Blog 3

My favorite character of the novel is Hans Hubermann.  Out of all the dark and sad things in Liesel's life Hans provides a flicker of happiness and comfort.  I can feel her comfort whenever she sees him.  He is a character that is not for the war but is forced to join to protect his family.  Hans and his son have a ery difficult relationship since we seem him yell at his father for not being in the Nazi party.  Hans gets extremely close to Liesel like she is his actual daughter.  I think that maybe he loves her so much because he lacks that love with his own real son and longs to have it.  Hans also struggles because he is against the Nazis regime but forces himself to do it to protect his family, like when he smacks Liesel for saying she hates Hitler.  Overall, I think this character is my favorite for the comfort he brings to Liesel and the entire novel.

Maus

The relationship between Vladik and Artie seems to be difficult and confusing.  In the novel it seemed as if Artie was merely just a reporter, only coming to get the story.  To me they barely acted like father and son, so the relationship confuses me.  You'd think that Artie would just want to hear his father's story to understand him, but to me it seemed like all he wanted was to interview him for his job.  However, throughout the story I do feel that Artie is beginning to understand more about his father and also his mother.  Maybe if he knew about his father's past he could understand him better and see why he acts the way he does, afterall it is a very depressing and tormenting story which Artie could show a bit more compasion to.  I think that Vladik's past may be holding him back from having a better connection to his son.