If This Is A Man Analysis

The title of Primo Levi’s memoir if This is a Man has the sense that it is an unfinished statement. I have always envisaged it to be ‘if this is a man, then I don’t know what isn’t’ as a statement to question what defines a man. In his memoir, Levi explores this idea of what it means to be a man. He achieves this by using variation in tense to initiate the breakdown on humanity and through the selection of individuals he writes about who epitomize what it means to be a man, and what it means to not be a man.
Levi uses a change in tense to establish the beginning of the dehumanization process. Prior to this, Levi uses past tense to describe their journey to the camp and explain what has already happened. As soon as they arrive, he changes to the present tense and uses the pronoun of we. He begins three consecutive paragraphs with the simple short sentences ‘We …show more content…
An animal only knows how to survive, there is no concept of dignity. Levi and those in the camp are forced to abandon certain morals and unspoken law in order to survive; they must adopt ways of that of an animal. Levi says that ‘we are sheared’(p. 29) which uses the choice of language that would usually be used for animals such as sheep, establishing how already they are being stripped of dignity. Further in the book he makes more references to animals by saying ‘Our neck is knobbly like that of plucked chickens’ (p. 148). The simile Levi uses of their necks looking like that of plucked chickens instils a sense of vulnerability and reinforces the notion that they are being forced into living like animals. Chickens are also held in captivity in vast numbers and are part of an industry infamous for its inhumane tendencies; similarly, the camp has these attributes. Animal qualities are not restricted to simply appearance, as the prisoners inadvertently acquire such starvation that emanates a way of eating existent only in animals. Levi