Blog #3 The Book Thief

Max is first seen as a person in a basement, and not much is really known about him. By the way he is sitting in a basement, hungry and tired, you can pretty much assume that he is a Jew because of the time period. Max seems frightened and alone in a scary world. Max then travels to the home of the Hubermann's to try and escape danger. Max's perspective on the situation at hand is that he feels extremely guilty that he left his family behind, but living is the highest priority for him. Max knows that being under the protection of the Hubermanns puts them in danger as well as himself, but he must do whatever he can to get out of Nazi Germany. Even though Max is not a well known character until midway through the book, he still has many conflicts. The most obvious conflict he is facing is the fact that he is Jewish and living during the time of the Holocaust. This is the most important conflict, because it is a life or death scenario for Max every single day he breathes. Another conflict is his family conflict that is eating away at his conscience, and he always regrets leaving his family behind the day he left to safety. In fact, Max has nightmares every night regarding this issue. Max's perspective isn't as unique as some of the other characters' in the book, because he is just a regular man who is Jewish in Nazi Germany. One thing that is unique, however, is that Hans Hubermann owes Max the favor of keeping him a secret in his basement because Max's father helped Hans survive during a war when Hans was drafted. I like Max because of his personality and how he is pretty much best friend's with Liesel. These two characters create more interest in the book, and they even teach other a thing or two throughout the novel.

Blog #2

Vladik's Holocaust experience was very different in the narrative as compared to other books that I have read. For instance, Vladik never really went to a legitamite labor camp as opposed to other Jews being exposed to harsh labor. It seemed that Vladik always found a way out of going to a concentration camp. I thought this was very interesting, and the experiences remain pretty much the same throughout the entire book because of the fact that he is always running from the Nazis. Of course, at the end he does go to Auschwitz, but the war is almost over and he makes it out alive.

I think the story that is being told visually and not by words is the fact that mice are preys of cats and the mice were the Jews in this case while the Nazis were cats. This also seems to dull down the severity of the Holocaust, even though the Holocaust was no laughing matter. More information is told by the story because of the images. For instance, some parts of the novel are not actually said, but are expressed in the visual boxes of the comic. One example of this is on page 38, in which is shows how Anja is going in the opposite direction of Vladik very drastically.

The narrative was a very good piece of literature, and i enjoyed reading it. I did not like the ending because it left me confused as to what happened next and how Vladik escaped the concentration camp, but that could also be a good thing as well. Maus I My Father Bleeds History is definitely a book that deserves attention for it'd graphics, and interesting storyline.