Dehumanization In Night

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In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, he uses symbolism, tone, and imagery to show dehumanization in his writing. In his book he explains the living conditions of the Jewish people in Germany and neighboring countries during the time of the holocaust. In the beginning he describes the chaos in the households of Jewish communities. In his story, he talks about his experiences in the camps. “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name” (42). This is one of the very first acts of dehumanization. The symbolic number A-7713 is now his only kind of identification that Elie had. Every prisoner in the camp, has an identification number, no other name, or source of identity. They treated the prisoners like cattle. Kept in tight, dirty places, …show more content…

In his novel he explains to us that all that mattered after regaining freedom was bread. It’s a human instinct to feel angry, or revengeful. It is in our nature.” Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That’s all we thought about. No thought of revenge, or of our parents. Only of bread. And even when we were no longer hungry, not one of us thought of revenge” (115). These people were so accustomed to the way they were treated, that any normal activity or necessity felt amazing to them. “ The idea of a hot shower fascinated me” (104). He really explains the emotion they felt, the tone in the story is almost uplifting yet upsetting. Nothing matters to them anymore; family, safety, or even the emotion of anger. In conclusion, Elie Wiesel’s novel Night shows us the dehumanization in the concentration camps by using tone, symbolism, and imagery. He sets the tone with the deep, dark ways he describes the terrible things that have happened to him and millions of others. His symbolic examples explain a further meaning than just an object, and the way he describes everything he saw in great detail, is

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