Dehumanization in Night Essay Example
Dehumanization in Night, an autobiographical book written by Elie Wiesel, is the process in which Nazis reduced the Jews in their minds as objects that were an inconvenience to the Germans. Night is a perfect example of the topic of dehumanizing because it identifies Jews getting stripped of their perception of identity, acting barbaric for a chance at food, and degrading their sense of dignity.
Getting stripped of the perception of identity is a major form of dehumanization and can mentally affect a person. In Night, one piece of evidence that shows this type of behavior starts when Elie Wiesel and the fellow prisoners are forced to take off all their clothes and other items on them. Elie recalled that “For us, this was the true equality: nakedness”(32). Elie and the fellow prisoners only felt equal whenever they were stripped of everything they possessed physically and mentally. The Nazis had taken everything from the Jews until they were left for nothing, even taking the gold from their teeth. For the Germans, Jews were just objects that could be thrown away after being scrapped up. Another piece of evidence to show how cruel and traumatizing the Nazis were can be seen whenever the prisoners, including Elie, were told to line up to receive an engraving on their left arms which signified their new “names.” Elie states that he “became A-7713. After that I had no other name” (39). The Jews had become mere numbers to help rationalize their actions. The Germans had stripped them of even their own names and turned them into numbered objects with no humanity left inside. Elie had finally realized that God would not be able to save them from the horrors they are about to experience. He loses all his faith and morale that everything will go back to normal and all the Jews would be normal humans again.
When a human is forced to act barbaric they suffer a tremendous amount of psychological damage. Night has many pieces of evidence proving this concept of human nature.
While the Jews were in the camp, they were starving waiting for their death. Elie notices that “a man appeared, crawling like a worm in the direction of the cauldrons. Hundreds of men crawled with him, scraping their knees with his on the gravel. Every heart trembled, but with envy above all. This man had dared” (56-57). The man is willing to risk his whole life for a sliver of food. The lack of basic necessities leads to people losing their minds and sanity to achieve what they want. Another example of this behavior is when Elie and the other prisoners notice the man crawling towards the food and instead of joining them, they get angered. Elie stated that “jealousy devoured us, burned us up like straw. We never thought for a moment of admiring him. Poor hero, committing suicide for a ration of soup! In our thoughts we were murdering him” (57). Although the man is doing a heroic act of going for the food, the prisoners including Elie are filled with jealousy and anger. Humans act differently whenever they are stripped from their basic needs and will forget everything but hate. Elie starts to lose all of his human characteristics and begins to realize the situation he is put in that is life or death. He begins from an average boy who is faithful in God, to a child filled with anger and loss of faith in ever returning back home.
The last topic of dehumanization covered in Night is degrading the sense of dignity in a human being. Dignity is one's sense of pride in themselves and their self-respect. Losing dignity means losing the characteristics of being human. One event where we see such sense getting degraded is when Elie and other fellow Jews are on a wagon traveling whenever the workman did something to amuse himself. Elie stated that “one day when we had stopped, a workman took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon. There was a stampede. Dozens of starving men fought each other to the death for a few crumbs. The German workmen took a lively interest in this spectacle” (95). The Jewish men had turned on each other just for a savor of food and were ready to kill to achieve that. People will go to far lengths to achieve the basic necessities in life and will even kill their own kind to get to it. The last piece of evidence we see is whenever the prisoners were freed from the Germans and immediately turned to food rather than family. Elie stated that “Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves into the provisions. That’s all we thought about. Not of revenge, not of our parents. Nothing but bread” (109). Even after being set free from the shackles that made the Jews animals, their first priority was to get food instead of reuniting with family. The Jews had become dehumanized to the point that they would rather have a slice of bread over the bond of family. Elie and the other Jews had changed drastically throughout the book. Now, Elie had learned the pain of the world and how God will never be there in dangerous times regarding life and Death. He has felt pain and suffering to the point where he doesn’t even remember his own face.
Dehumanization is a major topic in genocide including getting stripped of the perception of identity, barbaric acts for a chance at food, and degrading the sense of dignity in a group of people. Many genocides happen over the years including some that are taking place right now. Dehumanization physically and mentally breaks people to the point of lifelong trauma and PTSD.
