The Value of a Name in The Language of Oppression by Haig Bosmajian

Another way the Germans dehumanized the Jews was by taking away all of their belongings. Some of these items they could live without, but they definitely did not realize how much they took them for granted. Lastly, the Jews were given numbers instead of their names. As the novel claimed, “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). This act of taking away the Jews names and replacing them with numbers is an inhumane act which is dehumanizing towards them. People do not realize that something as simple as a name can have so much meaning until it is taken away. Therefore, the Germans stripped the Jews of everything that resembled a past life, which was dehumanizing.

Sherman Alexie, in “Indian Education” tells his experiences in school on the reservation. Some of his teachers did not treat him very good and did not try to understand him. In his ninth grade year he collapsed. A teacher assumed that he had been drinking just because he was Native American. The teacher said, “What’s that boy been drinking? I know all about these Indian kids. They start drinking real young.” Sherman Alexie didn’t listen to the negatives in school. He persevered and became valedictorian of his school.

Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his

Dehumanization is the act of taking one’s human qualities away from them, this can be done using voice and also using actions. During the time of the Holocaust, the Nazi’s used their power to abuse and dehumanize the Jewish people. They would beat and kill them, they would yell at them and they stripped the Jews of their dignity and rights. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, one recurring theme is the dehumanization of the Jews. Throughout Night by Elie Wiesel, one can see the theme of dehumanization through the way the Nazi’s treated the Jews, spoke to the Jews, and how the Jews treated one another.

In “night” we see how the Jewish people are being oppressed and dehumanized in so many ways. One example is “I became A-7713. From now on, I had no other name” (PG.42). This quote shows how they were stripped of their identities and replaced it with a simple number. As if they were just a number on a sheet of paper. We see in the book how the Nazis only see the Jewish people as numbers and had no knowledge of their actual lives or their identities. They are also given such little amounts of food,

     This collection of stories and the autobiographical account of her school days at White's Manual Institute in Wabash, Indiana, and later at Earlham College provide insight into the struggle of Indian peoples in the early twentieth century to protect their heritage while developing a modern Indian identity.

One of Victor’s first experiences of racial injustice occurs in second grade when his white missionary teacher discriminates him against his outstanding academic skills and his Indian heritage. Victor has pulled aside and is assigned a junior high-level spelling test; he recalls “When I spelled all the words right, she crumpled up the paper and made me eat it. ‘You’ll learn respect,’ she said” (Alexie 173). Here Victor faces two types of discrimination: the injustice of being singled out from his classmates in order to take a more difficult test, and the injustice of being penalized for performing well on the test. Instead of being praised or awarded for his outstanding ability, Victor is punished severely for his high-level skills by having to eat his test. Later on, the teachers send a note to his parents telling them “to either cut [Victor’s] braids or keep [him] home from class.” This injustice towards Victor’s culture over a hairstyle has no impact on a child’s education or accomplishments. Alexie incorporated this injustice to show the readers that such discrimination occurs and his stories are not fiction. In fact, native women, P. Jane Hafen responds to

One of the major ways in which the text reflects on the issue of oppression of women as well as the characters in the text is through the use of stories from First Nation families who, as we know, have been victims of oppression due to the implication of the Indian Act in 1876. From this moment, that enabled the government to see First Nations as wards of the state and ultimately have control over them. Throughout the text, we see several references to the horrible outcomes of the Indian Act such as the residential schools. One section in specific that is told through the point of view of Maria, focuses on a discussion she has with her aunt Kathy who is the niece of someone

Discrimination and stereotypes are both forms of adversity that attack someone based on who they are and are challenges that need to be overcome; this is apparent in both novels.” The Kelly’s would be your legal guardians, Saul. That means you could leave here and attend a regular school. You’d have a home, Saul. A real home.” (Pg. 95) It is evident that living at St. Jerome’s residential school is a horrible and traumatising experience through Saul’s detailed explanation. The children attending residential school were verbally and physically abused and furthermore the cultural was stripped from them. Their basis for discrimination was based exclusively on the children being Ojibway. Fortunately, because of Saul’s immense hockey talent, he was offered a better life through living with Fred and Martha Kelly. Despite the discrimination, Saul focused on improving at hockey which consequently provided him with the opportunity to leave St. Jerome’s residential school. Unlike Saul Indian Horse, the girls at Permian high School ARE unable to overcome the subjugation of females and stereotypes of gender roles. “Some of the Pepettes (Permian High School cheerleaders) spent $100 of their own money to make an individual sign, decorating it with twinkling lights.” (Pg. 27) Every girl at Permian high school desired to be a Pepette. A Pepette is assigned to a football player and has several responsibilities to fulfil for the football player. Females at Permian high school goal was to date a football player, once this had been

