Alienation and Dehumanization

While The authors of Night, The Metamorphosis, Maus, and Fragments of Isabella use symbols to reflect alienation and dehumanization.

In the book Night, Wiesel shares his experiences with his father in concentration camps during World War II. The story shows dehumanization in a great number of ways. For example, a German officer told the Jews, “‘There are eighty of you in this wagon,’ added the German officer. ‘If anyone is missing, you’ll all be shot, like dogs….’” (Wiesel 22). In the wagons, the Jews were forced to sit with no space to move. The quote also shows that German officers had no respect for Jews. The phrase "you'll all be shot, like dogs" compares them to animals, showing them thought to be incapable of human qualities.

After the separation when the Jews were at the crematories, “A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load-little children. Babies!...those children in the flames” (Wiesel 30), is another example of dehumanization. The Jews could see, smell, and hear their fellow Jews being burned to death. Almost all were unclothed and the Germans could care less who they killed. Adults, children, boy, girl, old, or even a baby, it did not matter who died. After Wiesel became a member of Block 17 he stated, "Our clothes had been left behind and we had been promised other outfits. Towards midnight we were told to run" (Wiesel 38). The Germans forced Jews to run in the cold air with no clothes. While still running the guards told the Jews, “The faster you run, the sooner you can go to bed”(Wiesel 38), despite the fact that it was cold the guards made the Jews work for the clothes they had to wear and for the bunks they had to sleep in. Cruel, unusual punishments were the main examples of dehumanization in this sto...

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...ved ..." (Spiegelman 84). Jews were taken away from there homes. Not only this, but they were moved into ghettos and isolated from the rest of the town. Jews were forced to leave their homes and not allowed to keep any of their valuables.

In Fragments of Isabella by Isabella Leitner, a young woman, Isabella Leitner was deported from Hungary to Auschwitz. Her mother and one of four sisters were murdered by the Nazis. By her need to survive, she and her three other sisters defeated death on countless occasions. In her tale of survival, she and her sisters went through alienation and dehumanization. Isabella went through alienation from both of her parents. Her father was the first to go, " ... left Hungary for America" (Leitner 8). She went on to explain how her father went to America to get papers for them to emigrate. Sadly, when the paper arrived it was too late.