Fifteen Million Merits: The Dehumanization Of Life

Imagine all your emotions, thoughts, and feelings were erased and dismissed into obscurity. There is a word for this process known as dehumanization. To be dehumanized is to take away all the large and small aspects that construct who you are. You would never be truly cheerful or upset, would never fall in love, would never see yourself as an individual. Instead you would be a hollow shell that simply complies with rules and obligations without question or hesitation. This scenario is not the way most humans would choose to spend their lives, if you could even call a hollow existence, a life. The society within Fifteen Million Merits, is entirely based on consumption and does not allow for members to express or feel their human qualities leading
Few of them socialize with each other and most keep to themselves. Their lives are spent in small cubicles with nothing but screens forcing them to watch commercials and televisions shows constantly and repetitiously. So, when they are given the opportunity to express themselves through an avatar they psychologically turn the avatar into a human companion for themselves. This was evident when Oliver a fellow peddler took such a large emphasis on his avatar and its accessories. When he turned to Swift for advice about his avatar he was immediately rejected, the reason why he continually went back to seeing humanity in his ostentatious digital version of himself. Bing was different in this aspect due to his anti-consumption tendency he did not put emphasis on his avatar but instead sought human
The moment when he hides the piece of glass he would later hold to his jugular under his bed is his first moment of strength. From then on he would work as hard as possible to earn back 15 millions merits to get back onto “Hot Shot.” The determination it takes for him to eventually buy this 15 million merit ticket which gives him a small chance of leaving his peddler life is difficult. From the difficulty level, it is shown that most people of this society are given roles in a hierarchical structure and it is difficult to break free from their given caste. Be described the societal hierarchy of entertainment at the top, peddlers in the middle, and obese citizens at the very bottom. The obese people are forced to clean up the peddlers’ trash and be humiliated on television shows giving the chance for the peddlers to numbly “laugh themselves into oblivion.” These people are either ostracized and dehumanized on the television screen or simply by their clothing alone. Tunstall wrote about the Nazi dehumanization of Jews by forcing them to wear the Jewish Star on their clothing in public. The obese/overweight members of Bing’s society are forced to wear bright yellow clothing while the peddlers are forced to wear only grey sweat suits. Both groups are kept from wearing anything that could represent themselves more than simply representing their class. In