Examples Of Dehumanization In Night

Sarah Monroe Dehumanization- Night of adversity The process of Dehumanization shows three different stages; Co Dependence, Rejection and Survival of the fittest. In the book Night, these three stages are shown through Elie Wiesel and other poor souls in a number of Concentration camps. The first stage in which dehumanization is shown in Night is Co dependence. The first example of Co Dependence is when Elie’s father holds his hand, which shows his father giving his son protection. The second example is when Elie’s father offers his son his own food, showing that the father is giving strength to his son. The third example of Co Dependence is where Elie tells stern his family is alive, a sign of hope given by Elie. People go into this ( not telling the truth sometimes) because they want to protect the person and lie. It helps at first by keeping their hopes high but only to get them crushed by the truth later on.
The first example of rejection is where Elie thought to himself “ I watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent” (Pg.54) when his father was getting beaten by Idek, Elie isolated himself and didn’t do anything about his father’s pain in order to survive himself. This makes Elie feel shocked at first and then remorseful for not standing up for his father knowing he’d be killed. More than anything, Elie wanted to help his father and survive, however given his age and limited skills he couldn’t help for fear of death. A furthered explanation of rejection is when the young Pipel struggled while he was hung and meanwhile the crowd just stood there and watched. The people in the crowd nothing, they couldn’t for if they did they would be shot. Therefore, they did nothing in order to maximize their ability to survive. This shows the crowd being robotic like because they could be next and it was an everyday occurrence, nothing new, no-shock