Humanity

Humanity

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Caption: : By Laura Whettingsteel

What does it mean to be human?

People act and think in many different ways. However we all have one thing in common, our urge to help the sick and poor. To save the endangered from their deadly situations. This is called humanity. I believe we are all born humane although as we grow up we may loose this or have only a certain degree of humanity left in us. But it's still there inside of us. Whether we chose to ignore this feeling is a different matter.    Some people may argue that humanity is only found in some people. I agree with this statement to a certain extent because people like Hitler certainly didn't show any humanity towards the Jews and other groups of people that he targeted during the homicide in WW2. However he could have had a small degree of humanity in him but just chose to ignore the feeling making him seem inhumane.

The boy in the striped pyjamas

An example of different degrees of humanity can be found in the family in the boy in the striped pyjamas. Bruno (the son) showed a very high level of humanity as he treated the Jews the same as he treated everybody else no matter what he was told about them . People may say he showed this amount of empathy for the Jews as he didn't truly understand what was happening and that if he did he may have treated them differently. Nevertheless he still showed the highest level of humanity in the film. The mother also showed a high level of humanity because as soon she realised what was happening and how bad the situation was she was immediately against the Germans actions and showed a high level of empathy toward the Jews. The lowest level of humanity shown was by the father. He only showed a level of humanity toward his family and even that was only a small amount. The way the Jews were treated, even in his household, didn't faze him and he showed no empathy to them what so ever.

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Caption: : Bruno and Schmuel