The Genocidal Killer In The Mirror Analysis

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” This quote was spoken on August 22, 1939 by Adolf Hitler over 20 years after the Armenian Genocide took place. Adolf Hitler then went on to plan and lead one of the biggest and most widespread human massacres of all time, The Holocaust. Adolf Hitler believed that no one would notice the Holocaust because no one had taken much interest in the Armenian Genocide. The historical fiction book Forgotten Fire, by Adam Bagdasarian, tells the story of a boy named Vahan Kenderian who lived through the Armenian Genocide.

It is important to know that the word Genocide did not exist in language and was coined in 1944 by a Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing) and was finally recognized by the UN General Assembly as a crime under international law in 1946 (Power). Wiesel presents the historical acts of indifference by the U.S. during World War II, when the president turn a ship full of Jewish refugees away from New York harbor, showing the world leaders that this was a choice between right and wrong, and indifference was the choice that was made. Wiesel does not condemn the U.S. but appeals to the logic in this presentation and then presents the lesson learned in Kosovo, when he says “this time, the world was not silent. This time, we do respond. This time, we intervene” (“Perils of Indifference”).

The genocide in Rwanda had long been a struggle of classes, but the growing discontentment initiated with the assassination of the Hutu president. From Jennifer Rosenberg’s article and Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, similarities that occurred during a dark period in history will be showcased. The addition of abstract

When talking about war, there are many books with few answers to what war truly is. Barbara Ehrenreich brings forth not only the possibilities towards understanding war but also the passion people from history have had towards it. One key issue she brings to light is humanities love for war, so much so that people would use excuses like holy wars to justify their need to fight in a war. She declares that war is as muddled as the issue of diseases and where diseases came from around 200 years ago. More so than that she even goes further on to state that these rituals that date back to prehistoric times are the cause of human nature during times of war rather than human instinct.

In Germany, during the 1940’s, most people stood by as these events happened. Their behaviour is not unique to Germany and has been repeated throughout history. As the bystanders displacement of human weakness contributes to the genocide itself. More recently this type of behaviour was demonstrated in Rwanda. The film Hotel Rwanda articulates the significant impact that speaking truth to authority can have.

“At that time we knew nothing about the Nazis' extermination methods.” (Wiesel 20). These quotes support the claim of the Holocaust being considered a form of genocide by stating the stages of genocide and the

The Holocaust had formed through the hatred of races, much like the genocide that Clementine had witnessed. After reading about how Clementine was affected, changed, by the words in Night (par. 5), I realized that Night has been able to change the courses of countless individuals. It has provided a glance into the cruel, horrid past of a disgusting event through the eyes of a victim. Clementine has since been working on speaking about similar genocides and massacres ;’’(par. 6), which has led me to realize that the bloodlust hasn’t ceased.

War and genocide have historically been closely related and even described as Siamese twins. Genocide can occur without war but war cannot occur without some elements of genocide as the distinction between legitimate war and genocide is not clear. War is defined as an armed conflict between different nations or groups within a nation. Scholars who have studied the relationship between war and genocide have argued that they are one in the same. It is a very convincing argument especially when examining the UN Convention on genocide.

People are not born with the mentality to kill—or are they? Human ambition and desires vary from one another, but for the most part, humans do not seek to commit atrocities. If they do, then who is to blame, the murderer or the ones who raised the murderer? In Mary Shelley’s novel, the main character, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, stitched body parts together to create a beyond hideous, vile-looking creature which caused Frankenstein to abandon him at sight. When the monster ends up killing Frankenstein’s beloved brother due to resentment, one can argue that the creature’s actions are justified (55).

The Armenian Genocide is also known as the “American Holocaust”, this was the Armenians Government’s system of killing an approximation of around ‘1.5 million Armenian’s’. We often ask ourselves, “what

The number of such events outnumbered 20 and the number of people killed was nearly 160 million. In the history of the 20th century with its Nazism, ethnic cleansing, deportations, clash of empires, wars in Yugoslavia and Post-Soviet territories, violence that touched upon even Africa and Asia – it is nationalism to be blamed to be the reason of all this cruelty that existed globally in the 1900s. However, does nationalism always lead to genocide? In this essay, I would try to give an answer to this question and prove my opinion that nationalism in practice frequently leads to genocide, analyzing theory and history of the twentieth century particularly. I would try to shortly explain how nationalism is understood by different sociologists and historians, what was naturally meant by nationalism and what it became in practice,

Living through the first half of the twentieth century, George Orwell watched the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Fighting in Spain, he witnessed the brutalities of the fascists and Stalinists first hand. His experiences awakened him to the evils of a totalitarian government. In his novel 1984, Orwell paints a dark and pessimistic vision of the future where society is completely controlled by a totalitarian government. He uses symbolism and the character’s developments to show the nature of total power in a government and the extremes it will go through to retain that power by repressing individual freedom and the truth.

There are many factors that determine how people behave in their daily lives. We are run by a number of rules and regulations that influence the way we behave, talk and live. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows that without the influence of a civilized society and law and order, people’s characteristics can change drastically. Similarly in Macbeth, Shakespeare represents the loss of morality of a leader as his hunger for power clouds his judgement. Both pieces of literature present how both writers view the breakdown of morality through the breakdown of civil behaviour.

The Monitor on Psychology article “What makes good people do bad things?” by Melissa Dittmann analyzes the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Stanford psychology professor Phillip Zimbardo in 1971 and discusses what the experiment can tell us about human nature and what causes humans to be evil. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” the author William Golding discusses the effects of the theories mentioned in the article by creating his own fictional experiment with children stranded on an island during a nuclear war. Throughout his novel Golding explores the focus of Dittmann’s article; that environments and situations can bring out the evil that is inside all of us. People can act good or bad depending on their environment, and these actions are not entirely their fault because when people are not held accountable for their actions their more violent natures are revealed.

William Shakespeare and George Orwell are two of the most iconic authors of all time. Although living in different conditions and time periods, both of their works show similarities in exploring human nature and defining humanity. Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Orwell’s 1984 both explore the human traits in different storylines and styles, but for a similar purpose. Not only do both pieces of literature deeply explore the themes of power and control, but also other aspects of human life such as fear and paranoia. By doing this in each author’s storyline, they connect with the values and beliefs of their readers.