Examples Of Dehumanization In Night By Elie Wiesel

Six million Jewish prisoners were dehumanized, abused, and murdered from 1933 to 1945. Elie Wiesel wrote about his experiences as one of these Jewish prisoners, in Night, the tree imagery helps convey the physical, emotional, and spiritual toll that dehumanization takes on the Jewish prisoners.
First, the tree imagery illustrates the physical toll on Elie, his father, and the other Jewish prisoners. Idek is in a bad mood and beat Elie’s father with an iron bar: “At first my father simply doubled under the blows, but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning. I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent” (54). Wiesel compares his father to an “old tree struck by lightning.” Typically old trees lose

The Jewish prisoners arrive at Auschwitz and finally get to leave the cramped cattle car after about 2 long days. Elie says, “We were withered trees in the heart of the desert” (37). This imagery suggests the Jews feel stranded, out of place, and helpless at the camp.This is an allusion to Exodus, manna from heaven. In the bible the Isrealites were stranded in the dessert and received the “manna” from God. Elie, and the other Jewish prisoners, feel especially anbandoned by God, while the food they are receiving is not from God, but the Germans. After the raid, the young pipel and two other prisoners are hanged. Elie says, “The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…Behind me, I heard [a] man asking: ‘For God’s sake. Where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where-hanging from these gallows…” (65). Gallows are made from wood harvested from trees; fruit hangs from trees, and the pipel is hanging from the gallows. Thus, the pipel is a representation of the young Jewish population, the “fruit” of Israel, and how the future of Judaism is dying. When Elie mentions that God is with them, it shows that he thinks that God no longer cares about the Jewish people and what they are experiencing. When the Jews are celebrating the last day of Rosh Hashanah, Elie says, “Thousands of lips repeated the benediction, bent over like trees in a storm.” (67). Like a relentless destructive storm, the Germans have done so much to destroy the Jews. Although the Jewish prisoners have stayed stgrong, they will soon be blown over and uprooted. Later during the death march, Elie describes the Jews as “rootless”