In the book Night, Elie Wiesel describes his life in the concentrations camps of the Holocaust, and his experiences that pushed him into dehumanization. Dehumanization is what the soldiers in the camps tried to do to the prisoners. Make them feel like animals, like they were below even the lowliest of human beings. Leaving them so that their only care in the world is not their family, nor their friends, but their life, and their life alone.
Elie begins to show dehumanization in the fourth chapter of Night. He had been taken to a concentration camp in Poland, called Auschwitz. He was with his father in a stone barrack, and his father asked the inmate in charge, a Gypsy, where the toilets were located. After a giving a long stare, the Gypsy …show more content…
In chapter five, Elie states: “At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup, my stale crust of bread. The bread, the soup- those were my entire life. I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach. The stomach alone was measuring time.” (Wiesel 52). When humans are severely deprived of energy, their body becomes focused on only one thing: getting food. They become like animals, fighting and doing anything they can to satisfy their hunger. All other needs and emotions seem to fade away. On page 59, Elie compares two large unguarded cauldrons of soup to “two lambs”, and the mass of hungry prisoners staring at the pots to “hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them.” But, as Elie also states, their “fear was greater than hunger.” (Wiesel 59). One of the prisoners did dare to sneak over to the soup, but then was shot down. Further along in the book, in chapter 8, Elie watched as German workers threw bread into the train cars carrying prisoners, and took interest in watching the starving prisoners fight for the food. An old man snuck out of the fighting mob with a crust of bread, and his son came over and beat him to death for it. Elie says on page 101: “The old man mumbled something, groaned and died. Nobody cared.” (Wiesel …show more content…
“If only I didn’t find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to for my own survival, to take care only of myself…Instantly I felt ashamed, ashamed of myself forever.” (Wiesel 106). Elie had moved on from his “I would die if I didn’t need to take care of my father” mood. Now, his father was a burden, a weakness. It was too late to save him, he was dying of dysentery, and Elie could have two rations of bread, and two rations of soup…but he pushed all of those feeling of apathy back down and tried to care for his
Elie begins to show dehumanization in the fourth chapter of Night. He had been taken to a concentration camp in Poland, called Auschwitz. He was with his father in a stone barrack, and his father asked the inmate in charge, a Gypsy, where the toilets were located. After a giving a long stare, the Gypsy …show more content…
In chapter five, Elie states: “At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup, my stale crust of bread. The bread, the soup- those were my entire life. I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach. The stomach alone was measuring time.” (Wiesel 52). When humans are severely deprived of energy, their body becomes focused on only one thing: getting food. They become like animals, fighting and doing anything they can to satisfy their hunger. All other needs and emotions seem to fade away. On page 59, Elie compares two large unguarded cauldrons of soup to “two lambs”, and the mass of hungry prisoners staring at the pots to “hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them.” But, as Elie also states, their “fear was greater than hunger.” (Wiesel 59). One of the prisoners did dare to sneak over to the soup, but then was shot down. Further along in the book, in chapter 8, Elie watched as German workers threw bread into the train cars carrying prisoners, and took interest in watching the starving prisoners fight for the food. An old man snuck out of the fighting mob with a crust of bread, and his son came over and beat him to death for it. Elie says on page 101: “The old man mumbled something, groaned and died. Nobody cared.” (Wiesel …show more content…
“If only I didn’t find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to for my own survival, to take care only of myself…Instantly I felt ashamed, ashamed of myself forever.” (Wiesel 106). Elie had moved on from his “I would die if I didn’t need to take care of my father” mood. Now, his father was a burden, a weakness. It was too late to save him, he was dying of dysentery, and Elie could have two rations of bread, and two rations of soup…but he pushed all of those feeling of apathy back down and tried to care for his