1. Critical
Stance: Wiesel chronicles the gradual dehumanization of the prisoners.
a.
Dehumanization – the
deprivation of human qualities such as civility and individuality.
b.
First, the Jews started
to notice that, “There were no longer any questions of wealth, of social
distinction, and importance, only people all condemned to the same fate-still
unknown.” Because all of the prisoners are know by their code names, and they
all practically wear the same clothing, and are all treated as animals, As the
novel progresses, the prisoners eventually go into “Survival mode” trading the
few materialistic items prisoners have for vital needs
c.
Wiesel starts to lose his
faith, for example when the prisoners pray, he says, “Why, but why should I
bless him? Every fiber I rebelled. Had had thousands of children burned in his
pits? Because he kept sic crematories working night and day, on Sundays and
feast days? Because in his great might he had created Auschwitz, Birkenau,
Buna, and so many factories of death?” Wiesel also starts to grow into survival
mode as well. He trades his golden tooth for the mercy of an officer, and
receives an offer to stay with his father if he gave his shoes away (which he
declined). He also starts to realize that his father was not as strong as he thought,
and there’s always a risk of losing him.
- Dialectical Journal Entries
- “There were no longer any questions of wealth, of social distinction, and importance, only people all condemned to the same fate-still unknown.”
- “Why, but why should I bless him? Every fiber I rebelled. Had had thousands of children burned in his pits? Because he kept sic crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in his great might he had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death?”
- “What are you, my God,” I thought angrily, “compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming you to their faith, their anger, their revolt? What does your greatness mean, lord of the universe, in the face of all this weakness, this weakness, this decomposition, and this decay? Why do you still trouble their sick minds, their cripp
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