Maus(Decision Essay)

“10 decisions shape your life”, this is the start of one of my favorite songs, I'll Try Anything Once by The Strokes. This song is about the things you do and the decisions that you make in your life that help you grow up. In our lifetime we are face with many challenges, there are times when we have to make important and difficult decisions and sometimes we just don't know what to do. I asked some people in my family what would they do if they where put in a situation where they had to bring their family to get killed or be killed. Many couldn't answer right away and others who answered later said that they wanted to change their answer because they actually don't know.

For many people it's easy to say “oh I would do this or that” but no one really knows what they would do until they are in that position. In Maus, Abraham has to make a very difficult decision. He had to chose between bringing his family over to be killed or die. He eventually decide to send the letter that would convince the family to go with the smugglers. I did not agree with his decision. I understand why he decided that way was because during that time the important thing was to survive and nothing else mattered but your own life.

If I were in his shoes. I really don't know what I would have done or what decision I would have made. But after giving it much thought I came to the conclusion that I would have not sent the letter. Even if the goal at the time would have been to survive. I would have rather have them kill me than have to bring my family over to be killed. The Gestapo told Abraham to write the letter and he would not be killed. But how was he able to trust that they would not kill him later on. I would've not trusted them how was I going to believe people who have been killing many out in the streets with no remorse. How was I going to know that they weren’t just lying to me.

My decision to be killed than have my family killed is not an easy one. If were to write the letter and later find out that my family was killed because I led them to believe everything was okay when it really wasn’t, I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. It would be something that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Yes I would be a live but it will always be in the back of my head the fact that I had to bring my family to death in order to stay a live. To me this is a selfish thing to do and I don't think I would be able to do it.

Decisions are difficult to make. Of course we can say what we would do because it's the right thing to do and we feel like it's the right thing to say. But when you give it enough thought is it really what you would decide. Decision making always brings me back to something my dad would always tell me when I wanted to do something my friends were doing. He would say “you want to go just because your friends are going, so if your friends jumped off a bridge would you want to do that too?” Making any type of decision is a difficult thing. And I believe that no one really knows what they will do until they are put in that situation that Abraham was in.