Levi's Theories Of Memory Being example essay topic

The Wonderful State of Memory Primo Levi, in The Drowned and the Saved, expresses theories of memory. My objective is to prove that Primo Levi's theories of memory being transitive and selective are correct. I will do this by examining and critiquing not only Levi's perspective on memory, but also those of other philosophers and psychoanalysts whose work explored the subject. Writer and chemist, survivor and witness, Primo Levi was born in Turin, Italy, in 1919. Like most Italian Jews of his generation, Levi was assimilated to the hilt: 'Religion,' he later recalled, 'did not count for much in my family.

' In 1938, however, his religion of Judaism became a sudden and serious liability. That year, Mussolini's government enacted a series of anti-Semitic regulations that outlawed mixed marriages, expelled Jews from the universities, and forbade them even to own certain kinds of property. Despite the so-called racial laws, Levi managed to complete his degree in chemistry at the University of Turin in 1941. But he had difficulty finding work.

And two years later, when the Germans invaded northern Italy, Levi fled to the mountains with a pearl-handled pistol, joining an ineffectual band of partisans. In December 1943, he was captured by a troop of a Fascist militia. Levi soon found himself crossing the Brenner Pass in a cattle car, en route to a location whose name had not yet acquired its terrible, latter-day resonance: Auschwitz. In a convoy of 650 'items' (prisoners of Auschwitz), of which 525 went directly to the gas chambers, the rest to the labor camps, Levi and a few others survived. After his liberation Levi returned to his native village with one ambition: to bear witness to all that he had seen. The Holocaust changed his life and gave him an intense need to testify.

If it had not been for what happened to Levi at the age of 24, this unassuming Italian chemist might have lived and died unknown to all but his family and friends. On April 11, 1987, Primo Levi fell to the bottom of the staircase of the building in which he was born, widely believed a suicide. On his grave, which lies next to that of his mother, who died five years later, his family laid a slab of plain black marble carved with his name, the dates of his birth and death, and the number 174517, which the Nazis had tattooed on his arm in Auschwitz. This expressed the importance of Auschwitz in Levi's life and memory. The first biography of Primo Levi, The Tragedy of an Optimist, delves deeply into the life and mind of a controversial writer, one who was really a philosophical student of life itself. Myriam Anissimov, author of The Tragedy of an Optimist, explores the complex nature of a man who was both a strong and spirited survivor as well as a man prone to severe depression, a man who felt misunderstood and certain that future generations would forget and deny what many would call the central informing disaster of the century.

The biography expresses many of theories on memory and exemplifies a memory in itself; as he bears witness to the past. Primo Levi explores memory in a much deeper fashion than society. The fact that Levi devoted his time to a subject society does not care to pay much attention to, is attractive to me. It is interesting the way Levi presents and supports his theories. For example, Levi argues that memory is selective. Levi then uses the example: "A person who has been wounded tends to block out the memory so as not to renew the pain; the person who has inflicted the wound pushes the memory deep down, to be rid of it, to alleviate the feeling of guilt".

(Pg. 24) Society encounters wounds everyday, whether mentally or physically. Do you think society is worrying about those wounds becoming memories at a later date? Levi does this because he has experienced what it feels like to have a terrible experience turn into a horrific memory, which is what makes Levi's writings so interesting. The fact that Levi went through such hard times also attracts me to his writing. You would think with the past that Levi has experienced that he would have similar theories to Nietzsche. Nietzsche believes that memory is violent and is something that has to hurt.

Though, going through the experience of Auschwitz maybe has contributed to many of his theories, they make for a strong argument. Primo Levi argues that memory is transitive (subject to change). Two factors combine with his argument: (1) memory can be influenced or re-written, and (2) memory can be changed and distorted. Levi states in The Drowned And the Saved:" A memory evoked too often, and expressed in the form of a story, tends to be fixed in a stereotype, in a form tested by experience, crystallized, perfected, adored, installing itself in the place of the raw memory and growing at its expense".

(Pg. 24) Levi believes that the more you recall a memory that is expressed in a form of a story, it tends to vary after awhile due to acquired bias and stereotypes of that situation. For example, if a person were convicted of a crime that they did not commit and sent off to jail, their story of why they was in jail would change considerably. Lets suppose that the person was committed of murder. It is somewhat "prisoner etiquette" to ask a new prisoner what was they convicted of? As time goes by and the prisoner explains the reason more and more, the story would become more suitable to make them look more vicious and evil. The memory becomes influenced by the stereotypes and bias of a convicted criminal.

