Examples Of Hope In The Boy On The Wooden Box By Leon Leyson

Desperation and hope. One can easily see the juxtaposition. It seems simple, a thoughtless task. They are clearly polar opposites. Desperation is morose and needing and hope is jubilant and glorious. In The Boy on the Wooden Box, by Leon Leyson; Jews are fighting for their lives with only the strength and wits one can develop in the toughest of times. During their times of destitution, hope is the only tool that the Jews can rely on to power them through the war. In the times that tested one's extremity desperation can provided as a powerful reminder of what was lost and what to fight for and hope can help to provide a fleeting glimmer of the change and betterment that can be brought about. Although desperation and hope are vastly different

Leon from The Boy on The Wooden Box manipulates hope and desperation to stimulate him to fight, even in his less than desirable situations. Leon does have a constant fear of death and the overall risk of death looms around his family, but Leon uses hope as an igniter to persevere. His hope can be heard when he says “ How long will Tsalig be able to hold his breath in the gas chamber” (96). Most people know of the horrors of gas chambers and the fact that only a propostarastly small minority would survive a gas chamber. Leon chooses not to believe this common knowledge, and instead relies on a small glimmer of hope that his older brother and sometimes hero will be able to hold his breath for an hour in a gas chamber. He uses the knowledge of Tsaalig’s disappearance and probable death to motivate himself and to honor his brother tries to survive under any costs. Leon also uses desperation to motivate him to continue to fight. Leon says “ In one blow, all of our extended family in Narewka, some one hundred relatives-my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins-had all been murdered.” Once Leon sees the terrifying reality that is the Holocaust he changes his views to the world and fights not to honor those who died, not fighting because he has so much to live for, but fighting because death is unspeakably probably, given Leon’s odds. Leon fights, not to honor his extended family, but because he knows that for many death did occur, and if he doesn’t fight with everything he has, his death will be the next