The topic of dehumanization has an interesting dynamic in Demme’s film The Silence of the Lambs. This consists of the fact that the Clarice Starling’s own humanity is consistently undermined and almost immediately rectified by Dr. Lecter. Lecter in himself is an ironic character since while he has no fear about killing someone through cannibalism. One of the highest symbolic forms of dehumanization possible, he still respects and guards Starling’s humanity. This character receives even more complexity as Lecter is revealed as more and more calculating and cold throughout the series, almost appearing desensitized to most human emotions, interactions and concerns. Lecter’s analytical, observant, and almost sociopathic outlook on his surroundings contrasts heavily with Starling’s earnest desire to discover the secrets behind Buffalo Bill’s identity and reasons, a desire to
It is important to know this rectification can come in two forms for Lecter. Lecter can either punish the individual, such as in Chilton’s case; for their direct discourtesy to him or another, or he can help an individual who has received such a discourtesy in his presence. Lecter would only feel this obligation, however, in the unique case that he is unable to prevent such a direct discourtesy from happening to another as it occurred in front of him, as in Clarice’s case. From my examination this is the first type of direct rectification. The earliest example of this is when Lecter makes Miggs go insane for disrespecting Clarice, as Crawford explains: “Miggs has been murdered… The orderly heard Lecter whispering to him, all afternoon, and Miggs crying. They found him at bed check. He’d swallowed his own tongue…” (Tally). Lecter again demonstrates his superior social prowess and manipulative skills as he punishes Miggs for his discourteous imposition of will and violation of
In the book Night the character Eliezer faces many challenges and sees many things. But the most prominent feature of all the death camps that Eliezer is in was Dehumanization.Dehumanization is what the S.S. used to keep the jews in line in the concentration camps while they were in a animal like state where it’s every man for himself.Therefore this proves that dehumanization is a process that was used by the SS to keep the Jews in check by using the crematorium,beatings,and executions to make the Jews less human.
In the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, there were numerous examples of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than things, which were trouble to them. The first example is found in the third chapter, “I was a body. Perhaps less than even that: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time.” This reveals how the characters are completely ripped apart from the world, so much so that they are no longer even refer to themselves as humans. A German officer told the Jews “There are eighty of you in this wagon…if anyone is missing, you’ll be shot, like dogs…” (Weisel 22). This shows that the Germans thought nothing and had little to no respect for the Jews. The subject continues as they are split up by sex as an SS officer announces to a pack of Jews, Men to the left! Women to the right!” (Wiesel 27). They were treated like animals instead of humans. Dehumanization of the camps is added to the novel to allow the reader to get a more in-depth and realistic look into the tragic times for many Jews.
Dehumanization Through Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations.
Throughout the Nobel Peace Prize award winner Night, a common theme is established around dehumanization. Elie Wiesel, the author, writes of his self-account within the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. Being notoriously famed for its unethical methods of punishment, and the concept of laboring Jews in order to follow a regime, was disgusting for the wide public due to the psychotic ideology behind the concept. In the Autobiography we are introduced to Wiesel who is a twelve year old child who formerly lived in the small village of Sighet, Romania. Wiesel and his family are taken by the Nazi aggressors to the Concentration camp Auschwitz were they are treated like dogs by the guards. Throughout the Autobiography the guards use their authoritative
callous to the death of their peers, and going so far as to murder fellow
In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel had to go through many obstacles and changes throughout his time in the concentration camps. The prisoners suffered many different trials and tribulations such as dehumanization. Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities. The prisoners of Auschwitz faced dehumanization, which lead to starvation, death, and terrorism. A lot of the events that happened were dehumanizing to Eliezer, his father and their fellow Jews. In Night, the events that happened in the concentration camps left their scar on Elie Wiesel and affected his attitude, outlook, and identity.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald writes “He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible, only dehumanized”. This idea of how people could become almost unimaginably cruel due to dehumanization corresponds with the Jews experience in the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the ruthless massacre of Jewish people, and other people who were consider to be vermin to the predetermined Aryan race in the 1940s. One holocaust survivor and victim was Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of Night. Wiesel was one of the countless people to go through the horrors of the concentration camps, which dehumanized people down to their animalistic nature, an echo of their previous selves. Dehumanization worsens over time in Night because of how the Jews treated each other, and how Elie changed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Dehumanization was a big part of these camps. The Nazis would kick innocent Jewish families and send them to concentration or death camps. The main way they dehumanized these Jewish people is when they take all their possessions. In Night they go around taking all there gold and silver, make them leave their small bags of clothing on the train, and finally give them crappy clothing. All this reduces their emotions; they go from owing all these possessions to not having a cent to their name. If I was in that situation I would just be in shock with such a huge change in such a short amount of time. The next way they dehumanized the Jewish people were they stopped using names and gave them all numbers. For example in Night Eliezer’s number was A-7713. Not only were all their possessions taken, but also their names. Your name can be something that separates you from another person. Now they are being kept by their number, almost as if that’s all they are, a number. If I was in their place I would question my importance, why am I here, am I just a number waiting to be replaced? The third way they were dehumanized was that on their “death march” they were forced to run nonstop all day with no food or water. If you stopped or slowed down, you were killed with no regards for your life. The prisoners were treated like cattle. They were being yelled at to run, run faster and such. They were not treated as equal humans. If the officers were tired, they got replaced. Dehumanization affected all the victims of the Holocaust in some sort of way from them losing all their possessions, their name, or being treated unfairly/ like animals.
