Week 7: Maus

As soon as I started reading this, I immediately thought of a monologue from the movie Inglorious Basterds. In this monologue, the German officer is talking about "thinking like a Jew" and how most Germans can't think like a Jew. The officer said that Germans think like hawks, like born predators. But Jews "think like rats", in that they pay up their dignity for survival and hide in the most unlikely of places. Throughout our discussion in class, it was mentioned how the father can no longer relate to his son. I feel like that that's happened because he has sacrificed that human relationship so that he and his son can survive. I read a quote once, "There's no condition one adjusts to so quickly as a state of war", and I think that there's truth to it, especially in Maus. When you're in that situation, you have to do anything to survive, including shut down your emotions.  Because once you're dead, you're gone forever, and even if you've lost a bit of dignity you're alive to tell the tale and build yourself up again.