Maus Hope

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Hope manifests itself in many different forms, ranging in intensity and importance. Hope can be the hope when you are little to get a puppy on your birthday, or the hope of a grandmother to live long enough to make it to her granddaughter's wedding. In the books, Maus and I, Rene Tardi, Prisoner Of War In Stalag, both depict resilience and strength throughout the Holocaust, but the idea of hope that followed Vladek and Rene was uniquely different in the ways that their brains were able to align hope with their survival. In Maus, it depicts fear within the concentration camp through all of the characters. For example, they were allowed to shower, but where they were going was similar to where the gas chambers were. This constant fear of not …show more content…

Anji was located in a separate part away from the camp Vladek was in. Through the tin shop job he had in the camp, Vladek was able to see his wife for a short time in passing. Being able to see his wife helped Vladek push through the hard times within the camp. Vladek's love for his wife was depicted throughout the entire story, even after her later death Vladek's love carried through. This was especially seen while in the camp. Vladek knew that he could get in trouble or possibly be killed for talking to his wife, but he still would do anything to see her for a minute or two. He would even sneak her food since she was starting to get very thin and sick. The hope of being able to see his wife helped in his ability to survive through the Holocaust. Another way Vladek had hope was from a deep meaning he may have never known. The numbers tattooed on the prisoners within Auschwitz were their new identity if they were not immediately killed upon arrival. The priest Vladek met in the camp noticed his numbers added together to be 18, and this was a good omen for what he knew. Vladek found it hard to believe, that a few numbers could not possibly mean that he would escape, but he kept this idea with him throughout his …show more content…

Rene mainly sought hope through the guards he was talking to. He hoped they were telling him the truth. Even with the similarities that these stories showed, there were vast differences in their hope of escape. In Maus, they were never told if they would leave the prison alive, so Vladek had to find other things in the camp that gave him the power to push through every day. This was seen in his wife and the tattoo on his arm. Rene did not need the same level of hope. Rene was told that as long as he waited his time, he would eventually be set free. As well, there was a difference in the death toll from the camps, which gave a more likely chance of surviving in prisoner-of-war camps. This would also give Rene a little less reason to be scared to not survive. This is something that Vladek never did. Hope was also seen in other ways through the Holocaust. For example, in an interview with The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust survivor Henry Greenbaum used God and religion as his means of hope. Henry stated “Dear God, I have so much more to tell. Don’t kill me now, he said. Let me still stay alive for a while so I can speak to the

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