Dehumanization and Alienation in Night and The Metamorphosis
Bailey St. Germain St. Germain
Tonya Morris
4/5th block
7 November, 2014
Dehumanization and Alienation
For generations society has been separating and categorizing mankind into stereotypes. Everyone and anyone on earth has been placed within a prospective category. If not by race, then appearance, income, or by social standing. Although sometimes mankind takes these separations to an extreme, like trying to dispose of a thousands of people, just because of their religion and beliefs. These separations and categorizations can wreak havoc on the human mind. Some even hallucinating in order to cope with the stress of what everyday life has caused them. Feeling trapped in a label you can’t seem to shed no matter how hard you work to change can be infuriating, and that constant battle of back and forth within the mind can do dangerous things. Although Wiesel writes a memoir and Kafka writes an expressionist novella, both stories use symbols to further their themes of alienation and dehumanization. Night is a memoir by Elie Wiesel. Within his enthralling narrative he depicts his period spent within Auschwitz during World War two, and how he managed to endure and outlive the camps ill-treatment. He describes his first experience in Auschwitz, upon his entrance into the camp. “Men to the left! Women to the right! Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words… I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and place where I would be leaving my mother and sister forever” (Wiesel, 29). As soon as you step foot in that appalling camp it is no longer of any St. Germain 1 importance that you have a family. The guards don’t concern themselves with the inseparability of you and your loved ones. All that is of any concern to them is that they dispose of the weak.
Tonya Morris
4/5th block
7 November, 2014
Dehumanization and Alienation
For generations society has been separating and categorizing mankind into stereotypes. Everyone and anyone on earth has been placed within a prospective category. If not by race, then appearance, income, or by social standing. Although sometimes mankind takes these separations to an extreme, like trying to dispose of a thousands of people, just because of their religion and beliefs. These separations and categorizations can wreak havoc on the human mind. Some even hallucinating in order to cope with the stress of what everyday life has caused them. Feeling trapped in a label you can’t seem to shed no matter how hard you work to change can be infuriating, and that constant battle of back and forth within the mind can do dangerous things. Although Wiesel writes a memoir and Kafka writes an expressionist novella, both stories use symbols to further their themes of alienation and dehumanization. Night is a memoir by Elie Wiesel. Within his enthralling narrative he depicts his period spent within Auschwitz during World War two, and how he managed to endure and outlive the camps ill-treatment. He describes his first experience in Auschwitz, upon his entrance into the camp. “Men to the left! Women to the right! Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words… I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and place where I would be leaving my mother and sister forever” (Wiesel, 29). As soon as you step foot in that appalling camp it is no longer of any St. Germain 1 importance that you have a family. The guards don’t concern themselves with the inseparability of you and your loved ones. All that is of any concern to them is that they dispose of the weak.
Cited: Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006.Printed Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Columbis, Ohio: The McGraw – Hill Companies, 2000.Printed