Dehumanization in The Novels 'Night' and '1984'

Society often finds people living a prosperous life, but there are also people living the polar opposite, perhaps even victims of dehumanization. The process of dehumanization is an attempt at making someone, or a group of people, feel or appear less human. This action is commonly used to censor people and make them live an alternate reality where the people enforcing power can maliciously control them to achieve their agenda. The concept of dehumanization is demonstrated through the novels 1984 and Night through the main characters in each novel being stripped out of basic human rights and taking the role of a predetermined object that was forcibly given by people of power. This was done so by oppressing people and restricting their rights to owning an identity, showing emotion, and limiting their access to basic human needs.

Loss of Identity and Rights Oppression as Symbols of Dehumanization

Loss of identity is one of the many branches of dehumanization that is explored in both novels, each of the main characters in the novels is in danger of/or has already had their identities stripped from them and therefore becomes a lesser version of themselves. In the novel Night, Eliezer and his dad had been forced into a Nazi concentration camp due to their background. Eliezer was slowly stripped from his true self, from being forced to run excessive distances to getting a number tattooed onto him, he was eventually known as a number to everyone around him. “The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” (Wiesel, 42). While each individual has their own unique number, it is a method of identification while making the person feel less of themselves. The numbers are not prestigious or identifiably unique in comparison to having the right to a name, thus representing the loss of identity because they are taking away a person’s individuality. Similar to Eliezer’s experiences in the concentration camp, Winston also faced a similar situation in 1984. A language known as Newspeak is the official language of Oceania. Winston does not favour using the language itself and resorts to Oldspeak, the language that held the idea of thinking articulately, held rebellious thoughts, and contained knowledge. Newspeak was invented to remove all those traits of Oldspeak, thus why Winston hates it. When conversing with Syme, writer of the Newspeak dictionary, he tells Winston, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten” (Orwell, 67). The quote outlines a goal that the party is trying to achieve so that no one could rebel against them. By taking away all the meaningful words in a language and stripping it down to minimal words, no one can commit thoughtcrime. This directly relates to loss of identity since Newspeak would restrict people from thinking articulately, resulting in the Party having easier control of them. The differences between Winston and Eliezer’s experiences here are that while one person has already been dehumanized, the other still is in the right state of mind and can fight for his freedom. Eliezer has already lost his identity because he is in the camp and has to abide by its rules and have the number tattooed onto him, but Winston has still maintained his identity at the time of this quote, but will eventually lose it as the novel progresses.

Another form of Dehumanization that is common amongst both novels is the loss of basic human rights. The loss of basic human rights drastically affected the main characters in negative ways. In the novel Night, while Eliezer was being transported to the concentration camp along with his father in a car, he described the experience as being treated like an animal. “The Hungarian police made us climb into the cars, eighty persons in each one. They handed us some bread, a few pails of water. They checked the bars on the windows to make sure they would not come loose. The cars were sealed. One person was placed in charge of every car: if someone managed to escape, that person would be shot” (Wiesel, 22). The Jewish inmates are being treated like animals, being given the bare-minimum to survive until they get to the destination to serve in the camps. The conditions described were inhumane, “The cars were sealed”, implies that there was minimal air to breathe and most likely no room to move since it was so packed, contributing to the loss of basic human rights as we see humans being treated as a different species with minimal regard to their health. While this novel showcases a more violent side of human rights being taken, 1984 takes a different approach to it. In 1984, everyone living in society is being watched, everywhere you go there is a camera watching your every move. In this novel, every human’s privacy is being breached for the benefit of the Party. “There was, of course, no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate, they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to” (Orwell, 5). The Thought Police are blatantly invading innocent people’s privacy. The freedom and rights of people are being stripped from them for someone else’s benefit. The quote “Big Brother is watching you” is a recurring quote that reinforces the fact that the government is always watching a person’s every mode. The loss of privacy is an example of human rights being stripped because the government is taking away a person’s freedom to do what they want, causing everyone to always be scared knowing that they can be watched at any time.

Loss of Emotion as Another Way to Demostrate Dehumanization

Emotions are crucial to everyday life because it communicates how we feel to people around us, but when it is taken from you, you become expressionless and feel helpless. In the novel Night, Eliezer had watched his own father get beaten up by a person, while it would be in every son’s best interest to help their own father, Eliezer didn’t even blink. Instead of helping his own dad, he just watched him suffer. “I stood petrified. What happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent” (Wiesel, 39). This shows that Eliezer knew what was happening, yet for some reason, he didn’t do anything about the situation. Elie had been changed so much by the camp that he doesn’t even move at the view of his own father’s life being taken away from him. The camp has transformed him to be heartless/emotionless while a normal human would burst into tears at the sight of seeing a loved one suffer. In contrast, in 1984, showing affection towards another person is prohibited by the party in a situation where it would morally be recognized most, during the marriage. Couples in the party are allowed to get married, but they aren’t allowed to show any form of affection towards each other. If affection were to be shown the whole marriage would be cancelled. “All marriages between Party members had to be approved by a committee appointed for the purpose, and—though the principle was never clearly stated — permission was always refused if the couple concerned gave the impression of being physically attracted to one another. The only recognized purpose of marriage was to beget children for the service of the Party” (Orwell, 83). This quote is a representation of loss of emotion because the government does want people to have feelings towards each other, they only allow marriages for the sake of reproducing more children to have them serve in the party. Emotion is something that all humans should be able to freely express, as it shows people around them how they feel at a given moment.

Conclusion

oth of the novels demonstrated sub-themes of dehumanization. Eliezer and Winston faced many depriving situations that resulted in them having their identity, emotions, and human rights taken away from them.