Dehumanization in Night and The Metamorphosis
             Night by Elie Wiesel, and The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka both discuss the theme of dehumanization one in a World War II setting and the other during the industrial revolution. Both books tell the reader what it is like to be controlled. Night discusses this theme while telling the story of a boy and his father in a Nazi concentration camp and being controlled by the Nazi's. The Metamorphosis discusses this theme by transforming the main character into a bug, which is a metaphor for a person being like a drone during the industrial revolution.
             In Night, people were being controlled by the Nazi's in their own homes. We can see this in the beginning of the novel when the troops have just come into the author's town. " 'All Jews outside! Hurry!' Some Jewish police went into the houses, saying in broken voices: 'The time's come now...you've got to leave all this...'," (page 13). Here we can see that even in their own homes, the Jews were unable to escape from the Nazi's control and were much less human because they could not control their own lives.
             It is very clear in the beginning of The Metamorphosis that the transformation of the main character into a large bug is used to symbolize that he is controlled by his job, and quite literally dehumanizes him. The author talks about his transformation early on in the book when he had just woken up in the morning.
             ...he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin...he saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs...His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes. (page 3)
             It is unclear what this transformation symbolizes at first, but soon we begin to realize that he has worked like a "bug" for much of his life and his work dehumanizes him.
             ...