Throughout many pieces of literature, it has been shown that humans are more alike than different. Humans should treat each other equally, as although there may be some differences between them, they are all people and should be treated as so. Many major works have displayed the commonalities of the human race, and how there are universal prejudices against those who are seen as different. Often In To Kill a Mockingbird, these commonalities are depicted in the treatment of Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. In Night, they are shown in the way the Jewish people were treated during the Holocaust. In Of Mice and Men, the way that Lennie is treated by others exhibits human commonalities. To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, and Of Mice and Men all thoroughly …show more content…
display these unfortunate commonalities of the human race. The attributes that most humans have in common are clearly shown in To Kill a Mockingbird. For instance, Tom Robinson is treated unfairly by even the court of law.
He is claimed to have been given a fair trial, although he is convicted even though everything pointed to his innocence. Tom Robinson told the truth and every piece of evidence aside from the prosecuting testimonies proved him to be innocent. He was found guilty only because during that time period, the truth of his innocence was not acceptable to the majority of the white people. Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer, explains that it is true that some black people are liars, immoral, and that they should not be trusted around women. Atticus also explains how just as many white men are like this, as “this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.” (Lee 208) Tom claimed to have been just helping Mayella Ewell because he felt bad for her, a white woman. During this time, and especially in the South, it was inconceivable that any black person would ever feel pity a white person, widely considered to be their superiors. In addition, Mayella kissed Tom, as she was unhappy at home because her husband often beat her. No one would believe this could be true, so the jury convicted Tom of rape and sentenced him to death. Tom Robinson, an innocent man …show more content…
who was just helping a woman around the house, was killed because of the color of his skin. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley, a mentally challenged man is also unfairly treated. He had stayed inside for around fifteen years after getting into all sorts of trouble as a teen. Because of this, many rumors about him began to spread which made it nearly impossible for him to emerge from his home. If he had, he would not have been seen or treated the same way as others. The townspeople saw him as a mysterious monster. Even Jem describes Boo as “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall,” and that he “dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch.” Boo also supposedly had “a long jagged scar that ran across his face.” (Lee 13) Boo knows that society would ridicule him tirelessly if he ventures outside. The rumors about him had turned him into a sort of mysterious ghost, and even though there actually were terrible people in Maycomb county, Boo knew that he would never be treated even as well as they were. In To Kill a Mockingbird, it is told that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds only bring song and joy to the world while doing no harm. Both Tom Robinson and Boo Radley were mockingbirds, and other humans in their communities “killed” them because of prejudices. To Kill a Mockingbird clearly depicts prejudice as a human commonalities and how humans treat countless people unfairly all because of prejudices they have against them. Night, a true story about a man’s experience during the Holocaust, illustrates how terribly humans can treat each other.
Night follows Elie Wiesel, a Polish child at the time of World War II, who fell victim to the Nazis’ horrors. All through the book, the reader can see how much suffering and pain the Jewish people were put through all because the German were told that all of their problems were because of the Jews. This was not true, of course, and the Nazis starved, endlessly worked, tortured, and murdered millions of human beings just to avoid accepting responsibility for their problems. Night depicts how humans can be extremely quick to blame each other for their own problems, and will do unforgivable things to people just like them just because they are part of a certain group. It is shown that for the most part, humans are fairly self-centered and only care about their own survival. For example, Rabbi Eliahu’s son left his father behind during a march, instead of slowing down to make sure that they did not get separated. The son saw his father slipping behind, but instead of waiting for the rabbi, he kept widening the gap to make sure he survived. He wanted to “free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival,” even if that burden was his own father (Wiesel 91). In addition, when Elie’s father was in a hospital bed, the other people there beat him up because of his smell. Many humans only care for their own comfort, even when there are other
