The spoon

the object and dehumanization in Primo Levi

Abstract

The spoon is one of the most common everyday objects. They can be made of the most varied materials such as wood, steel, iron, and other nobler metals, even bones, paper, plastic. Primo Levi in Is This a Man? states that one of his initial concerns at Auschwitz was how he would eat the soup given out in the morning, as he did not have a spoon. This everyday object becomes, in that space of confinement and death, a valuable bargaining chip in the busy trafficking network that took place in the concentration camps. Its use, in addition to the essential consumption of daily soup, was a factor of civility and, ultimately, of humanity. The objective of this article is to present the spoon as an object of special desire and need in Primo Levi's text. The various scenes in which this object plays the main role will be under analysis, given the precarious conditions of both the food and the prisoners themselves: thefts by the other inmates, confiscations by the authorities, smuggling inside and outside the camps. It is intended, therefore, to demonstrate how the spoon is valued in the concentration camps, because despite the difficulties in obtaining them, its use constitutes a small reunion with lost dignity and civility and an attempt to return to the stolen human condition. by the Nazis.