In today's society many people are still being dehumanized and alienated. Dehumanization is making others feel worthless and seeing them as something other than human because of their religion, race, or gender and Alienation means isolation people from activities. Researchers say that the attitude of people reflects on dehumanization, they feel worthless and begin to hurt themselves and do things they should not be doing. The three text all have a similar meaning, animals. In Night,Wiesel uses animals to explain how they were being treated and so that the reader can use imagery and understand the text better, In Maus, Spiegelman’s book is like a comic which uses pictures and he uses mice to represent the Jews and Cats to represent the Germans,
What more is the point of learning and understanding human history than obtaining the knowledge and structure between what is right and what is wrong? We continuously believe that we as humans have the ability and intellect to learn from the lessons taught in our past in order to enrich our future. In comparison to the time frame that is human history the one hundred year period of time we discussed in the second halve of this semester is nothing but a slight blimp on the map that we have traversed. Yet, throughout our recent readings we can easily assimilate into the idea that although time may pass, and that we may attempt to learn from our history it is simply in human nature to repeat the mistakes that we have
When the author of Night, Elie Wiesel, arrives at Auschwitz, the Jewish people around him, the Germans, and himself have yet to lose their humanity. Throughout the holocaust, which is an infamous genocide that imprisoned many Jewish people at concentration camps, it is clear that the horrors that took place here have internally affected all who were involved by slowly dehumanizing them. To be dehumanized means to lose the qualities of a human, and that is exactly what happened to both the Germans and the Jewish prisoners. Wiesel has lived on from this atrocious event to establish the dehumanization of all those involved through his use of animal imagery in his memoir Night to advance the theme that violence dehumanizes both the perpetrator
It is a cool, misty night, and after a miserable day, you decide to treat yourself to a movie. You are at the movie theater; you open the double-doors swiftly and smell the delectable-popcorn lathered in butter. You approach the desk; the employee welcomes you with a slow-grin and asks “Can I help you?” You proceed to choose the latest horror movie, Silence of the Lambs….you give the next employee your ticket to validate it and be admitted into the theater; with a crooked smile the employee makes a vigorous rip and hands you back your ticket. Then the employee softly utters, “Enjoy your movie!” You head towards the right hall; as you walk down, you notice the lights begin to dim….You finally reach the theater; you get comfy in your seat; the lights darken and transform the theater
The beginning of Hannibal is very powerful and very moving. The actions of the rogue Nazis were so inhuman that it destroyed a young man’s mind. The mere thought of eating his beloved sister had to be horrifying. It is not difficult to imagine his revulsion, his unimaginable pain. As a person looking in at the tragedy caused by war, it can be imagined that if the mind is not
Baruch Spinoza once said “Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves free, simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” He compared free-will with destiny and ended up that what we live and what we think are all results of our destiny; and the concept of the free-will as humanity know is just the awareness of the situation. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores this struggle between free-will and destiny, and illustrates the idea of time in order to demonstrate that there is no free-will in war; it is just destiny. Vonnegut conveys this through irony, symbolism and satire.
“Dehumanized” by Mark Slouka explores the issue of our nation’s education and how science and math are being used to primarily teach students about business and capitalism. Although I believe that students should have a good understanding of economics for the sake of their future. I, like Mark Slouka, believe that the humanities should be taught and accepted in our schools to help students further their education.