Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel
The Jews in the Holocaust went through terrible hardships that stripped them of their rights and the ability to be human. In Night by Elie Wiesel, he tells his story of his experience in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. He explains what he felt and also the things that they did to him and his father, who sadly died in the end. The Nazis slowly dehumanize them as the story progresses through taking the things they own, taking away their identities, and starving them. These put a struggle on Elies mind and sometimes brought him and his father closer to each other. Elie and the other victims of the Holocaust had all of their belongings taken when the Germans arrived in Elie’s hometown of Sighet. Valuables were taken and they were not allowed to own
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This piece of evidence shows that they were unable to own them because they would have been killed. Elie for the first time saw his family dynamic change. In the book it states,”My father went down to the cellar and buried our savings.” “Sometimes she would stop and gaze at us in silence.” Elie is now seeing his family fall apart as they struggle to listen to the orders.Taking people’s valuables can push them closer and closer to dehumanization. Sometimes just having a name or having your own hairstyle can change a person and their identity. Taking these things away can strip a person of themselves. In Night Elie says,”A-7713”(Wiesel 42). People were not even called by their names and were instead given numbers. Elie says,”From then on, I had no other name.”(Wiesel 42) Elie loses his name and he is dehumanized because that was a part of his identity. His name was replaced by numbers and throughout the book he is actually called by those numbers by a lot of people. The only person who called him by his actual name was his father. Changing people's names to numbers can dehumanize them and take away the one thing that separates them from everyone
This piece of evidence shows that they were unable to own them because they would have been killed. Elie for the first time saw his family dynamic change. In the book it states,”My father went down to the cellar and buried our savings.” “Sometimes she would stop and gaze at us in silence.” Elie is now seeing his family fall apart as they struggle to listen to the orders.Taking people’s valuables can push them closer and closer to dehumanization. Sometimes just having a name or having your own hairstyle can change a person and their identity. Taking these things away can strip a person of themselves. In Night Elie says,”A-7713”(Wiesel 42). People were not even called by their names and were instead given numbers. Elie says,”From then on, I had no other name.”(Wiesel 42) Elie loses his name and he is dehumanized because that was a part of his identity. His name was replaced by numbers and throughout the book he is actually called by those numbers by a lot of people. The only person who called him by his actual name was his father. Changing people's names to numbers can dehumanize them and take away the one thing that separates them from everyone