Love and Hope are Infinitely More Powerful than Hate and Fury:
A Response to Kovály’s Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968
Heda Margolius Kovály’s memoir, Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968, tells a story of love and loss, of hope and horror, of life as a persecuted Czech Jew under the Nazi and Communist regimes. Her account emphasizes courage in the face of fear, and it speaks of the facts behind these regimes, as she knows them to be true. In this book, Kovály describes life in a communist state in the Eastern Bloc as incredibly unjust and intolerable, a contradiction to the ways Communism promised to heal the wounds of World War II through a strong sense of community and pursuing happiness with non-material things. …show more content…
Mrs. Machova, Kovály’s friend, comments on this decline when she notes that the people no longer expect any good to come from the government. She continues, “Our government has no intention of taking care of us. It only harasses us.” Mrs. Machova, a member of the working class, whom Communism is designed to represent and liberate, gives a unique perspective to the decline of Communism’s popularity. She is no longer hoping for change, or hoping for Communism to help Prague out of the war; instead, she has no more positive feelings toward the government. She is tired of the promises and she is tired of the way the government treats the …show more content…
In a lifetime filled with more sadness, loss, and fear than any one person should ever have to endure, Heda Margolius Kovály struggled to survive and rose above everything. In her memoir, she writes about courage—about the strength it takes to survive these terrible events in human history. Yet, it is unclear if she ever realized that the most courageous person in this book was herself. She writes, “If courage is the capacity to conquer one’s fear, she was the most courageous person I have ever met,” talking about an elderly nurse that she briefly worked with. Still, after everything that life threw at her, remaining steadfast in the wake of everything that she faced, Kovály proves that she is the strongest, most courageous person in this
A Response to Kovály’s Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968
Heda Margolius Kovály’s memoir, Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968, tells a story of love and loss, of hope and horror, of life as a persecuted Czech Jew under the Nazi and Communist regimes. Her account emphasizes courage in the face of fear, and it speaks of the facts behind these regimes, as she knows them to be true. In this book, Kovály describes life in a communist state in the Eastern Bloc as incredibly unjust and intolerable, a contradiction to the ways Communism promised to heal the wounds of World War II through a strong sense of community and pursuing happiness with non-material things. …show more content…
Mrs. Machova, Kovály’s friend, comments on this decline when she notes that the people no longer expect any good to come from the government. She continues, “Our government has no intention of taking care of us. It only harasses us.” Mrs. Machova, a member of the working class, whom Communism is designed to represent and liberate, gives a unique perspective to the decline of Communism’s popularity. She is no longer hoping for change, or hoping for Communism to help Prague out of the war; instead, she has no more positive feelings toward the government. She is tired of the promises and she is tired of the way the government treats the …show more content…
In a lifetime filled with more sadness, loss, and fear than any one person should ever have to endure, Heda Margolius Kovály struggled to survive and rose above everything. In her memoir, she writes about courage—about the strength it takes to survive these terrible events in human history. Yet, it is unclear if she ever realized that the most courageous person in this book was herself. She writes, “If courage is the capacity to conquer one’s fear, she was the most courageous person I have ever met,” talking about an elderly nurse that she briefly worked with. Still, after everything that life threw at her, remaining steadfast in the wake of everything that she faced, Kovály proves that she is the strongest, most courageous person in this