Name:__________________________________
Night Theme Essay: Introduction Paragraph
Introduction Paragraph: Topic--Dehumanization
HOOK start with a shocking fact, story, example, question that relates to your theme and grabs attention
The Jews were herded like animals into sealed cattle wagons. They were beaten,
separated from family, stripped of all personal possessions, their haid, their clothes,
their dignity. “Within in a few seconds, we had ceased to be men” (34), said Elie
Wiesel, referring to his first moments at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.
THE WHAT state the book’s title and author, name the theme, explain what the theme means
In Night, Elie’s Wiesel’s memoir about his experience during the Holocaust, he vividly
describes the Nazi’s dehumanization of the Jews and other victims of Hitler’s “Final
Solution”. Dehumanization is the process in which a person is stripped of his dignity as
a human being and is treated as an animal or worse. When you dehumanize someone,
you try to make it seem as if they do not deserve to be treated with respect or given the
rights that all people should have.
THE WHY express how the theme relates to the Holocaust
During the Holocaust the Nazis tried to dehumanize the Jews and other groups in order
crush the people’s spirits, so they would not try to fight back against the cruelty. Also, by
dehumanizing the Jews, Nazis hoped to make the rest of the world believe that the cruelty
was not wrong because the Jews did not deserve to be treated with respect since they
were inferior beings.
THESIS book title, theme, your three topics
In Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, the Nazis try to dehumanize the Jews by calling them
names, stripping them of their human possessions, and treating them as if they were
nothing more than animals.