Night By Elie Wiesel Dehumanization Analysis

Words: 529
Pages: 3
Open Document
The holocaust was a devastating moment for the tormented followers of Judaism. Before it was believed that the Jews were the primary reason Germany lost thousands of soldiers in World War I, leading to harassment escalating as time passed by. Hitler proclaimed to deprive the Jews from their religion in hopes to efface their beliefs from the German race. The actuality for those who lived through it was traumatizing because of the pain the Jews endured. As more survivors voiced their experience people have become more and more enlightened to just how extremely cruel the holocaust really was. Concentration camps, forced labor, and death were not the only aspects the Jews went through during the terrible event. In the novella, Night, by Elie Wiesel dehumanization was a large degrading facet, causing all Jewish people to lose their identity, stripping them of individualism, no longer seen …show more content…
Wiesel illustrates the SS officers as a large man with “...the neck of a bull...fleshy lips, [and] hands that [resembled] a wolf’s paw.” all characteristics of a beast, whereas the Jewish prisoners were seen as “cattle in the slaughterhouse” weak animals with the only the option to walk into their death (Weisel 31, 48). This comparison shows the dramatic change in both roles, in addition comes to show that labels were demeaning to the SS officers, although many of them were Jewish too. Granted, many of the labels were more dehumanizing to the Jews rather than the guards. Wiesel points out how the Jews were often called “flea-ridden dog[s]” and much more, providing an idea of how low the Jews were seen (Weisel 85). Such degrading aspects comes to show how the Jews lost their identity, and gained another through labels. Labels destroy the barrier between an object and a person, and without that barrier people lose their self
Show More

Related Documents: Night By Elie Wiesel Dehumanization Analysis

The Book Thief: Movie Analysis

during the Holocaust? In Night by Elie Wiesel, the book reveals the experience of Elie going through concentration camps with his Dad until they are finally freed. In the film titled The Book Thief a girl named Liesel was adopted by a family and they ended up harboring a Jew that was sick, and supposed to be in a concentration camp, which is being racist towards Jews. Both the book Night and the film The Book Thief share a common thematic topic of dehumanization: The book Night suggests that abuse is…

Words 583 - Pages 3

Night Essay

Brittany Greenbaum Night Summary/Analysis 1/17/13 Night is a memoire written by Eliezer Wiesel about his personal encounters as a Jewish teenager during the Holocaust. Eliezer was raised in an orthodox family in Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania. Night narrates Elie’s daily life in the camps until the point of his liberation from Buchenwald at age 16. Elie and his father as well as countless Jews were faced with struggles of survival, separation of family, never-ending hunger, torture and loss…

Words 619 - Pages 3