A horrifying story of a family during a time of death and war must find a way to stay together and survive one of the most horrific events in history. The novel night follows a fifteen-year- old boy who travels with his family to Auschwitz. Elie’s mother and sisters are sent to a death chamber meaning that Elie and his father are the only family they have left. Sadly, this is the tale of many Jewish families during World War II and the holocaust. While Elie is at Auschwitz he and the rest of the people at the concentration camp are put through a series of events that will hange their lives forever.
The Nazis have an evil system designed to dehumanize every Jewish person they can find. The book Night shows that the fastest way to dehumanize someone is to take away their human qualities, like individuality and compassion, and to publicly shame them. Elie Wiesel first shows that the Nazis most prominent way to dehumanize someone is to take away their name and individuality. When Elie first arrives to Auschwitz he is forced to have a tattoo on his left arm that says A-7713. Elie writes, “I became A-7713. After that I had no other name. ” (pg. 39).
This idea is also portrayed in By Any Other name by Santha Rama Rau. In her story she writes, ” ‘I am Premill, and she’ nodding in my direction ‘is Santha. ‘ The headmistress had been in India, I suppose, fifteen years or so, but she still smiled her helpless inability to cope with Indian names.. ‘ Let’s see now- Pamela for you, I think. ‘And for you ‘she said too me ‘how about Cynthia. ” In book By Any Other Name she has her name stripped from her and given a different one that has no meaning to her. Through your life you gain experiences that make your name special and makes you who you are.
A name is something that defines a person and makes them special. The Nazis main goal was to dehumanize the Jews and without a name people may feel as if they are not unique or even human, they are just a number. Another way most people express themselves is through their cloths and their hair. When Elie is being brought into the camp he and the other prisoners are stripped of their clothing and forced to shave their head. All of the people of the concentration camps are in the same clothing with the same haircut. With no way to be different they have no way to express themselves or be themselves.
This can make you feel as if you are not important and not an individual person. With no name and no way to show who you are there is no way to be yourself or feel like a normal human. Towards the end of the book there is a clear sense that there is no compassion for others, but that every man is for himself and no one else matters. “He was holding one hand to his heart. At first thought he had received a blow to his chest. Then I understood: he was hiding a piece of bread under his shirt. With lightning speed he pulled it out and put it to his mouth. His eyes lit up, a smile…
A shadow had lain down beside him. And this shadow threw itself over him. Stunned by the blows, the old man was crying: ‘Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me… You’re killing your father… I have bread… for you too.. for you too… ‘ He collapsed. But his fist was still clutching a small crust. He wanted to raise it to his mouth. But the other threw himself on him. The old man mumbled something, groaned, and died. Nobody cared. His son searched him, took the crust of bread, and began to devour it. He didn’t get far. Two men had been watching him. They jumped him. Others joined in.
When they ithdrew, there were two dead bodies next to me, the father and the son. ” (Page 101) This is a disturbing image that shows humans acting as animals having no compassion for another life, even if the person was their father. By taking away resources people like the son in the quote have no compassion which is a very big part of being a human and not a thing. In another horrifying story called Sold where a woman is stolen away into human trafficking and is forced to work as a sex slave, a girl named Shilpa takes a customer away from her. Shilpa will do anything if it means that she will get out of the brothel.
Taking away things and making people lose the feeling of compassion makes a person act like an animal, and this is the main goal that people want to achieve when dehumanizing Elie seeing many different variations of public brutality and shaming while at the concentration camp. ” ‘A-7713! I stepped forward. A crate! ” he ordered. They brought a crate. “Lie down on it! On your belly! ” | obeyed. no longer felt anything except the lashes of the whip ‘Twenty-four.. twenty- five! It was over. I had not realized it, but I had fainted. I came to when they doused me with cold water. I was still lying on the rate.
In a blur, I could see the wet ground next to me. Then I heard someone yell. It had to be the Kapo. I began to distinguish what he was shouting: ‘Stand up! ” This public humiliation and beating makes the prisoners feel like they are isolated and they are a piece of trash that no one cares about. This can be extremely humiliating and dehumanizing. In the book Sold the brothel owner Mumtaz uses a stick covered in hot chili to stick someone. inside them and let them suffer.
Patricia Writes, “Mumtaz will smear chilies on a stick and put it inside the girl, and that all of s will be awake through the night, listening to the girl moan. Public brutality is a very fast way to make someone terrified and ashamed to see other people. Public beating can play a huge role in making some feel like they are not a human, but a thing that can be tossed aside. Throughout time there have been many accounts of dehumanization and the most popular and fastest way to do that is to eliminate their human characteristics, like individuality and compassion, and publicly beat them. By taking away their name and clothing people are left to feel like nothing and not who they truly are.
When you ake away resources people loss compassion for other lives and begin to act like animals. In the novel Night there is a man who kills his own father just so he could have more bread for himself. The public hangings and beating that are very prominent in Night make the Jewish people feel like they are something that can be beat and treated like animals or a piece of trash. Although there are many ways to make someone lose their sense of humanity this is the fastest way possible. This is something that everyone should be aware of because this is one of the worst things that can be done to a human.
