During World War II and the Holocaust, there was not only mistrust for the government but there was also plenty of mistrust for prior friends and neighbors. In the graphic novel, “Maus (Volume I and II) Vladek Spiegelman makes it very clear to his son, Artie, that one cannot count on their friends. He makes the point that in time of hardship, friends will abandon you quite quickly. Vladek says, “Friends? Your friends…if you lock them together in a room with no food for a week…then you could see what it is, friends! (Maus, VI. 5-6). Throughout the novel, we see examples of this gloomy point proven repeatedly.
In the first volume of the novel, Haskel, a cousin of the family and a chief of the Jewish police is guarding the ghetto that Vladek and Anja have been placed in. They offer him family jewels and other valuables in return for a safe way out of the ghetto (Maus, VI 115). Haskel is quick to agree to the arrangement however, he only takes the jewels and never delivers on his end of the bargain. While this is the first major example, it is also the most sobering. It shows that Haskel is not only family, but also a friend and despite both of these deterrents, he still betrays the Spiegelman family.
Another example of the betrayal of a friend occurs not too long after. While Vladek and his family are hiding in the attic bunker in the ghetto, they are forced to go out in search of food at night. One night while they are scavenging they find a stranger who wanders into their house. The stranger tells them that he has a wife and a baby that he needs to find food for and he only wandered into the house to rest for a moment. The refugees take pity on him and allow him to stay with them for a short while, despite their gut feeling...
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...s would be all too happy to pay for a meal with the lives of others, there were some good people left. There were people all around who were ready to aid someone else in their quest to stay alive, sometimes at the expense of their own lives. People such as the soldier, the priest, Ms. Motonowa, and Mancie kept things going from day to day for the Spiegelmans. In the end, Vladek and the others survived not because they did not have any friends as Vladek feels, but because they had many friends. Without the people who helped them along the way, Anja and Vladek would have surely died in the concentration camps along with the hundreds of others victims who were not so lucky.
Works Cited
Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus. (Vol. 1, Francoise. Mouly, Ed.). New York, Panthenon Books.
Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus. (Vol. 2, Francoise. Mouly, Ed.). New York, Panthenon Books.
In this chapter we met a few new people in Vladek’s life. We met his father, mother, brother, and his uncles friend Orbach. I believe the two with the largest impact on him were his father and Orbach. Vladek’s father was taken into the Russian army, and he pulled out his own teeth in order to escape. He tried very hard to keep his sons out of the army. He forced them to starve themselves and deprived them of sleep so that they wouldn’t be accepted. This only worked for Vladek for one year and after that he refused to starve himself. Orbach saved Vladek’s life by claiming him as a cousin, if this had not happened he would have been put to death like many of the others that had been marched into the forest. Both of these men are the reason that
Moral courage is something not everyone acts on, due to the consequence that may result on the decesion to do what is morally right. Edmund Burke states, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” In Art Spiegelman’s man graphic novel, Maus II, The Red Cross attend and those in need. In this case, they are providing a snack, coffee and piece of bread to the traveling prisoners. Without them, the chance of survival would have been even lower since Vladek and everyone else on the train with him had little no food. They were starving, dehydrated and on the verge of death. Vladek stated that, ‘“We didn’t remember even how bread looks, we were very happy”’ (Spiegelman 88). Even though Jews were being persecuted
To the Soviet Union, Hosenfeld was a villain and a liar, since he told them about the Jewish man he saved. It was this belief that led to Hosenfeld’s eventual demise .
Destruction of a family member may be gruesome. Although betraying a family member is deceitful. When there is false affection towards others, the truth will become noticed. To many, family is a top priority, to keep safe and loved by others, with no secrets among none. This may be possible for some, but in the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, this is not so. One thing that is more common in the entire play is betrayal from different family members, especially the Uncle. But, in a way that Hamlet discovered the truth was unorthodox. With Hamlet, the King of Denmark, finding out who killed his father was like being stabbed in the back because it felt unreal to know that your own blood can kill a loved one, just to be crowned king. The process of Hamlet killing his Uncle was
In fact, one cannot picture life without one’s friends, who, sometimes, become closer than one’s family: “For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” (Aristotle 127).Therefore, friendships are, most of the time, built on a strong foundation of trust, sincerity and loyalty, however, in “1984” the reality is different. Winston had no one to trust, and maintained a relationship of closeness only with Syme, who he cannot trust at all, to whom he cannot relate completely, but he enjoyed his company, especially when loneliness became unbearable: “Perhaps ‘friend’ was not exactly the right word. You did not have friends nowadays, you had comrades: but there were some comrades whose society was pleasanter than that of others” (Orwell 48). Additionally, in such situations one gets to understand the importance of “small talk” which helps take the mind off matters which cannot be easily changed for the better, the oppressive system of Oceania, for instance. Moreover, building friendships could also be seen as a defence mechanism against the party, which always seemed to target the ones who seemed out of ordinary, the ones who wandered in strange places, for example. Since being sociable is only natural in any society, in order for one to protect oneself, one had to go down this path. For
A friendship can be something that helps you through good or bad times. In Ivan’s case this is untrue, because he puts himself around people who are not loyal, because of social conformity. He would put himself around people who were more happy about their promotions than they were sad about Ivan’s illness. We can see that in chapter one this is most definitely true, “Ivan Ilych had been a colleague of the gentlemen present and was liked by them all. He had been ill for some weeks with an illness said to be incurable. His post had been kept open for him, but there had been conjectures that in case of his death Alexeev might receive his appointment, and that either Vinnikov or Shtabel would succeed Alexeev. So on receiving the news of Ivan Ilych's death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances.” As you can see Ivan had made friends with people who were unkind, disrespectful and most of all unloyal. This is because Ivan would rather put himself around people who were approved by his social circle than people who really cared. Ivan would not only put himself around people who were approved by his social circle but he would also dress to be approved by his social
For the longest time, man has constantly and continues to exemplify a lack of trust towards one another. It goes back as far the first man to walk the earth, and the choice he made to neglect God’s forewarning. Many authors have taken into account of this common human error such as Nathaniel Hawthorne in his novel The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne’s belief that a lack of trust can blind a man into not being able to differentiate friends and enemies is validated by recent episodes of film such as “ Remember the Titans.”
