Jakub Tinoco: Life's Realizations through an Unfamiliar Purpose

    Four times every year, my elementary school would host book fairs. The book fairs were hosted during the parent teacher conference days, and in elementary school these days would be free-days with no school to give time for all the parents to visit the teachers. Even though it’s a book fair, it would sometimes have some toys and gadgets for sale such as invisible ink pens and fidget spinners. Every year, I would beg my parents - even going to the lengths of offering them some of my halloween or valentines day candy, depending on what time of the year it was - to be able to go with them just to have the chance of scouting all the new books and toys that’d be in stock that year. Some of my favorite books that I got though were those books that displayed the little toys in their covers that you would unbox after you opened the book. However, there was always one particular series I would always scan for from the second that I got to the fair; the I Survived series. The I Survived collection is a series of graphic novels that revolve around first-hand first-person experiences from major events in history. These narratives were so appealing due to their overwhelming sentimentality and also their sense of familiarity in which the lives of the characters were not so different to ours; ordinary, normal. That is at least, until it happens. Nevertheless, I SURVIVED: The Nazi Invasion 1944, has to stand out the most for me for how it is able to tie and relate so many emotions to several events and struggles spanning across World War 2, representing one story that shares the same perspective so many more people had to face alike. 

    The graphic novel, I SURVIVED: The Nazi Invasion 1944, illustrates one story of many in the horrific times of World War 2. This book shares a narrative of two jewish kids, Max and Zena, who were living a rather normal life in Esties, Poland. They woke up to the same delicious breakfasts, busy streets, and mechanical hums of laundry as we do today on a daily basis; children played on the streets, merchants came and left, parades were held. Everything seemed ordinary. It wasn’t until the only noises remaining on the cobble-stone streets were the hums and thrums of the German panzers, infantry, and artillery shells. On the forlorn day of September 1st, 1939, Poland became another of the Third Reich's victims in its series of atrocious acts of massacre and mass genocide. Millions were displaced in the short timespan of a couple weeks across Poland, many fleeing desperately trying to not find themselves caught up in the German advance; but for many, there was no plausible escape. In the tales of Max and Zena, they find themselves escaping their local ghetto after an unprecedented series of events which ultimately led to the foundation of crucial life-changing events and experiences where they discovered more about themselves in core, and of the harsh, typically covered, rules of the world and of life itself has to offer. 

    Max and Zena’s involvement in these physical and mental battles of their fates have given them prolonged maturity and growth, understanding that could not have come across without their horrifying experiences in the struggle for their lives. Max and Zena come across many of life’s unparalleled convictions, some of which they should never have had to experience in a lifetime, nonetheless in a matter of weeks. Many concepts or translations of life’s purposes come across everyone at some points of their lives, whether it be in a collection of insignificant and minor occurrences, or in dreadful sequences of life-or-death encounters and experiences (such as seen in Max and Zena’s story) that ultimately lead to a realization of sorts; sought after or not. These attainments come by troupes of unaccustomed involvements in the real-world which bring a consciousness outside of the recurring familiarity that people are used to living in. In our present world, such experiences that bring out life-enlightening revelations are now limited to the view of the world we now conceptualize through social media and our mobile devices. In the case of Max and Zena, the environment they were in seemingly gave them a straight pathway to the answers of life’s meaning and end; but in reality, this pathway was one and the same with that of every survivor and casualty of World War 2. Yet, were the cruel chances of survival ever truly worth it just for an unfinished story to the already contorted overcomer? 

    Although graphic novels such as this one aren’t able to hold as much text as a normal narrative or chapter-book would,  I SURVIVED: The Nazi Invasion 1944’s beautiful graphics and artwork showcases scenes and emotion that cannot easily be represented through regular sentences. This book houses vivid, and at times symbolic illustrations that vary complexity by how much it may need be from scenario to scenario. The approach by which it is drawn in carries a much larger message than words would ever so often do so through its depictive, interpretive artstyle and illustrative way of speech. In these ways, the book's pictorial representation really suits the theme of the story, easily being able to show to the reader what cannot be conveyed through speech. 

    In the end of it all, no matter the fate of Max and Zena, they’d be able to bring themselves a sense of peace and security after a seemingly endless loop of death and fear no matter the position they were in. In the adventures that they endured throughout I SURVIVED: The Nazi Invasion 1944, ranging from pivotal encounters of their lives at death’s edge, to their persistence in finding what was thought to be impossible to attain, Max and Zena’s lives made themselves to what they were from this very foundation of unfortunate series of events that hand-crafted their futures, and countless others’.

'‘ The Nazi’s stole their lives from them … There seem to be ghosts everywhere. It’s hard to say goodbye, but I never want to come back here again … A new life. What about my old one? It’s best to forget. In forgetting, you can live again. I want to forget. 

My mind, my heart; I doubt those wounds will ever fully heal. There are good memories too. Those memories make me stronger. From those memories, I can return hope.’'

Hope.