In the chapter featuring Soaphead Church in Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, Soaphead is compared to non-human things throughout the novel which dehumanizes his character.  Soaphead is a misanthrope, meaning he hated mankind, this suggests his personal superiority complex that will be strengthened  later in the chapter.  Soaphead is described as loving things, this makes sense that he would try to seek comfort in nonhuman things  in the face of his misanthropy.  Soaphead describes his wife leaving him as "She left me the way people leave a hotel room."  The comparison is to a place, not a thing- it lacks the emotional comfort to be a thing to him.  This blocks Soaphead's emotional viewpoint and works to loosen the empathy Morrison has built for him.  It also shows us how Soaphead believes he is above others on an emotional level, it implies an emotional stillness humanly impossible that Soaphead normally sees himself as having.  Later in the chapter, Soaphead  begins to compare himself to God, the inflated monstrous ego; this implies further works to dehumanize Soaphead to the reader.  The irony of this comparison is that Soaphead preaches about his good intentions with regards to helping people, while trying to downplay the pedophilia, molestation, fraud, and dog murder.  It can be said that Soaphead became the God he has criticized in his letter by refusing to adjust the course of his actions.   Chauvinistic gluttony consume Soaphead even in his most private thoughts.  

Soaphead Church from a play