ipl-logo

Examples Of Dehumanization In The Book Thief

748 Words3 Pages

A vine of torture grew ravenously around the necks of 6 million Jewish individuals during the vicious events of the second world war. For no reason other than religion, innocent civilians were stripped of their humanity by the millions of Germans possessed by the Führer. Markus Zusak demonstrates this sting of misery in his novel, The Book Thief. Zusak articulates the never-ending struggle of Jews in Nazi Germany by illustrating the story of a young Jewish man, Max Vandenburg. Although he is a human like any other German, Max constantly fights for the life that the Führer has seized. Zusak illustrates this idea in his novel in an effort to convey the appalling dehumanization of Jews inhabiting Nazi Germany.
The fire of the Führer’s words …show more content…

The ostracism lingers in the air as civilians are deprived of their homes, families, and humanity. Coerced by torture, individuals of Jewish descent are forced to march helplessly in clusters. The bystanding citizens watch as “the suffering faces of depleted men and women reached across to them, pleading not so much for help-they were beyond that-but for an explanation”(392). The explanation of why Jews were struck with misery remains absent. There is no reason behind Germany’s venom and the entire country goes up in flames without a second thought. They are whipped, shot, tortured, and starved; the famine of these marching Jews burns them from the inside and out. Even the sight of a dirty stale bread crumb causes a Jewish man to “[reach] down and [pick] up a piece and [shove] it deliriously into his mouth”(440). They are forced to survive in insufferable conditions as soldiers allow their starving stomachs to wither with hunger. Zusak is trying to convey the deprivation of humanity that Jewish individuals experience. In addition to hunger, every ounce of strength drains from their bodies. Demonstrating this idea, an elderly man stumbles in the marching herd as “the ache in his arms [is] unbearable to watch as they [shake], trying to lift his body. They [give] way one more time before he [stands] and [takes] another group of steps. He [is] dead”(393). The life

Show More
Related
260 Words | 2 Pages

Within the pages of The Book Thief, there lives a jewish boy. A bloody knuckled, hard faced, fist fighting, jewish boy named Max Vandenburg. Because of the wrath of Adolf Hitler, Max had to go into hiding with his friend, Walter Kulgur. Unfortunately, Max had to find a new place to hide, due to increased danger in his current whereabouts. No doubt, Max experienced a wide and vast range of emotions, one of which is guilt.

Read More
1211 Words | 5 Pages

Weisell explains what life was like in a concentration camp; “ Hunger- thirst- fear- transport- selection- fire- chimney: these words all have intrinsic meaning, but in those times they meant something else (Weisellix).” The Jews were treated not as humans because they were not viewed as such in the eyes of the Nazi’s.

Read More
1167 Words | 5 Pages

“Oh, God, what's going on here? Panic, departures en masse, defeatism” (Sierakowiak). Every day, victims of the Holocaust who resided in ghettos felt the same plunge of fear and confusion as Dawid Sierakowiak. The ghettos were vile places. Hundreds of thousands packed into only a few square miles, not to mention the intemperate Nazis that oppressed Jews at every turn.

Read More
1617 Words | 7 Pages

Zeke Vanguardia Mrs. O’Hagan ELA 2 27 February 2023 Night Essay The Holocaust was an indescribable time in history, affecting millions of those innocent who were deemed unworthy by Nazi-German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and his supposed perfect, Aryan race. Those considered unfit by the standards of the Aryan race, especially those of the Jewish race/religion, would undergo cruel, inhumane conditions and labor in concentration camps throughout Europe. In the novel, Night by Elie Wiesel, the author tells his personal account of his time spent throughout these concentration camps with his father.

Read More
432 Words | 2 Pages

The book also urges readers to consider how some people can hold the fate of others by showing how Jewish people’s lives were taken over by a different race.