people greatly suffering. Elie’s father was sick and in pain and the people around him couldn't care less, as he was making life slightly more uncomfortable for them. Night showed the reader how one’s neighbors can quickly turn into enemies, and how just being a part of a certain group can cause one to succumb to the wrath of another, more powerful group of humans. Of Mice and Men shows that humans can be prejudiced and take advantage of a certain group. It depicts how humans are quick to grab onto any sort of power that they can get their hands on, even if in doing so, they are taking advantage or even harming others. This can be seen in the way Lennie is treated by many people. For example, one day, George, Lennie’s only friend, explains how he felt smart one day and told Lennie to “Jump in,” the river, even though he knew that he “couldn’t swim a stroke.” Lennie almost drowned but George rescues him, with Lennie endlessly thanking him, as he “clean forgot,” that George “told him to jump in.” (Steinbeck 43) George takes advantage of Lennie and tricks him into amusing him, even if it means almost killing an innocent human. In addition, Crooks, a black man working on the ranch takes advantage of Lennie by picking on him. He does this because he is thirsty for power and superiority, and as a black man during this time, this is the only power he will get. Crooks is also a victim of prejudice simply for being a black man and a cripple. For instance, he is never called by his real name, only Crooks or “N****r”. He is only known for the color of his skin and for being crippled, even though it can be clearly seen that his personality is much more in depth that that. Crooks feels as like he doesn’t matter at all because of the color of his skin, and the condition of his body. He feels as like nothing he says matters as, “This is just a nigger talkin', an' a busted-back nigger. So it don't mean nothing” (Steinbeck 76). Both Lennie and Crooks succumb to the prejudices of the world and of their fellow humans in Of Mice and Men. Human commonalities and prejudices can be evidently seen through countless works of literature around the world. These can be clearly seen in To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, and Of Mice and Men. To Kill a Mockingbird shows them in many of its “mockingbirds.” Tom Robinson faces prejudice because of the color of his skin, and Boo Radley does because of him being a sort of ghost in Maycomb. Night shows human commonalities and prejudices through both the way the Nazis treated the jewish people and in how extremely difficult circumstances can corrupt people. The Jews were treated appallingly and it can be seen that when it comes down to it, many people only care about their own survival. Lastly, Of Mice and Men depicts how humans can treat the disabled, the crippled and people of a different race, and how they are so eager to try to obtain any power that they can get their hands on. These themes are shown with the treatment of both Lennie, a mentally challenged man, and Crooks, a crippled, black worker. To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, and Of Mice and Men all far display the commonalities of the human race.
Millions of Jews forced out of their homes and are either killed immediately or forced to work until bodies gave up on them and died. Night focuses on the aspect of inhumanity a lot. The Nazi’s practically dehumanized the Jews and caused them to suffer each day, which is evident in Night. In the book, however, the Nazi’s are not the only ones subject to inhumanity; the Jews are a part of it also. Due to the harsh treatment, many of the Jew lose a sense of empathy. For example, when Eliezer’s father was practically dead the other prisoners beat him just because he didn’t deserve to live any more. The author is ultimately trying to argue that under the right conditions we may all lose our
The book, Night, by Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel, entails the story of his childhood in Nazi concentration camps all around Europe. Around the middle of the 20th century in the early 1940s, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi army traveled around Europe in an effort to exterminate the Jewish population. As they went to through different countries in order to enforce this policy, Nazi officers sent every Jewish person they found to a concentration camp. Often called death camps, the main purpose was to dispose of people through intense work hours and terrible living conditions. Wiesel writes about his journey from a normal, happy life to a horrifying environment surrounded by death in the Nazi concentration camps. Night is an amazingly
Night by Elie Wiesel was a memoir on one of the worst things to happen in human history, the Holocaust. A terrible time where the Nazi German empire started to take control of eastern Europe during WWII. This book tells of the terrible things that happened to the many Jewish people of that time. This time could easily change grown men, and just as easily a boy of 13. Elie’s relationship with God and his father have been changed forever thanks to the many atrocities committed at that time.
Night is an autobiography by a man named Eliezer Wiesel. The autobiography is a quite disturbing record of Elie’s childhood in the Nazi death camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald during world war two. While Night is Elie Wiesel’s testimony about his experiences in the Holocaust, Wiesel is not, precisely speaking, the story’s protagonist. Night is narrated by a boy named Eliezer who represents Elie, but details set apart the character Eliezer from the real life Elie. For instance, Eliezer wounds his foot in the concentration camps, while Elie actually wounded his knee. Wiesel fictionalizes seemingly unimportant details because he wants to distinguish his narrator from himself. It is almost impossibly painful for a survivor to write about his Holocaust experience, and the mechanism of a narrator allows Wiesel to distance himself somewhat from the experience, to look in from the outside.
In the novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee some characters suffer in the hands of justice and fairness more than others. Many characters in the novel are discriminated against such as Calpurnia, Dolphus Raymond, Helen Robinson, Burris Ewell and more. However I will be focusing on the discrimination against Tom Robinson for his race, Walter Cunningham for his low socioeconomic status and Boo Radley for the rumors and supposed mental instability he holds. I chose those three because they are the most prominent and I will discuss how the discrimination against the characters therefore leads to their injustice or unfairness.
