Question

Who is Levi describing in the following passage?

"They crowd my memory with their faceless presences, and if I could enclose all the evil of
our time in one image, I would choose this image which is familiar to me: an emaciated
man, with head dropped and shoulders curved, on whose face and in whose eyes not a trace
of a thought is to be seen." (90)
a. those referred to by Levi as the drowned
b. those just selected for the gas chambers
c. those coming in from the Ghettos
d. those referred to by Levi as the saved

Answer 1

Levi is describing the individuals he refers to as "the drowned," who are Holocaust victims that have lost all will to live and represent the epitome of suffering and dehumanization in the concentration camps. The correct option is A.

Step-by-step explanation:

The passage describes those referred to by Levi as the drowned. In his works, particularly in his discussion of the Holocaust, Primo Levi often makes the distinction between “the drowned” and “the saved.” The drowned were the prisoners who were so debilitated by the conditions in the concentration camps that they had lost both their will to live and their physical ability to survive.

They are depicted as showing an absence of thought, a sense of inner deadness, and a surrender to the inhuman conditions surrounding them.

The passage evokes the tragic reality of victims during the Holocaust, which is further underscored by numerous literary and historical accounts, such as the dehumanization and hopelessness experienced by inmates as witnessed by soldiers who liberated the camps, as mentioned by Felix L. Sparks on the Liberation of Dachau.