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Week of 2/3

Pages 110-118 of The Cowshed by Ji Xianlin are focused on describing the horrors of ‘the cowshed’. The vivid descriptions of violent horrors closely reflect the conditions of the Nazi Germany Holocaust camps especially because of the extreme dehumanization that occurred by the guards. Ji Xianlin describes his emotions growing duller and thoughts “more stupid day by day.” This is a direct reflection of him slowly losing his own individuality—he is no longer affected by the painful beatings and physical and verbal abuse he experiences. The once pertinent thoughts of suicide Ji Xianlin described in the earlier chapters started to fade with no more thoughts of the future. Days started to blend together as Ji Xianlin started to lose all sense of time.

What Ji Xianlin seems to be describing is him losing touch with the world. The guards are stripping these individuals of any remaining bits of self. This is exactly what the Nazi guards would do at the camps when they would brand the prisoners, force them to give up all personal belongings, shave their heads, and put them in uniforms. The concept of a hierarchical structure posing so much harm to humanity seems like such a big contradiction, it makes no sense to me. Yet, time and time again we see such control take over.