The Life You Save May Be Your Own Analysis

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Inhumanity in Night and “The Life you Save may be Your Own” Many authors, such as Elie Wiesel and Flannery O’Connor, add great depth to their stories with detail of contemptable acts. Night and “The Life you Save may be Your Own” do not falter to shock their audiences with this kind of detail. Both texts contain the theme of inhumanity, and it changes throughout the text. A very prominent way inhumanity is shown in Night is the treatment of the Jewish people by the Nazis. One very good example of this is the horrible acts Moshe the Beadle witnesses, “They were made to dig huge graves. And when they had finished their work, the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to …show more content…
Inhumanity is displayed by the acts of the character. One instance of inhumanity is when Mr. Shiftlet abandons his wife in a diner, “"Hitch hiker," Mr. Shiftlet explained. “I can't wait. I got to make Tuscaloosa." The boy bent over again and very carefully touched his finger to a strand of the golden hair and Mr. Shiftlet left” (O’Conner par. 46). Another way this is shown is the when the boy Mr. Shiftlet picks up is angered, “The boy turned angrily in the seat. "You go to the devil!" he cried. "My old woman is a flea bag and yours is a stinking pole cat!" and with that he flung the door open and jumped out with his suitcase into the ditch” (O’Conner par. 52). These actions both display inhumanity. At first inhumanity is displayed very subtlety, but soon reveals the true intent is crookedness of the characters. Shiflet’s whole plan was to steal a car, which involved ditching a deaf girl far from home. He is so cruel he would marry a woman just to get a car and money. Equally, the actions of the boy are very shocking. He obviously comes from an uncaring place and is so broken he curses his own mother. O’Conner’s use of inhumanity shocks the reader and keeps them