Read More
693 Words | 3 Pages

Pg. 237. The tragedy of the Holocaust (1933 - 1945)

Read More
641 Words | 3 Pages

The Nazis eyes, “shining with greed,” continued to bring their wrath down upon the thousands of imprisoned Jews (55). As a sense of gloomy dejection trailed behind the prisoners, they were barely able to cope with their situation. Akiba Drumer, a fellow prisoner in Buna completely gave up all sense of hope. When he was nearing his death, “his eyes would suddenly go blank, leaving two gaping wounds, two wells of terror” (76). These wounds can be seen as the emptiness left behind by the Nazis, and the vacant wells of terror as the dehumanization.

Read More
1331 Words | 6 Pages

Elie recalls that while in the large ghetto, the Nazi-led captors begin to starve the Jews: “We had spent the day without food…we were exhausted” (15). The Nazi treatment of the Jews in the camps introduces the recurring theme of dehumanization that affects the Jewish people. Depriving the inhabitants of food for a day was an intentional, calculated maneuver completed with the intent to weaken those in the camps. The Nazis belived that the town would be too hungry to disobey orders and consequently would be easier to manipulate. Starving the people to force them to follow is a strategy that views the Jewish people as animals, which detaches them from their sense of humanity.

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

You truly don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Everyday things are taken for granted. In “The Book Thief” It shows incredible examples of how loss transforms you for the better. “The Book Thief” Written by Markus Zusak is a novel based on Nazi-Germany during post World War 2. It Features the scary truth along with harsh humor, The story is told through the eyes of brave, Jewish girl named Liesel.

Read More
888 Words | 4 Pages

“It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery…” (Zusak, pg. 5) The novel, The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak in 2005 explores the theme of family relationships. It is through nine-year-old Liesel Meminger, the protagonist, that the idea of a broken family during the era of Nazi Germany is explored. The Book Thief depicts the struggle of young German girl, Liesel Meminger, living in Germany during the time of Hitler’s reign.

Read More
1471 Words | 6 Pages

Many Germans, during WWII had started to take on the ideology of Hitler – that Jewish citizens in Germany were the cause of their poverty and misfortune. Of course, many knew that this was merely a form of scapegoating, and although they disagreed with the majority of Germany’s citizens, many would not speak up for fear of isolation (Boone,

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

Growing as a Character Every event in our lives happens for a reason, whether it is to learn from our mistakes or to gain experience from them. In Markus Zusak's novel “The Book Thief,” Liesel Meminger uses her experiences with living in the 1940s to learn life lessons and experience first hand the many terrible things Hitler is doing to people around her. She learns how to deal with the many obstacles that are thrown at her. Liesel grows as a character by following her step-father’s footsteps in being a kind and generous person, going through childhood with her best friend Rudy, and being aware of what is going on around her by learning from Max.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

In Night one of the ways that the Jews were dehumanized was by abuse. There were beatings, “I never felt anything except the lashes of the whip... Only the first really hurt.” (Wiesel, 57) “They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs.

Read More
1721 Words | 7 Pages

Humans lie and steal without hesitation to survive. That is how man is. However, human nature does not allow for cruelty to exist without the other end of the spectrum - kindness. In his novel, The Book Thief, Markus Zusak reveals the extreme malice possible in humans, along with the tenderness that stems from it. In times of hate and paranoia in Nazi Germany, ones who live morally are rare.

Read More
684 Words | 3 Pages

Expository Report “We must do something, we can’t let them kill us like that, like cattle in the slaughterhouse, we must revolt”. These are the words from many men surrounding Elie Wiesel as he entered Auschwitz, calling out for rebellious toward the Germans harsh conditions. Of course they had no idea what they were getting themselves into, many thought that there was nothing wrong until boarding the cattle train that would send them off to their final resting place. Life during the holocaust was torturous to say the least, so much so that some 6,000,000 lives were taken during this time in Jewish descent alone. People of the Jewish descent did not have it easy; they either were forced out of their homes into concentration camps, or they would hide out only to be found and killed of they remained in their settlements.

Read More

More about Examples Of Dehumanization In The Book Thief

Related Topics

Open Document