Question Of Morality In A Man By Primo Levi

It is human nature to seek answers to the overarching questions of morality and the cause of evil in our world. Unfortunately there are no answers to such questions, only plausible explanations and conjectures. In If this is A Man, Primo Levi posed questions and issues, such as whether morality is absolute or dynamic based on a person’s circumstances. Levi knew that these questions were unanswerable and so chose not to frivolously attempt to provide definite explanations. Instead, Levi deliberately illustrated the events of the Nazi death camp, the Lager, and the reactions of the Jews to such conditions thereby validating an innumerable amount of conclusions to the issues he presented. Primo Levi purposefully left the lofty questions he spawned …show more content…
Had Levi chosen to make blanket statements about humanity and the state of right versus wrong, the narrow mindedness that was characteristic of the fascist movement would have been furthered. Rather, Levi described the atrocities the Jews faced through a series of anecdotes from a wide spectrum of people, giving the reader all possible points of reference from which they could draw conclusions about the consequential issues Levi raised. One such anecdote was that of the experience Alfred L. had while in Auschwitz. In Alfred, Levi described a proud man of about fifty years old, whom Levi considered “saved”. Unlike the other “saved” Alfred did not survive by plundering others’ goods, rather he survived through his discipline. Alfred would line up first every day for his ration (the first ration being notoriously the most liquid) and often trading his ration of bread for items such as wooden shoes that would help him maintain his disciplined appearance. Through Alfred’s story, Levi showed that not all of the “saved” survived through thievery and deception, giving the reader yet another perspective upon which to look at the effect the Holocaust had on the humanity of the Jews. When evaluating major questions of morality and philosophy such as those If This is a Man prompted, it is important to have a myriad of different viewpoints to come to a well-informed conclusion. By giving the reader these viewpoints, Levi rejected the intolerance for other views that was at the core of the Nazi regime, thus showing that if any good came from the Holocaust, it was the belief that never again should the masses blindly accept the beliefs of the