Maus and Night Blog

I read Night and Maus I and even though I preferred one of the books I do think future classes should read both books. The books are good to read together because they show two different perspectives of families affected by the Holocaust. One story showed the rich life of a successful family before and during the Holocaust, and the other book focuses on a family of more humble means and how both were affected by the Holocaust.

In Maus a rich family strives to stay alive by bribing Germans and other people to take them in after being displaced from their home. On page 62 Vladik says, “‘I was very frightened. Then we heard something to give us a little hope.’ ‘We’ve bribed the Germans to release prisoners to the homes of local Jews who will claim you as relatives.’”  Clearly Vladik is not only wealthy himself but connected to people with money and influence. This is just one of many examples where Vlakik uses his talents and riches to live another day.

In Night the family is a working class family, although the father is a highly respected Jewish leader. They are not protected by their riches and as a result they suffer more early on. The mother and Elie’s sisters are separated from the father and Elie after they left the ghetto in Sighet and first arrived at Birkenau, the reception center for Auschwitz. . “I did not know in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever.” (p.27) In Maus Vladek is good at finding ways to keep his wife and himself safe through the troubling times of the Holocaust. In Night the family is split early on, but despite the fact Elie’s dad can not buy protection they struggle to survive together for the rest of the book, and nearly do so.

These two books go along with each other well to show perspectives about the suffering people went through during the Holocaust. I recommend future classes reading them both.

Fallen Angels

          War has a terrible impact on humans that leaves them with many questions, such as whether people should kill one another, how families feel about a death of a loved one and how life can go on as usual in the US during the Vietnam War.

          In the book Fallen Angels, the main character Richard Perry, is conflicted about whether people should kill one another.  Perry thinks for a long time about killing another human being in order to save himself. In the beginning of the book Perry just closes his eyes and shoots while in combat, but towards the end of the story he adapts to the war and becomes accustomed to killing effortlessly. “Then it was as if I were suddenly awake. I lifted the M-16 and started firing it in his face. I emptied the clip.” (180)  From beginning to end, however, Perry still has the feeling in his gut it is not right to kill a human. While writing a letter to his brother Perry states his feelings about war; “I just told him that the war was about us killing people and about people killing us, and I didn’t see much more to it. Maybe there were times when it was right. I had thought that this war was right, but (maybe) it was only right from a distance.” (269)

          Families always grieve over loved ones, who have passed no matter the situation, and Vietnam was a long way away and Americans didn’t really understand the point of being there. When a lieutenant named Gearhart accidentally set off a flare during a battle, it left a fellow soldier named Turner exposed. Turner was killed during the battle leaving the lieutenant feeling much guilt.  Gearhart had the task of writing the letter to Turner’s parents, but Perry rewrote the letter for him because he as well felt much pain for the fellow soldier. Perry thought it would be hard enough for the parents to hear about the death of their son and to get over that. The families don’t understand what is really going on in Vietnam. “‘The letter I wrote’, I said, ‘is going to sit better with his family. You might feel bad, like you need to get something off your chest, but don’t drop it on his folks.’” (172)