Farewell To Manzanar Research Paper

From slavery in the early USA to the Untouchables in the Caste system, examples, of dehumanization have been shown throughout history. Although dehumanization has been a recurring historical theme, WWII in particular shows lots of disturbing examples of dehumanization. Two World War II era memoirs provide many instances of dehumanization, Farewell to Manzanar by Wakatsuki Houston & Houston (1973), which is about a young Japanese American girl that was put into the Manzanar internment camp, and Night by Elie Wiesel (1958) which follows a Jewish boy through two Nazi concentration camps. There are many examples of dehumanization in the memoirs Farewell to Manzanar and Night which help to show the hardships of the people confined inside internment

We had only the dimmest ideas of what to expect” (Wakatsuki Houston & Houston, 1973, pg.26). This quote talks about how the living conditions for the Japanese Americans in the internment camps were awful and they were not suitable for humans. This is dehumanization because it removes their basic human right to adequate living. Wakatsuki mentioned the buildings they were staying in did not keep them warm in the winter. This is a clear violation of this right, which diminishes their humanity. Those were a few of the many examples of dehumanization shown throughout the memoir Farewell to Manzanar. Similar to how the memoir Farewell to Manzanar shows dehumanization in World War 2, Night by Elie Wiesel also shows examples of dehumanization during World War 2 from the perspective of a Jew in the Nazi concentration camps. One example of dehumanization is shown on page 42 when Elie says “I became A-7713. From now on, I have no other name” (Wiesel, 1958, pg.42). This quote was written when Elie was first taken to the concentration camp and assigned a number. This is dehumanization because it takes away their human identity and treats them more like objects than living