Imagine one day being able to be yourself and the next day someone else is in control of your every move. This is what happened to the Jewish people during the Holocaust. When the Germans came in to take over, they imposed regulations that did not allow the Jewish people to uphold their identity. Some restrictions that stripped away their identities include having to wear stars on their arms, having numbers tattooed onto their wrists, and wearing a striped uniform. The Book Night by Elie Wiesel is a true story told from the perspective of Elie, explaining what life was like living through the holocaust at a concentration camp. A major idea that ties into Elie and the loss of identity was Elie’s major personality change from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. All the little things that the Jewish people could not do anymore stripped them of their identity as well. There were a bunch of rules set: they could not attend synagogue, be on the streets after 6, and they were not allowed to travel they train. By taking away these little things, it did not allow the Jewish citizens to continue their daily activities and be themselves. The Germans also dehumanized the Jewish people, which means to deprive of human qualities, personality, or spirit. This is exactly what the Germans did by treating the “Jews” as less. The inhumane way that the Jewish people were treated did not allow them to be themselves, which then lead to the loss of identity.

Your name is your personality it helps you stand out from others and what makes you different. The jews had their name taken away and now there numbers it doesn't make them different just the same.“I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” (Wiesel 42) Jews had their whole identity changed to show that there all the same and that was the next step of dehumanization.

The Holocaust revealed the extreme evil in human nature on both a grand and small scale. Hitler, a strong supporter of antisemitism, had an agenda to create a dominant Aryan race and would stop at nothing to diminish the Jewish population. This meant forcing innocent Jewish people into death and labor camps, where conditions were brutal and treatment was atrociously inhumane. Overtime, this grand scale oppression sparked anger and violence within the victims. Instead of supporting one another in times of trouble, they began to commit senseless acts of violence towards one another in response to the cruelty they faced. Survival became their highest value, at any cost. Elie Wiesel witnesses this first hand on many accounts and spends his life striving to educate the world about the horrors of the Holocaust. In his Holocaust memoir, Night, he uses the motifs: night, silence, and flames, to develop the idea that evil is part of human nature.

At birth everyone is given a name by their parents. Your name is part of your identity and how you are addressed and recognized by the world. The different verities among the population created other names given to different races. These names are offensive, demeaning and are only used to refer to a person in a disrespectful manner. They can also cause a segregation among a nations people, these names are forced upon people weather they are rich or poor, old or young, male or female and are used to describe the same race of people. In the class reading "What 's in a Name? “by Henry Louis Gates he reminisces about a personal experience of his that he had with his father. In the story he describes his father was a hard worker and, because of this he was in high financial standings and, he was well respected and given privileges that at the time was rare for people of his race but he was still black and his name, his individual identity was not important instead he was given a racial identity, this is the only thing he was known as, this type of negative recognition is something many black Americans can relate to. One’s race is a predominant part of our identity and is what causes discrimination.

But lack of cultural understanding by her parents was not just found in Cofer’s family. It is also seen in Kothari’s family. Kothari, like Cofer, was a second-generation immigrant, except her parents were from India, not Puerto Rico. When Kothari was a child, she wanted to have American food like the rest of her peers. So when she asks her mother to bring home tuna, she does not understand why it is so different from the tuna everyone has on their sandwich. What Kothari’s mother did not know, and what

In the story By any other name by Santha Rama Rau, Santha and her sister, Premila, move to a different school that changes them in ways that affect their culture. In the beginning, the headmistress says, “Suppose we give you pretty English names (35).” This creates the beginning of how the American culture is affecting Santha and Premila by changing their Indian names because it is too hard for everyone else to pronounce. The sisters are also starting to question their lunch: “Premila and I were the only ones who had Indian food (37).” This explains how their culture is conflicting with everyone else’s and how they are viewing themselves as different. Throughout these two quotes, it shows how both cultures, people from the school and Santha and Premila’s, are conflicting and changing one another while they are viewing each other differently.