The Drowned and the Saved

"MORAL ARMATURE"

Levi comments that the SS not only took the Jews into captivity physically, but they degraded them while "they are available, blank, and lacking a political or moral armature" (40).  This idea of moral armature is rather interesting.  The author does not directly define what "moral armature" means (or at least, I missed this definition).  But I can maybe come up with a reasonable definition from inferring a few things from his stories and moral statements.  Having a moral armature means having some type of basic structure that holds together one's behavior, beliefs, and so on in association with morality.  This is showed in Levi's examples of people who rebelled and didn't accept the orders they were given, even though death was inevitable (Jews in Corfu 1944).  These people followed their moral armature, their basic structure of behavior and believe, and acted on this.  Another interesting comment that Levi makes in association with moral armature is that "Every human being possesses a reserve of strength whose extent is unknown to him...and only through extreme adversity can we evaluate it" (60).  This moral armature is only strength-tested in harsh and extreme conditions.  In everyday activity, we can see the general form of the armature.  But true adversity shows us strength by pushing on different components or all the parts of the armature.  We can see if the armature breaks or stands tall.  And within every person's armature is made of different strength because every person can withstand different adversities at different strengths.