Literary Check #2

1) Dehumanization is the psychological treatment of enemies or prisoners to a point were that person loses all humanity. They no longer have a humane way of thinking. They are more primal and violent instead of civilized. This leads to things like crimes and genocides. In the book "Night", you can see that the prisoners go through this process. They start losing all that makes them human. One example would be their sense of survival. Most of the prisoners only really care about their own survival An example would be when the Germans would be looking for special workers. Instead of saying their true identify, they lie to continue to stay alive. Another would be when all the prisoners are labeled. This kind of strips them of their identity, and give them just a mere number. A last example would be the beatings and mistreatment of all the Jews. The Jews are treated so harshly that The begin to lose all humanity. They simply become "dogs". Another example would be Eliezer himself. He himself said that he did not feel as deep and sorrowful anymore. When he first saw babies being burnt, he couldn't even stand to sleep and think about it. But later, he didn't even think anything when he saw that same kind of mistreatment towards other individuals. 

2)

a) “I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flicked an eyelid.” (pg. 37) 
Eliezer said that he began to lose his humanity because he no longer felt anything when acts of inhumanity occurred. This was a prime example. His own father, who he very much loved, as struck and harmed. Yet he said that he did not think anything of it, he didn't even flinch. This is an example of how he began to be dehumanized. 


b) The three “veterans,” with needles in their hands, engraved a number on our left arms. I became A7713. After that I had no other name.” (pg. 39)
Like I said in #1, The way that the Jews were stripped of their identities was an example of dehumanization because they no longer had their own identity. This is a psychological harm because this is one thing makes someone  who they are. If you take that away and give them just a mere number, they are just like another item instead of a living human being. 

c)“At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup, my crust of stale 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.” (pg. 52)
This quote exemplifies how I said that the prisoners only began to worry about themselves and their own survival. Although it does not say anything rash like, "I would kill anyone to stay alive", I feel it still exemplifies the same idea. He didn't say something like he only cares for the well being of his family. So although its not their fault, when people are dehumanized, they became more selfish and more self caring. 

d)“We didn't know what to do. Tired of huddling on the ground, in hope of finding something, a piece of bread, perhaps, that a civilian might have forgotten there.” (pg. 56)
This was another example of how people became very primitive and only worried about their survival. This shows that they struggled to stay well nourished. They always payed attention to little scraps that would keep them fed. People today, that we consider humane, barely worry about being fed and whether or not they'll have a meal. but in this book, the prisoners are never fully fed well, therefore, humanity is lot when they have to become savages just for scraps. 

e) “Jealousy devoured us, consumed us. We never thought to admire him. Poor hero committing suicide for a ration or two more of soup… In our minds, he was already dead.” (pg. 59)
This is an example, again, of how people would sacrifice so much in order just to be fed. But this also talks about how the other prisoners think nothing of it. They dont worry about helping him or rather thinking good thoughts of him. As they said, he was already dead to them. This shows how they lost humanity due to dehumanization because earlier in the book, they would always have optimistic conversations. But now, they think nothing of loss and grief.