“Less Than Human” is chapter 1 in David Livingstone Smith’s Less Than Human, includes various stories of dehumanization throughout history to the present day and elaboration and further comments on those pieces of history. Some of these examples include stories from war and stories of dehumanization in the media. Smith uses these tales from history and his reflections on them to illustrate his purpose of writing this; in fact, from these stories we can easily come up with his argument and analyze it. In “Less Than Human,” Smith clearly provides his purpose, audience, how he decided to arrange this writing, evidence for his argument, implications, and his word choice.
Smith doesn’t get to telling his purpose of writing this selection until the end, but even then, the reader may have to infer what it may be. In the last paragraph, he says that “dehumanization is… widespread… it is found… through the full span of human history, and… the problem of dehumanization is everyone’s problem” (Smith 25). From this, one can find Smith’s purpose of writing this; that being, to show that dehumanization continues today, that it’s not only a part of history, and that it affects everyone across many cultures. He makes this argument because dehumanization continues today and needs to be stopped before we reach another large war or have a major incident. One example Smith uses to illustrate this is Rush Limbaugh’s radio show on the “Abu Ghraib prison scandal [saying] “[The prisoners] are the ones who are sick” … They are the ones who subhuman” (Smith 22). Smith provides multiple other examples to show his purpose and why he made this his argument/purpose; at the same time, he also uses these to tell who the audience is intended to be by Smith.
The factor of who the audience is and who Smith is directing the argument at is a different story. He uses multiple stories of dehumanization; whether it’s the Israelis versus the Palestinians or the 1946 Nuremberg doctors’ trial, and at least one can relate to whoever is reading the book. Therefore, the audience that Smith intends to reach and reach with his argument is one that is universal; despite this, one can say that the secondary audience is an academic crowd. The reason one could say that his secondary audience is an academic crowd is because of his organization of the paper and his evidence to support his purpose of writing “Less Than Human.”
Smith arranges this chapter in three sections; stories of dehumanization in war, dehumanization in media, and a conclusion. He further divides the first two sections into a pattern that is basically; story, supporting info on the story and introduction to the next story, story, supporting info, so on and so forth until he concludes the section. For example, the excerpt begins with an example of dehumanization occurring between Israelis and Palestinians, it says “Degrading taunts rang out from behind the fence that divided the Palestinian side of the Khan Younis refugee camp from the Israeli side” (Smith 11); afterwards, Smith reflects and elaborates on the story by telling the reader that Khan Younis was a “stronghold of Hamas” and further elaborates on the story, he then introduces another example and repeats (Smith 12).
Smith demonstrates his purpose and caters to his audience through the use of evidence of dehumanization in war and dehumanization in media. This evidence ranges from the Holocaust to Rush Limbaugh’s view on the Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal. Smith illustrates his purpose by providing examples from various points in history like the “1946 Nuremberg doctors’ trial [that] was the first of twelve military tribunals held in Germany [in which] twenty doctors and three administrators … stood accused of wars crimes and crimes against humanity” (Smith 14). Using examples like this, Smith gets the reader’s attention and shows his purpose before actually saying it on the last page. Smith also uses this evidence to cater to whoever reads this excerpt by using examples in which a person could relate to at least one example or imagine an example in their lives like those in the paper. One such piece of evidence would be when “on September 4, 2007, the Columbus Dispatch published a cartoon portraying Iran as a sewer” (Smith 22); one person in the audience could imagine or relate to this by remembering something they read that made them feel uncomfortable, etc. Smith also uses such evidence to hint to or provide an implication or suggestion to the reader.
Smith provides a specific recommendation to the audience; however, part of it is stated and the other part is implied. He never deliberately states the whole suggestion, but Smith states a part of it in the last paragraph. He states this part of his suggestion by saying that “We are all potential dehumanizers, just as we are all potential objects of dehumanization. The problem of dehumanization is everyone’s problem” (Smith 25). By saying this, Smith states that dehumanization is everyone’s problem and that we are affected by it. While this is deliberately stated, he eludes to the other parts of his purpose that it continues today, not just a part of history by; once again, his use of evidence from different points in time.
Smith does repeat specific words or phrases like dehumanization; but he also uses specific types of words or phrases. The most repeated word or words used is dehumanization and the other versions of that word, this is done since it is the topic of this excerpt. More interesting is the special type of word or phrase Smith uses, that being derogatory names or phrases that one side calls its enemy; specific examples of this would be what the Nazis called their victims, “Untermenschen – subhumans” and another being what the Japanese called the Chinese or “Chancorro [meaning] below human, like bugs or animals” (Smith 15- 18). He uses these to his purpose that dehumanization affects everyone across multiple cultures and that it is still a part of everyday life.
Throughout “Less Than Human” from Less Than Human, Smith uses tales of dehumanization in history to the modern day to present his argument. In using these the argument can be studied and interpreted by his audience. By doing this, Smith’s purpose, audience, arrangement of the excerpt, evidence, suggestions, and word choice is shown and can be recorded.