An exploration of the importance of dreams for the maintenance of the soul for the characters D-503 and Levi in We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and If this is a man by Primo Levi.
Consider the following:
- Importance of dreams
- What happens within dreams
- Define soul e.g. a person’s sense of self, the core of an individual
- How have dreams allowed for this retaining or awakening to the soul?
In If this is a man, dreams repeat, everyone shares this dream. The concentration camp tortures them in every aspect. There are no individuality, you lose individuality, all prisoners have a shared experience where they dream in similar ways. The essence of the dreams is to have basic needs met, where in reality, they cannot.
Page 66 of If this is a man, there is this illusion of Tantlus showing that the concentration camp not only tests the physical conditions of all men, but at the same time, imposing a kind of psychological torture causing many to crumble away.
Similarities and contrasts are built up as Levi attempts to retain his soul, he is being resilient to the external influences imposed on him by the authoritarian forces - the societal norm is taken away/disrupted. D-503 awakens to his soul for the first time.
In both texts, dreams allow for the exposure of the soul of the protagonist. This however exists in varying forms. In If this is a man, dreams represent the ‘longing for one’s home.’ It is a pain that is buried deep inside every one of the people in the Lager, the kind of emotional pain that hides away in the day, ‘[deadened]’ and numbed by the tormenting work and the ‘interminable rhythm’ of the repetitive music played at dawn and dusk. Levi’s dream of his sister reflects his melancholy, his desire to be at home, be with someone he loves. His dream of his sister and others turning away from him, betraying him is a pain indescribable. The reality of the concentration camp is painful, both emotionally and physically, yet dreams are even more unbearable than reality. Levi emphasises that this is hell, one that challenges Man so intently that it gradually eats away his soul and diminishes him as he begin to avoid thinking about such things by placing a wall around him, he is afraid of the future because the prospect of returning home is slim and to live means to survive the present. The dreams Levi experience recur, he feels trapped by his dreams, they are like movies (‘screen of our dreams’ – page 69), they are beyond his control, and he feels powerless. ‘...grey fog’ scared him.
In We, dreams are the first things that lead to D-503’s awakening, as an individual, differentiated from the mass (first mention, yellow Buddha…). It is ‘a painful psychic sickness’ – the realisation of one’s soul. Yet, contrary to If this is a Man, it is essentially this that allows D-503 to gain individuality, to discover his soul and finally the wall which he places around him slowly disappears, he becomes no longer afraid of the infinity, of the unknown. The first dream is brief yet detailed. Initially D-503 is scared of the fog, he does not see beauty in it.
‘“Get up”: the illusory barrier of the warm blankets, the thin armour of sleep, the nightly evasion with its very torments to pieces around us and we find ourselves mercilessly awake, exposed to insult, atrociously naked and vulnerable.’ – page 69 Dreams seem to create a barrier around the people, this disconnects with reality, with the future, though painful, it offers some other kind of relief from their current status within the camp.
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