If This Is a Man by Primo Levi (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide by Bright Summaries

Author:Bright Summaries [Summaries, Bright]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9782806271075
Amazon: 280627107X
Publisher: BrightSummaries.com
Published: 2015-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

ANALYSIS

OVER TIME

From the preface, Primo Levi says that his book will add nothing more to the historical knowledge that readers may have already developed on the subject of concentration camps. However, different elements allow for the situating of the writer’s experience in the camp in relation to the development of World War II. The final chapter thus opens with the evocation of the roar of Russian guns (p. 151). Levi also mentions the Allied bombing in Upper Silesia (now the region of Poland where Auschwitz is located) during the summer and fall of 1944. The prisoners therefore had a fragmented perception of the turmoil of the war. The author shares this with the reader, who then has the opportunity to put the events into a historical perspective.

Daily life was structured according to a strict work schedule, which varied according to the season. One might think that this regular and rhythmic division allowed the prisoners to situate themselves in time, to reminisce and to plan for the future. Yet, the situation of extreme material, mental and moral deprivation of the Häftlinge (‘inmates’ in German) deprived them of all ability to think of a past or future that wasn’t immediate:

“For living men, the units of time always have a value, which increases in ratio to the strength of the internal resources of the person living through them; but for us, hours, days, months spilled out sluggishly from the future into the past, always too slowly, a valueless and superfluous material of which we sought to rid ourselves as soon as possible. […] For us, history had stopped.” (p. 116).

The concentration camp system thus managed to deprive inmates of their ability to settle in the temporal framework. They were imprisoned not only in space, but also in time, as Primo Levi teaches the reader through his testimony.

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