The Drowned And The Saved By Primo Levi Analysis

Register to read the introduction… But when it comes to things such as war, politics, and the Holocaust; things need two sides. Levi points out how this is not possible in the chapter, The Grey Zone. How was the villain and who were the innocent becomes blurred. Living in a totalitarian state means that people will do whatever they have to do survive and will ask questions later. If they even ask questions at all. People like the sonderkommando and the prisoners in charge of blocks were privileged. They were allowed to live more comfortably than everyone else, but they had to punish their fellow prisoners. That leads one to question how one prisoner could harm another. But when it comes to survival, Levi points out how people will do what it takes and bury their memories to a place where they cannot be found. However, even the memories we as humans bury so deep, we feel as if they cannot appear in our lives again, they do. Survivors have daily reminders of what they had to do to survive. For not many lived who simply had their time pass while imprisoned. Primo Levi himself committed suicide after his finishing of The Drowned and the Saved. The guilt that survivors experienced is one that no one can fathom. …show more content…
If it was not suicide in the camps, it is the suicide of survivors. And even the suicide of Adolf Hitler himself. Suicide in the camps is an ironic topic since the prisoners were killing themselves consciously or unconsciously. The intellects died off first because their bodies could not endure the hard labor. And even if they could endure the labor, their minds were trying and failing to comprehend their situation. This led to depression and convincing oneself that survival was not possible in such conditions. Survivors commit suicide because they constantly remember why they are survivors. They fought their way there. The survivors had to become