Dehumanization In Elie Wiesel's 'Night And Metamorphosis'

In what environments and situations will dehumanize people significantly? Elie Wiesel’s novel Night and Franz Kafka’s novel Metamorphosis contain many similar topics and views. In Night, Elie and other people in the concentration camps are dehumanized by the cruel German soldiers and their policies towards the Jews, while, in Metamorphosis, Gregor is dehumanized by the situation that he turns into an insect at first, and then he continues being dehumanized by his family, other people, and himself. Changes can serve as motivations which eventually lead to dehumanization as shown through affection, self-awareness, and indifference.
Changes can lead to dehumanization which destroys the affection between family members. Rabbi Eliahou is kind person

Elie is a human, but “from the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (Wiesel 115). He is tortured, is suffered from hunger, thirsty, and the departure from his loving ones. His humanity is gradually and almost destroyed by the Nazis and the Holocaust. Not only Elie, so do other people. “Next to me lay a Hungarian Jew suffering from dysentery. He was skin and bones, his eyes were dead… These words, coming from the grave, as it were, from a faceless shape, filled me with terror” (Wiesel 78). Gregor faces the same problem—the reduction of self-awareness. “Streaks of dirt ran along the walls; here and there lay tangles of dust and garbage” (Kafka 33). Not only himself, his parents and relatives don’t consider him as a human. “All these items ended up in Gregor 's room, even the box of ashes and the garbage pail from the kitchen. The cleaning woman, always in a hurry, simply flung anything that was momentarily useless into Gregor 's room” (Kafka 35). Even though his body is dirty, he doesn’t want to clean himself. “Because as a result of the dust which lay all over his room and flew around with the slightest movement, he was totally covered in dirt. On his back and his sides he carted around with him dust, threads, hair, and remnants of food. His indifference to everything was much too great for him to lie on his back and scour himself

Changes can lead to dehumanization which make people increasingly indifferent. When Jews drop the bodies off the trains, they are numb and don’t feel any sadness. Instead, “the living were glad. They would have more room” (Wiesel 99). The Jews are dehumanized by Germans, but many people are dehumanized because of their missing humanity caused by the environment. They throw pieces of bread into the train just to see people fighting each other: “‘Please, don’t throw any more coins!’ ‘Why not?’ said she. ‘I like to give charity’” (Wiesel 100). When Elie is saved by the Allies, he doesn’t want to revenge for his parents and sisters: “I spent my days in total idleness. With only one desire: to eat. I no longer thought of my father, or my mother… I would dream. But only about soup, an extra ration of soup” (Wiesel 113). Gregor’s parents become increasingly indifferent to him because of the change of him. “Earlier, when the door had been barred, they had all wanted to come in to him; now, when he had opened one door and when the others had obviously been opened during the day, no one came any more, and the keys were stuck in the locks on the outside” (Kafka 18). After Gregor’s death, they don’t feel very sad for him. Conversely, they find hopes for their future without Gregor. “Then all three left the apartment together, something they had not done for months now, and took the electric tram into the open air outside the city. The car in which they were sitting by themselves was