Levi's Memoir: Summary

The first quote that stands out in Primo Levi’s book is in chapter one, “The Journey”. In this chapter, Primo Levi is describing his arrival. An important quote from this chapter is when Primo Levi says “They walked in squads, in rows of three, with an odd, embarrassed step, head dangling in front, arms rigid. On their heads they wore comic berets and were all dressed in long striped overcoats, which even by night and from a distance looked filthy and in rags. They walked in a large circle around us, never drawing near, and in silence began to busy themselves with our luggage and to climb in and out of the empty wagons” (Levi 20). Primo Levi is describing his arrival at Auschwitz. The importance of this quote is of the picture Primo Levi puts in the reader’s mind. Primo Levi does a great job describing in emotional detail of what his arrival was like. In the next paragraph, Primo Levi says “We looked at each other without a word. It was all incomprehensible and mad. But one thing we had understood. This was the metamorphosis that awaited us. Tomorrow we would be like them” (Levi 21). This quote stands out because it shows the realization Primo Levi had while watching the poor, lifeless Auschwitz prisoners work. By watching the prisoners, Primo Levi had fully acknowledged that this is the life that awaits him the next day. This is important for Primo Levi because by understanding what the future holds for him in Auschwitz, he can better prepare himself for survival in Auschwitz.

Reading the novel Survival in Auschwitz by author Primo Levi leads one to wonder whether his survival is attributed to his indefinite will to survive or a very subservient streak of luck. Throughout the novel, he is time and again spared from the fate that supposedly lies ahead of all inhabitants of the death camp at Auschwitz. Whether it was falling ill at the most convenient times or coming in contact with prisoners who had a compassionate, albeit uncommon, disposition, it would seem as though the Gods were always smiling upon him. Although throughout the novel primo is characterized as a very willing ands competent individual, one can not say that his personality or his training as a chemist were the sole factors of his survival. For

"A genocide on creativity," is what poet Joshua Bennett claimed that everyone that calls autism a disease is causing. The poem "Levi" written by poet Joshua Bennett uses his brother's personal experiences of being demeaned because of his autism to share with the audience people with autism are not diseased. In "Levi" Bennett claims that schools, doctors, and even society as a hole, have degraded people with the disease autism, by persuading them to act more ordered to fit into society which is killing their creativity. Bennett does an amazing job using the rhetorical strategies diction, pathos, and personification to strengthen his argument.

In the World War II-era, Jewish people were picked upon by the Nazis to kill off to “purify” their bloodlines. The Holocaust is an example of pure hatred and dehumanization. Dehumanize is to deprive someone of human qualities. The Nazis did this to the Jewish people by putting them in concentration camps to make them work to the brink of death, or they would kill them. They separated them from their families and took away all human rights from the Jewish people.

The survivors were so used to living and sleeping with corpses that they too felt that their own soul was no longer with them. It was very difficult for Jews to recuperate from the racial purification attempts of the Holocaust, but those who showed hope and perseverance through theses grueling times were able to regain their life and self worth. Throughout Levi’s reawakening, he met very extraordinary people, many of whom are survivors of the Holocaust just like him. These people can be seen as a symbol in Levi’s reawakening helping him establish new life after liberation. Jews are deeply hated amongst the European nation and Levi encounters three authority figures they guide him with rules that he must abide in order to escape detestation. During a walk along the churches of Cracow, Levi came across the first authority figure, a priest. They carried the most “extravagant and chaotic conversation in Latin.” (Levi, 50) At the end of their encounter the priest advises Levi not to speak German in public. The second authority figure that Levi encountered was a lawyer traveling through Treblinka. He was a Polish man but he could speak German as well. Like the priest, he also advised Levi not to speak German in public. A police officer, the third figure of authority in Levi’s reawakening, showed compassion towards Levi and offered him “a night in warmth, in jail.”

As the world around the authors begins to collapse, they are faced with evil and the uncertainty of whether to face the events with optimism or pessimism. Levi begins his experience on a more negative note as he describes what it's like to be on the bottom. “I have learnt that I am haftling. My number is 174517,” (page 27). Levi has lost hope in his own identity. He isn't optimistic or pessimistic, he is indifferent because he feels he is no longer a man, but a property of the Nazis. Levi also demonstrates negativity during his stay at Ka-Be. As he sits and watches the Jews do their usual morning ritual and march he describes how the Germans