For example, a convicted criminal is stereotyped as bully-type, willing to kill and do anything for their survival. As time were to go by, the prisoners' reason for being convicted would not resemble the truth of the matter that they were wrongly accused and convicted, but that he was convicted of murder based on Levi's argument. After a couple of years in jail, the prisoner might even begin to exaggerate and claim that he was a "cold blooded killer". Furthermore, the influence on the memory causes the memory to become distorted. This example explains why Primo Levi believes that memory is subject to change and deceiving.

Primo Levi also believes that there is nothing permanent about memory. This theory is consistent with his theory that memory is subject to change. If a memory is subject to change, it is safe to say that the specific memory is not permanent because a distorted memory is not the same as the original. Levi says that memories "tend to become erased as the years go by". Levi does think that it is hard to do but he believes it can be done. He says, "It is easier to deny entry to a memory than to free oneself from it after it has been recorded".

For example, a person forgets what the number of the jail cell in which they were held. It is not as easy to forget something that affected you enormously. For instance, it is very difficult to forget a family member that died or the reason in which you served time in jail. I think that this argument that memory is not permanent is directly related to the past of Levi. Primo Levi maybe believes that one day he will be able to erase the memory of Auschwitz.

Sigmund Freud disagrees with Primo Levi's theory that memory is not permanent. Freud argues that memory is transitive but permanent is contradict ive of one another. Freud makes the argument that even though the memory is distorted, it is the same idea of the original memory. Friedrich Nietzsche agrees that memory is permanent. Nietzsche believes that memory is burned into you. He also thinks that memory has to hurt and involves violence.

In On the Genealogy of Morals Nietzsche says: "The opposite is the case: this utility has rather been an everyday experience at all times, therefore, something that has been underlined again and again: consequently, instead of fading from consciousness, instead of becoming easily forgotten, it must have been impressed on the consciousness more and more clearly". (Pg. 27) For example, if you were to be branded in terms of being punished, it would be something that you would remember. Nietzsche believes that if it hurts, you will not want to experience that pain again. Thus, you remember not to make the same mistake again. Primo Levi also believes that memory is selective. Levi thinks that certain events are blocked out of memory.

Levi says: "A person who has been wounded tends to block out the memory so as not to renew the pain; the person who has inflicted the wound pushes the memory deep down, to be rid of it, to alleviate the feeling of guilt". (Pg. 24) Levi thinks that a person can deny a memory. In The Drowned and The Saved, Levi states, "It has been noticed, for instance, that many survivors of wars or other complex and traumatic experiences tend unconsciously to filter their memory... ". (Pg. 32) This expresses Levi's argument that people pick and choose what memories to keep. Levi had a lot of experience with this argument.

The fact that Auschwitz was not something he wanted to relive maybe was reasoning to block it out of memory. Nietzsche also agrees with Levi and Freud that memory is selective. Nietzsche thinks that memory has to hurt: If it does not hurt, it is not remembered; thus, it is selective. Lastly, Primo Levi believes that memory is deceiving. Levi says, "Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument". (Pg. 23) Levi argues this point by claiming that there are "mechanisms" that falsify memory.

Levi states, "Some mechanisms are known which falsify memory under particular conditions: traumas, interference from other 'competitive' memories, abnormal conditions of consciousness, repressions, and blockages". (Pg. 23) Levi thinks that a person can end up believing a "substituted" memory. He says, ". ... when fate put them before judges, before the death they deserved, built a convenient past for themselves and ended by believing it". (Pg. 29) Levi makes the argument that memory is deceiving in so many ways that its hard to hold as truth: It is so deceiving that you can end up believing something that is not true and would not know it. Primo Levi has experienced a past that only a few people can relate or equate to. Given the harshness of Levi's past, it has lead me to believe that his arguments are strictly based on experience.

The fact that Levi has experienced so much in the past puts more credibility in Levi's arguments. All of Levi's arguments seem to delve into or have some connection with Levi's experience in Auschwitz.

Bibliography

Anissimov, Myriam translated by Steve Fox. Tragedy of an Optimist. The Overlook Press: Woodstock, New York, 1996.
Levi, Primo. The Drowned And the Saved. Vintage Books: New York, 1986.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo. Vintage Books: New York, 1989.