The Importance of the Memory

The Importance of the Memory
The memory of a human being is astounding, but also an erroneous instrument within the human body (Woolf, 15). Primo Levi describes this as a threadbare truth that is known not only to the psychologists but also to every person who has paid attention to the behavior of people around him or his personal conduct. Those memories within the human mind are not carved in rocks; not only do people erased them as the time within a certain duration, but often the mind experiences some changes or even grow, but it assimilates some superfluous characteristics (Woolf, 23). The human memory has a mysterious capacity, which can slip away from many theoretical endeavors to fix its role in the life of a person, but continuous efforts are put forth to have a better understanding of it since it is valued widely and deeply by man. Human beings cling to their memory as a single aspect, or the willpower of our humanity (Woolf, 25). The human mind is so powerful and central to the mental processes to the point that it can come up with ideas of things that may not be in existence in actuality, but it presents them as if they are real. This creates a complication to the concept of what people are when they recollect some of their memories.
The poem ‘If this is a man’ written by Primo Levi serves both as a preview of what Levi was to experience and as a prayer that presents the disquieting ending that Levi went through. Through the poem, Levi conveys an imperative message to the next generation.

It is of great essence to memorize Levi Primo’s poem as it presents the issues faced at the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz. At this camp, Levi was dispossessed of everything belonging including the other ‘Haftlings’ of the camp
The poem acts as a major work in understanding the way in which the subjective memory of a Holocaust survival garners a general meaning. This demands a context in which the task to prevent a rerun of the tragic events that were experienced by the European Jews become a global responsibility that people must assume. “If This is a Man” has examined the dehumanization process and the total degradation of human beings in the environments of the death camp, and reviewed the antidote, which Levi had proposed for dodging the condition of existential pathology. Further emphasis is put on the way in which Primo Levi, who had embraced the secular human values, use symbolic religious structures and his background to provide a better comprehension of the fact that the world may become void of life in the absence of God.
From Levi’s experience, the human memory is no carved in rocks and thus making it complicated for eyewitnesses to agree. Moreover, repression, blockage, competing memories, and trauma augment a human being’s normal aging. When a person retells a story, his or her memory freshens, but he or she is prone to adorning, crystallizing and stereotyping.Also, recalling a traumatic event is itself traumatic, and thus human beings try to avoid such pain in their lives, pushing their memories away so as to alleviate any form of guilt.
Remembrance of the writings of Levi enables transfer of the issues of that time which have a great impact on today’s life to the next generation. At the camp, Levi was denied access to basic human rights and as a result suffered a great deal. Through his narratives, Primo Levi transmits the memory of the historical events at the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz (Woolf, 47). Such memories ensure that the next generation learns about the atrocities suffered at the Nazi concentration camp as a way to ensure the survival of the Jewish people.
Having experienced the atrocities first hand, Levi feels that communicating his experiences is vital and as a result, he likens the passing of these crucial memories to shelter, love and comfort and insists that those who did not face the same atrocities should never take it for granted (Woolf, 49-51). Levi in his literature starts by challenging the readers of ‘If this is a man’ to put in mind a case as to whether if the man in reference were denied access to all the essentials necessary for human survival, the Holocaust prisoner would still qualify to be termed a man. He presents an account of his experiences in the camp by introducing the field as a creation around the intolerable Inferno of Dante’s Divina Comedia (Woolf, 54).
His poem passes on to the next generation, the memories of the inhumane handlings that characterize the intents of the Nazis at Auschwitz. The message presents a creation of a keenly fabricated system of torture, built on the pretext of absurdity and a test of the limits over which the human race can be pushed. The narratives present the issue of dehumanization clearly highlighted in the work whereby Levi gives an illustration of the long, harrowing journey endured by the Jews on their travel from Italy to Poland. The issues range from transportation whereby men, women, and children were squeezed and transported together in cattle cars. Both men and women of varying ages from the old to the young were packed in the cattle cars like cheap merchandise and carried together into inhabitable environments (Woolf, 67). On the journey, they were denied access to basic human necessities such as water and food as they were forcefully transported to places they had no idea about and had no idea of what awaited them at their destination.
According to Levi, just like souls on fire, the Jewish prisoners were denied identity as they lost their names which were replaced by numbers. The prisoners endured physical beatings on a daily basis, were forced to struggle in order to get spoons so that they could eat their little portion of soup and fight each other in order to gain access to the meager resources availed to them such as shoes and the little available clothing to protect themselves from the harsh winter conditions they were forced to work under (Woolf, 68). The nearly inhabitable conditions forced the prisoners to adopt animalistic behavior as a means of survival. They had to engage in activities such as stealing, guarding their belonging vigilantly and even sell their little given daily meals to purchase necessities such as clothes to keep them warm in winter and sometimes to buy rags to wrap their infected feet.
Primo Levi, in his narrative, highlights the sufferings endured as a result of religious intolerance. This provides a good memory of the effects of religious intolerance. This memory if passed to the next generation serves to reduce the occurrence of similar incidences. Through the experiences presented in Primo Levis narratives, the next generation can appreciate the need for peaceful coexistence among members of various religions. No normal human being would wish to go through similar experiences or their family members to face similar atrocities. As a result, the memory of Primo Levi narratives serves as a deterrence to any violence occurring.
The memory of the events makes the next generation appreciate that all human beings are equal and as a result, regardless of the religious orientations, race, ethnicity, country of origin, social status as well as cultural orientations, all human beings deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
It is evident that the human memory usually corresponds to the manner in which the mind of human orders the perception based on the body affection, and the experience to remember builds on the association with an imagined image, which may produce the purported picture. Primo Levi is a representation of the most careful and thoughtful examination of memory and testimony. As seen in the excerpts, an individual can incorporate some bits of information from an external source into his or her memory without realizing it (Woolf,115 ). From Levi’s experience, it is clear that his memory was a vital tool that led to the world knowing the whole story about what they had gone through. Despite the oppression and torture that they passed through, they were able to survive, and Levi was able to account all the events that he and the other survivors had gone through. Although some events are traumatic, he does not shy away from speaking what he could remember from that encounter. It is clear that a human memory can help one in remembering his bad and good encounters, which will assist the person to live an organized and better life.

Work Cited
Woolf, Judith. The memory of the offense : Primo Levi’s If this is a man. Market Harborough: Troubadour, 2001. Print.