One would not expect a friendship to be one of the most risky things in life. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is an example of a risky friendship. Both characters show a trust and bond for one another in a time where true friendship is hard to come by. While friendships can make people vulnerable, it can also add significance to their lives and make it improve. People in friendships can be vulnerable because of themselves, another person, or their own goals.
Betrayal no matter who you are betraying, whether it be your best friend or your enemy, betrayal is always with you.
Has a very close friend of yours ever betrayed you under any circumstances? In the play Julius Caesar ,by William Shakespeare, both Brutus and Antony gave a speech at Caesar's funeral. Marc Antony speech was although more persuasive than Brutus speech. In act 3 Caesar was killed by Brutus, who had been one of his very close friend. Marc Antony was more understanding and emotion to the death of Caesar. However Brutus did not kill Caesar on a personal level, he killed him because he thought it was the best way to keep the people of Rome safe.
but when they can, the friendship makes everything better. In the book The Migration and settlement of Refugees in Britain, the author, A. Bloch states: “...nearly everyone had made new friends since coming to live in the UK…” and, in summary, made them more successful than ones who are lonely and stick with their own refugees. Once refugees find friends in a new place, all hope is not lost. They tend to survive easier. In the poem “Most Relived Day,” Ha is at her school and she sees “two students run into the class, giggling...smiles appear…[Ha] write[s in her] journal that [today] is the Most Relieved Day…”(183-185, Lai). Ha makes her first friends, she has been bullied at school and hasn’t had very good experiences at school, until these two kids came. She was so grateful when they were kind to her. Having friendships makes a refugee’s life just a little more
“You always pick up trash! Can’t you just buy wire”.Vladek worked as a Tin Worker so he witnessed everything that went on and understood how the chamber worked.While he was at camp he realized that he didnt have the fortunes that he was provided before he went to camp.To compincate for these losses he had to come up with ways to survive and make his life not so negative.The effects of Vladek working in the gas chamber made him work harder and realized that he did not want to end up in the gas chamber.It made him find different creative ways to survive and not end up in the gas chamber.Basically by him working there in made him work harder and harder to surivive and never give up.Vladek saw all things people were faced with as they entered the gas chamber and he did not want to become one of the victims that did not survive of the Holocaust.
Friendship is a wonderful part of life, but unfortunately, it can be used to deceive. It is easy to manipulate, but true friendship cannot be defeated, even after death. This element could well be the very thing that sealed the fate of Julius Caesar. Brutus, Cassius, and all the other conspirators knew that they could use friendship to their advantage and Caesar's disadvantage. The conspirators used friendship as a cover to blind Caesar from the truth, just as a hunter uses camouflage to keep the animals from seeing what he is up to.
When people's friendships go untested they believe a friend would do anything for them, but when the trials come the trials end in betrayal. Winston believes he will stay true to Julia no matter what happens. "If I could save Julia by doubting my own pain, would I do it? Yes, I would." (Pg. 184, Nineteen Eighty-Four) After Winston betrays everyone except Julia, he still believes he can withstand his torture and not betray Julia. "You have whimpered for mercy, you have betrayed everybody and everything. Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you? Winston had stopped weeping, th...
This meant there were only the good guys and the bad guys, no middle zone. In his essay, Primo Levi writes about a need for society to clarify the world around them and a demand for a winner and a loser. Society tends to isolate those around them into two categories; those who are with them and those who are against them. Levi argues that this typical paradigm is flipped in concentration camps. The new, harsh atmosphere and cruelty caused initial shock that would not wavier throughout their time in the camps. Borowski experiences this during his time at the camps. He uses his past memories to try and cope with everything that he is experiencing, even though he really had never seen anything like it before. There were no good or evil people in the camps, everyone was fighting to stay alive. Because survival was the most important thing, the prisoners were often just as violent and angry as the German officers. This caused the line between good and evil to disappear. The prisoners fought and killed each other for food and anything to help them survive. Social class, wealth, and inheritance had little meaning to the prisoners in the compounds. They were all afraid and did not know if they would live to see the next day. Levi writes in his essay, "they were saved by luck, and there is not much sense in trying to find something common to all their destinies, beyond perhaps their initial good health" (Levi 50). This shows that there were no grand illusions to surviving the genocide, some were simply luckier than others. If they were physically fit, they would be put to work for the German army. However, if they were weak, the Germans would not hesitate to get rid of the person wasting food and space. Revolts were extremely uncommon at the camps. The mental and physical tolls the prisoners had gone through made any idea of revolt