Survival in Auschwitz (If this is a man) Analysis

The book takes place during World War II within the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Jews and other "undesirables" (like criminals, political dissidents, Romani and gay people) were transported...

Survival in Auschwitz is written from the point-of-view of Primo, the twenty-four-year-old Italian Jew imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp. We see everything through his eyes—an intima...

Levi's book is a work of non-fiction, and falls into the Autobiography genre. So, he's telling his own story. He describes how he ended up in Auschwitz: "I was captured by the Fascist Militia on De...

It's no surprise that, in a book dealing with such difficult and inhumane subject matter, the author treats it with the utmost seriousness. There is really nothing at all to make light of, and Levi...

It makes sense that we can describe Levi's style in the book as being personal. After all, he's discussing events that happened to him, or things that he witnessed first-hand. Because of this, some...

Levi's title, Survival in Auschwitz, is direct: it sums up, without frills, what this book is all about. (In fact, when the book was published n the U.S., the title was changed from the original If...

You who live safeIn your warm houses,You who find, returning in the evening,Hot food and friendly faces:Consider if this is a manWho works in the mudWho does not know peaceWho fights for a scrap of...

By the end of the book, the Nazis have evacuated all healthy prisoners from the camp, and the Russians are coming to liberate the remaining prisoners. Sounds like a good deal, and a fairly happy en...

Get ready, scholars, because this one's pretty tough. Sure, the subject matter is difficult to read, since it's all about one of the more horrific events in world history. But the writing itself...

Since this is an autobiography, Survival in Auschwitz doesn't really follow any kind of standard plot progression or framework. Levi did not write this memoir with a particular structure in mind. I...

This would include events from the time Primo is captured in the woods until he arrives in Auschwitz and is stripped of his clothing, his name, and everything he thought to be true about life.Primo...

Levi's book was originally published under the title If This Is a Man (Se questo è un uomo, in the original Italian). Bad news: It was rejected by the first publisher (who ended up publishing it l...

Aside from a few mentions of nudity (and these are very general and not described in any level of detail), this book is perhaps the furthest thing ever from steamy. Sex was the last thing on anyone...

Cartesian (1.1): Referring to the philosophy of René Descartes.Charon (1.35)"Serchio bathing party" (2.30): From Dante's Inferno, referring to a bathing party held in the Serchio river.Gordian kno...