Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

Less than 100 years ago, six million innocent lives were wiped off the face of the planet, and most of the world had no idea. In the book Night, author Elie Wiesel shares his narration of the brutal dehumanization of himself and many other Jews during the Holocaust in World War II. In an intricate plan dubbed “the Final Solution” by Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler, people of the Jewish faith all across Europe were driven from their homes by the Nazi regime and consolidated within concentration camps. While there, they worked under some of the worst conditions ever endured by human beings until they died by any one of the countless dangers within the camps. Elie is one of these inhabitants of such camps, and he shares both his physical and mental

In chapter seven of Night, the constant mission for Elie and his peers to find even the smallest morsel of nourishment took a violent turn, “In the wagon where the bread had landed, a battle had ensued. Men were hurling themselves at each other, trampling, tearing at and mauling each other. Beasts of prey unleashed, animal hate in their eyes” (Wiesel 101). This quote displays the absolute animalization of Holocaust captives, much to the leisure of SS officers. Since food is the paramount factor of human survival, when the need for fundamental sustenance is not being met, consuming food becomes the only focus for human beings, which sparks obsessional thinking and highly impulsive behavior when food is especially scarce. Such habits progressed so dramatically that Jews were desperately fighting their own people to the death for a mere morsel of bread. Accordingly, this behavior causes humans to focus on who they really are, which is a horrific effect of dehumanization. Moreover, an article written by SIRS Renaissance titled “Self-Actualization (Psychology)” details a psychological concept known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a concept that states that humans must fulfill their most basic needs in order to develop and fulfill more advanced needs. “Often conceptualized as a pyramid, basic needs such as hunger and thirst must be satisfied in order for an individual to pursue the next level of needs, which includes personal safety, security from attack, and privacy. Once these needs are met, Maslow argued, people seek to meet other needs…” The excerpt asserts the importance of rudimentary physical needs to the human experience. If a person does not meet his or her daily requirements for food, it is nearly impossible to thrive in any other aspect of life. As the needs of an individual become increasingly scarce in an environment, civilized