might have been going to a good place, because they haven't heard of Auschwitz before ("But we were pulling into a station. Someone near a window read to us: "Auschwitz." Nobody had ever heard that name."). Since the Germans hadn't told the Jews specifically where they were going, the Jews had to believe what each other were saying and some of them got/believed the idea that there was still hope and that they were going to a good place (rater than a concentration camp). They had no evidence of where they were going, which made them have their beliefs.



What does it mean to be "mad" (crazy)?

Define and support with a quote from Night AND a real world example.

Being mad is making a belief out of something that doesn't exist. For example, there are mental patients/pshycotic people who get put into asylums for saying that something is there, but it really isn't. For example, in Night, Mrs. Schachter says that she sees a fire, "Look! Look at this fire! This terrible fire! Have mercy on me!" Even though the Jews found out their fate dealing with fire later, it's not like there was a fire anywhere when Mrs. Schachter was screaming that she saw one. This makes her mad- she is making beliefs/claiming that she sees/knows something that isn't really there.

Knowing something is understanding and comprending a certain thing or subject. "I will never forget that night" is a quote about never forgetting that moment, knowing what happened. A real world example is that I know that the holocaust is a real event.







Believing something is thinking something is real but when it might not be real. "God is testing us" is a quote that they believe that a supernatural power is causing the pain and "trials" they are facing. Religion is a real world example because people believe in a supernatural power that may or may not exist.




Being mad is believing in something that is physical and not being there or not believed/accepted by people. "Look at the fire! Look at the flames! Over there!" is a quote by the mad women because there were no flames fire or anything of that nature but this may be a prediction Crystal Night because of the fire reference. A real world example is a insanasylum because of the insane people saying things that are not there or are not sane

To know means that you understand teh facts of the situtation, but you may not acknowledge or have faith in these facts/knowledge. This is when someone is in denial; they understand the situation, but can't accept the reality for what it is.

Good clarification that knowing and accepting are two different things. Hoffman
Quote: "So many events had taken place in just a few hours that I had completeley lost all track of time...Surley it was a dream." Here, Elie knows that the time since leaving the ghetto and arriving at the concentration camp has been incredibly short, but he can't even believe that he is in the concentration camp, even though that is the reality around him.

Real World Example: In the Real World, an example of this denial is in the 5-Stages of Grief, which ususally applies to death. During the 5-stages of Grief, people go through stages such as anger, bargaining, denial, depression, and eventually acceptance. During the stages before acceptance, the person going through the grief is essentially in denial about the thing they are grieving for.



To believe something is to completley accept or understand it, even if there is no factual proof that it exsists. This can go hand in hand with knowing, as you may *know* that one thing does not exsist, but you still *believe* that it does.

Also, like here the idea that belief does require acceptance. Hoffman

Quote: "Freed from the barbers' clutches, we began to wander about the crowd, finding friends, acquaintences. Every encounter filled us with joy-yes, joy: Thank God! You are still alive!" Here we can see that Elie and the people around him still have hope; they still believe that in the end thing will be ok, or that there is still hope, when by many definitions there is none. Around them, the reality tells them there is no hope, and yet they still believe that there is.

Real World Example: In the real world, the best example of this is religion. In religion, one will believe that something is true; whether it be a God or Gods, a single belief or rule, and even though there may not be any factual evidence to support these beliefs or to disporve them, the followers of these beliefs still hold them to be true. In essence, they believe regardless of what the reality may or may not be, and make their



To be mad or crazy can be thought of in two ways: either a form of belief beyond just believing, or simply a mental illness. In terms of belief beyond belief, this is because someone who is crazy can take what the belief, while totally disregarding reality,What is reality in this case? Hoffman and transforming what they percieve in reality into what they belive. In terms of a mental illness, this takes the form of an illness such as Schizophrenia, in which reality becomes distorted for someone with it.

Quote: "'Fire! I see a fire!'...'It;s nothing, Mother! There's nothing there...'" Here, we see that the Madame truly and firmly believes, and probably percieves, that there is a fire of some sort, regardless of what reality or anyone else says.

Real World Example: Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder in which it is hard or impossible at times to tell between what is real and not real; this is due to very powerful hallucinations. This is a good example of what being "Crazy" or "Mad" can be; even if the person is a genius, if they have a mental disorder such as this, they can't even tell what the actual facts are, and so their "world" is shaped by their hallucinations *and* reality at once.

knowing something means you know it physically exists.  meoshe knew that there were camps were they kept jews, because he went to one.  a real world example is how i know that 2 plus 2 is 4.  Believing in somthing is when you think it is real, or atleast not fake.  Santa is a real world example because you can believe in him and think he exists.  an example from the book is that when they arrived at the camp they thought they were going to a better place.  to be mad means that you are crazy, and see or hear thing that arent there.  Like the lady who thought she was seeing fire.  a real life example is that like people who see ghosts or stuff.