From the very title of the novel and beginning poem Levi implores us to consider the essence of what it is to be human, presenting to us the thought-provoking question, if this is a man? Levi this way allows us to engage on an emotional level with the events of the holocaust and examine our own consciences, and as he details in his preface ‘furnish documentation for a quite study of certain aspects of the human mind’, and accuses society of subconscious reasoning that ‘every stranger is an enemy’. In explicit stripping the prisoners depicted in the text of their humanity, making this uncomfortably apparent to us as we are consistently encourage to draw comparisons, or rather contrast, with our own lives and hence are perhaps

I met Claverle Joseph, otherwise known as CJ, back in 2013 when I was trying out for a travel basketball team called Palm Beach Flight. Our body types were about the same, lanky, about 6ft tall, and size 12 shoes. However, that was the only similarity we shared. My upbringing came from attending a private catholic school for twelve years before I moved to Florida. His was a more difficult path where he faced problems within his own family and in his neighborhood. I got to know CJ over the next three years as we played on the basketball team together side by side and sharing countless experiences in hotel rooms when we would travel to different parts of the state to play. Although our differences were stark, we bonded over basketball and we

Sometimes, we love to hear the story of a tragedy. For example, some of the most well liked tragedies of all time include Gone with the Wind, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, many of Shakespeare’s plays, and a Streetcar Named Desire. These are not only stories though; they have their sadness but throughout there is also hope and there are also morals, these are things to gain by these stories. The story the Levi needs to share with us has no hope, it has no moral storyline that we can learn from

After finishing this memoir, there is no denying that the main character, Augusten Burroughs, has a problem. From a very young age his alcoholic tendencies (coupled with other drug use) have caused hardships for both himself and those around him. As he aged, so his alcoholism increased. In Dry: A memoir we get to see Augusten’s challenging journey from a life revolving around alcohol to sobriety. As previously mentioned, it is undeniable that Augusten did have a problem. But, does this automatically mean he is clinically diagnosable with an alcohol related disorder? Unfortunately, in this case, the answer is yes. Augusten Burroughs is not only diagnosable for clinical substance dependence, but could be considered the poster child of the

The miraculous life of Jacob Lawrence’s is said to be the most distinguished and accomplished African American Artist of his time. At a young age, Little Jacob Lawrence was introduced to art in Harlem, New York. He had always had a love for the arts, He began to develop his craft at an after-school program and further moving on to the Harlem Art Workshop then securing a scholarship to the American Artists School located in New York. He had the odds stacked against him; he further perfected his art during the great depression years which also at a time when African Americans had a harsh struggle with segregation and just trying to stay alive. His paint brush has captured everything from slave revolts to ghetto life to the destruction of the war.

The Underground Railroad was neither a railroad nor underground. It was a system of secret routes and people who helped African American Slaves escape to the North and to Canada during the 19th century. Why was it called that? The reason it was named “The Underground Railroad” was because it was figuratively underground as the network was illegal so they needed to stay “underground” to keep from being caught. The word “railroad” was used because the railroad was a rising mean for transportation and its users used railroad code to talk to each other in secret.

One the most distinguished artists of the twentieth century, Jacob Lawrence was born in Atlantic City and spnt part of his child hood in Pennsylvania. After his parents split up in 1924, he went with his mother and siblings to New York, settling in Harlem. "He trained as a painter at the Harlem Art Workshop, inside the New York Public Library's 113 5th Street branch. Younger than the artists and writers who took part in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Lawrence was also at an angle to them: he was not interested in the kind of idealized, fake-primitive images of blacks - the Noble Negroes in Art Deco guise - that tended to be produced as an antidote to the toxic racist stereotypes with which white popular culture had flooded

At first you get a sense that Levi only uses “we” in the proper sense, referring to himself and the other prisoners with him in Auschwitz bound by hatred. However, at the beginning of his chapter titled “The Drowned and the Saved,” he seems to use a true first-person singular, recapping his memoir thus far. In this same chapter, he describes “Prominents,” or prisoners given authority over fellow prisoners, which undermines the use of “we” in the simple sense of including his fellow prisoners. He

In the memoir If This Is A Man Primo Levi offers an insight into his life during the brutal and inhuman acts inflicted upon the Jews by the SS Soldiers during the Holocaust. Levi tells the story of his experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and the divisions between his fellow haftlinge and the German soldiers due to the significant differences between language and culture. The results of extreme anti-Semitism led to the dehumanisation and de-socialization of the prisoners, who often had limited understanding of the soldiers’ intentions. Further, the prisoners were largely segregated due to the diverse nationalities, religions, and ethnicities. The prisoners were stripped of all possessions and their loved ones, though one facet that