Theme Of Dehumanization In The Lottery And Not Human Beings

As human beings, we all have our own unique personalities, experiences, and beliefs that shape who we are. But one common trait that we all share is our capacity for emotion. We feel joy, love, anger, fear, and sadness, and these emotions often dictate how we treat others. Unfortunately, our treatment of others is quite poor in many cases due to negative emotions, and in other cases causes our life to take an unexpected turn. The stories of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, Apollo by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, My Life with the Wave by Octavio Paz, and Not Human Beings by Etgar Keret all highlight that the volatility of human emotion can lead one down dark roads. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a classic short story that explores the darker

The story is about a group of Israeli soldiers who come across an elderly Arab man. The soldiers run over, beat, and eventually kill the man. When pressed, the soldiers defend their actions by simply stating they “didn’t run over a human being… [they] ran over an Arab” (Keret 4). The soldier’s anger at the other side in the war has led them to see the opposing side as less than human. The story is a commentary on how humans can justify mistreating others by dehumanizing them. Unfortunately, this is something my family and I know all too well. As the son of two immigrants, I have personally experienced being treated as less than human, as well as discriminated against solely because of my race. The form of racism I have experienced the most is being excluded from sports in elementary school, because the other kids believed I should stay in the classroom due to my race, as if I wasn’t a whole human being who needed exercise and socialization. The negative emotions involved in dehumanization almost always leads to acts of cruelty and

This is evident in the story "Apollo" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In this story, there are two growing boys, Okenwa and Raphael who eventually become close. But after seeing Raphael with someone else, Okenwa grows angry and jealous and falsely accuses Raphael of pushing him to the ground. Raphael is then fired and his life takes a turn for the worse (Ngozi). While the narrator didn’t want to ruin Raphael’s life, as children we do not have control over our emotions because human brains aren’t developed until many years