Theme Of Dehumanization In Night

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The book Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel about his experiences in the concentration camps in late World War II. Elie experienced things he didn’t know - or want to know - existed and they tested his faith in God and humanity, these experiences have shaped his life and many others. In the book, there’s a recurring theme of dehumanization. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines dehumanization as “to treat (someone) as though he or she is not a human being.” When people are being denied of their basic human rights and it causes them to start to revisit their opinion of their God. When human beings are put through extreme amounts of hardship, they either turn to believing in their God because He is all they have left, denying the …show more content…

As if this line was a noose that has been left on your neck waiting to see if you’ll truly believe in Him or not. The feeling of it lose shows the trust you have in him but when it starts to tighten ever so slightly it is showing how people start denying God. With saying this it is held to a certain accountability, because a person just doesn’t just believe or not believe in God. “God in order to alleviate their deepest fears; or, in a more traditional mode, it may have been because they had immediate, personal experience with a benevolent God. Whatever their reason, the Holocaust has made it clear (if it was not clear before) that the powers-that-be-in the world, whether natural or human, do not always work for human good (Dorff 29).” Dorff shows the point that as a people have the same power as the next but how the person uses it is what defines us. You’ll either have the power to be helpful or use it in a twisted and maniacal way. This also applies to how a person looks at their own faith. Just because people have the same resources as the next, doesn’t mean that it will be used the same way. “The realization of the existence of omnipresence of such superhuman powers can, of course, make one very much afraid. After all what is out of one’s control can potentially be dangerous and harmful. But, from its beginning, the Jewish tradition trusted that the presence of the divine in the world was primarily a benevolent one. Although God might manifest Himself in very negative ways, that was considered the norm (Dorff 28).” There is a point to be made that many don't like to think about. How could a wonderful God allow something like the holocaust to happen? “With these considerations in mind, we can now face the question directly...The answer depends upon which sense of “divine” you are using. If you have the second sense in mind, then God is obviously not in

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