Analysis Of Communicare By Primo Levi

In this Essay I will examine the role communication and Language in Primo Levi’s La Tregua and I sommersi e I salvati. Levi writes at length about the importance of communication in the chapter entitled “Comunicare” in I sommersi e i salvati. The knowledge of more than one language and being able to communicate was a vital part of survival in the Nazi concentration camps and in the aftermath of the camps. In relation to language and communication I will discuss the forbiddance of communication in the concentration camps, the importance of communication to unify human beings, the peril of those who could not speak German and the advantage to those who could. I will also examine the Lager jargon that was used in the camps, the isolation of the …show more content…
Rifiutare di comunicare è colpa”. (Levi,1986). Verbal communication was one of the daily problems of concentration camp prisoners in Auschwitz. The Nazi’s purposefully mixed prisoners of different nationality and different nationalities together in camps and groups so that they wouldn’t understand each other and would be forced into confusion, disorientation and silence. Preventing the prisoners from communicating with each other was an important element in “demolition of the personality and in the dehumanization imposed by the Lager” (Gordon, 2007). The Nazis imposed a sort of Tower of Babel scenario where by creating a confusion of languages and sounds, communication was forbidden at the most basic level of linguistic expression. Communication is the way in which we maintain a sense of civility and maintain mutual understanding, this vital part of being a human was denied by the Nazis in an attempt to stop the unity if thoughts, minds, hopes and ideas. Communication and amongst prisoners posed a major threat to the Nazi extermination plan, the “final solution”. If the …show more content…
In this chapter Cesare wishes to exchange some dinner plates for a chicken. However the people to with whom he is talking do not understand him and in frustration Cesare “si esibí in una pessima imitazione delle abitudini dei polli”. In this situation “incomprehension and a lack of common language in which to communicate have lost their menacing urgency and their capacity to alienate and isolate, for here, failing to comprehend is no longer a matter of life and death” (Benchouiha, 2006). On their new journey in La tregua it is now possible and necessary to communicate, the prisoners’ reestablished ability to communicate is a vital part of the reconstruction of the liberated prisoners humanity and