Survival in Auschwitz Literary Elements

Memoir

The book mostly takes place in Monowitz, near Auschwitz, in Upper Silesia at a concentration camp, from 1944-1945.

Primo Levi narrates his experiences and observations from his time as a prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp. The book is written from his personal perspective, and at times his voice stands in for the collective point of view of the Jewish prisoners. In these cases, he uses the pronoun "we."

Formal, Contemplative, Infuriated, Logical

Levi and the victims of Nazi Germany are the protagonists, while the Nazis and those who assist/support them are the antagonists.

The context is World War Two, which is the backdrop to the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews and other victims were sent to concentration camps. The major conflict in the book is the psychological, physical, emotional, and spiritual impact that this experience left on Levi. The reader knows he survived because he wrote the book, but the question is at what cost?

The climax occurs towards the end of the book when Levi recounts the way the Germans abandoned the camp. It is the end of the reign of terror inside the Lager, but Levi is not out of danger yet. He and those remaining must survive until the Russians arrive.

N/A

N/A

The author alludes to the story of the Jews marching through the desert in the Old Testament

Throughout the novel the author paints visual, olfactory, and auditory images that evoke a cacophony of sensations. For example: the smell of turnips and cabbage, the smell of urine, the grayness of the prisoners' skin, the bread and soup, the mud; and the sound of sirens and wooden shoes clacking along the ground.

Levi feels that his artistic and scientific propensity for thought will get him killed. However, this is partly what saves him (alongside luck and the beneficiary actions of a few individuals).

There is a parallel drawn between the prisoners' behavior at mealtimes and the way that farm animals grovel in the mud for scraps.

The prisoners who have only recently come into the camp are collectively known as The High Numbers, not by name, or even by the collective term "prisoners." Their tattoos become their group name.

Levi says the sun was conspiring against them, attributing the power of conspiracy to the sun.