Quote 37
“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! …” (I.vi)
The fact that Vladek is saying this to an eleven-year-old who tripped on his skates says <em>something</em> about the gap in their life experiences.
Quote 38
“At that time it wasn’t anymore families. It was everybody to take care for himself!” (I.5.116)
The Nazis’ persecution of the Jews created impossible situations where people had to throw their morals aside just to survive.
Quote 39
“Always Haskel was such a guy: a Kombinator.” “A what?” “A guy what makes Kombinacya, a schemer…a crook.” (I.5.118)
Haskel is one example of a Jewish character who isn’t just an innocent victim. Haskel only aids others when it enriches himself in some way, and he connives and schemes his way into the Germans’ favor.