"Night" by Elie Wiesel is a terrifying account of the Holocaust during World War II. Throughout this book we see a young Jewish boy's life turned upside down from his peaceful ways. The author explores how dangerous times break all social ties, leaving everyone to fight for themselves. He also shows how one's survival may be linked to faith and family.
In the 1930s-1940s, the Nazis took millions of Jews into their death camps. They exterminated children, families, and even babies. Elie Wiesel was one of the few who managed to live through the war. However, his life was forever scarred by things he witnessed in these camps. The book Night explained many of the harsh feelings that Elie Wiesel experienced in his time in various German concentration camps.
Night is a story about what the author Elie went through and did as a Jew in a concentration camp during WW2. Elie gives us a look into the hardships and daily life of a Jew during these times, allowing us to see how they were judged and treated like dogs.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a novelization of the struggles that were faced during the Holocaust. This novel is written to teach one that it is important to take action when injustice is seen. Wiesel uses first person point of view, imagery, and symbolism to display the ways one can be able to stand for what they believe in. He tells the reader how one impact the society they live in and that if no one takes action against injustice for the better then nothing will improve and society will not change. Wiesel says, “I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal’s flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast? Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall never forgive them for this” (Wiesel 39). He depicts that it should be difficult for humans to tolerate any injustice that they see. There are many current events going on around
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night.
Tom Robinson is a kind black man whom Atticus is defending against the charge that he raped Mayella Ewell. Atticus knows that he will lose because Tom is black, but he also knows that Tom is innocent and that he has to defend him. Tom Robinson is portrayed as a hard-working father and husband in the novel and he was only attempting to help Mayella since no one else would, but she made advances that he refused and her father saw them. On the witness stand, he testifies that he helped her because, "'Mr. Ewell didn't seem to help her none, and neither did the chillun.'" (256). Even though Tom helps Mayella out of kindness and pity, Mayella is trapped and must accuse him of raping her to save her own life. Shortly after being wrongfully convicted
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel faces the horrors of the Holocaust, where he loses many friends and family, and almost his life. He starts as a kind young boy, however, his environment influences many of the decisions he makes. Throughout the novel, Elie Wiesel changes into a selfish boy, thinks of his father as a liability and loses his faith in God as an outcome his surroundings.
During the Holocaust many people were severely tortured and murdered. The holocaust caused the death of six million Jewish people, as well as the death of 5 million non-Jewish people. All of the people, who died during this time, died because of the Nazis’: a large hate group composed of extremely Ignoble, licentious, and rapacious people. They caused the prisoners to suffer physically and mentally; thus, causing them to lose all hope of ever being rescued. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie went through so much depression, and it caused him to struggle with surviving everyday life in a concentration camp. While Elie stayed in the concentration camp, he saw so many people get executed, abused, and even tortured. Eventually, Elie lost all hope of surviving, but he still managed to survive. This novel is a perfect example of hopelessness: it does not offer any hope. There are so many pieces of evidence that support this claim throughout the entire novel. First of all, many people lost everything that had value in their life; many people lost the faith in their own religion; and the tone of the story is very depressing.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a very sad book. The struggle that Eliezer endured is similar to one that we all face. Eliezer’s was during the holocaust. Ours can be during any period of life. If we set our priorities in our hearts, nothing can change them except ourselves. Night is a prime example of this inner struggle and the backwards progress that is possible with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It teaches that the mind truly is “over all.” As Frankl wrote, “Man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate,” no matter what the circumstance.
Elie Wiesel, winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, wrote Night with the notion for society to advance its understanding of the Holocaust. The underlying theme of Night is faith. Elie Wiesel, for the majority of this work, concerns the faith and survival of his father, Chlomo Wiesel. The concept of survival intertwines with faith, as survival is brought upon Elie’s faith in his father. Both Elie and Chlomo are affected in the same manner as their Jewish society. The self-proclaimed superman race of the German Nazis suppress and ultimately decimate the Jewish society of its time. Elie and Chlomo, alongside their Jewish community, were regarded as subhumans in a world supposedly fit for the Nazi conception. The oppression of Elie and Chlomo begins in 1944, when the Germans constrain the Jews of Sighet into two ghettos. During the time of Nazi supremacy, Elie and Chlomo are forced to travel to various concentration camps, including Birkenau, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald.