Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Connection Captain

Maus - By Art Spiegelman 
Week #2 
Pages 72 - 127

Around page 92, when the germans are making the jewish people register to go to the right, "the good side" or to the left, "the bad side" that reminded me of something that happened in my life. When Vladek's dad decided to go from the good side to the bad side because of her daughter and giving up his life for her was very selfless. That will to give up something, in that case his life, happened to my mom. When my aunt's kidneys started to malfunction and had to have both removed, my mom stepped up and donated one of hers. My aunt wouldn't have lived, it wasn't certain that there were extra kidneys for hers to be replaced. My mom wasn't willing to take the risk of losing her sister, but she was willing to take the risk of donating one of hers.  She was willing to suffer for someone she loved. That decision of being safe alone or suffering with people who love you and you love is one of the hardest decisions ever. Vladek's father was willing to die, but he didn't want to die without his daughter beside him. Besides, she had four children, she needed help with them and he was willing to risk everything he had to help her. 

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Throught these few pages, Vladek, his family and some of his friends have to hide. It was a life or death situation. If they were caught they would most likely be killed. That lead to them having to sneek around town, and having to build bunkers in order to hide when soldiers came looking for Jews. This reminded me so much of The Hunger Games. It's a survival book/film, it's all about how the characters have to hide and defend themselves to stay alive. Mainly, because non of the people in these two cases chose to be in these situation, they just found themselves in them. Most of the book/film Katniss, the main character, finds herself hiding from the enemies, and so does Vladek. If by any reason they get caught, Katniss by her opponents and Vladek by the german soldiers, they will end up dying. 

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3 comments:

  1. Martu,
    I agree with you. Maus is very similar to the Hunger Games. These to books take place in a very dangerous time. People have to fight for their lives, they have to hide, be carful, you have to save food. You need to be very careful, and always sleep with one eye open. These are dark times which you can trust no one, only yourself.

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    1. You said that you would have to sleep with an eye open, made me realize that the way Anja was acting, freaking out, would be the way I would act. SeeingVladek act so strong and staying calm throughout the whole book really didn't give me a sense of what it was really like. The book would've been so much more interesting if it was written from Anja's perspective.

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  2. Martina,

    Your connections really do bring another perspective from the book, since I can see how your mom made the risk to sacrifice one of her kidneys to help your aunt. You may risk the deadliest things to help a family member or someone you love.

    I understand the connection you made with The Hunger Games. I've read this book before, and in these situations, it is life or death. You have to fight to stay alive, by finding food, or surviving with what you have. The Hunger Games also has a touch of 'discrimination', since Panem (the country), is separate into 13 'States'. The Capitol rules over all the states, making the children from the states obliged to compete in the Hunger Games. You can see how the Capitol has power over the other citizens, and it becomes harder to survive with them 'ruling over' you.

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