Maurie-Laure's Father in Prison

[eliasrust]

"You absolutely would not believe how pretty it is here, ma cherie, and how far we are from danger. I am incredibly safe, as safe as safe can be.

Your Papa” (Doerr, 258).
This is part of the letter written to Maurie-Laure from her father who was captured. Do you think that he is lying to her to make her less worried? Or are the Germans that have captured him censoring his mail? Or is it both?

[zevgreen]

During the war and throughout the Holocaust, the Nazis running the concentration camps would frequently send fake letters to prisoners' family. They made the letters seem like they were coming from the prisoners, telling them that everything was okay. I highly doubt that Maurie-Laure's father was unique in that he was able to actually write to her while in prison.

However, if he was able to send mail, I definitely think he would try to seem upbeat and positive in his letters.

[zevgreen]

During the war and throughout the Holocaust, the Nazis running the concentration camps would frequently send fake letters to prisoners' family. They made the letters seem like they were coming from the prisoners, telling them that everything was okay. I highly doubt that Maurie-Laure's father was unique in that he was able to actually write to her while in prison.

However, if he was able to send mail, I definitely think he would try to seem upbeat and positive in his letters.

[Hibah]

I think he has been forced to write those letters. As Marie had said to Von Rumple, he only took his sack with a few things inside. He could have taken paper with him, but the Germans would have looked through his sack. The letter has words that he only uses to Marie and I think the Germans thought about this and made him write the convincing letters. They would have also forced him to write in a happy mood.

[Carolyn]

I think he was either forced to write them or the Nazi's wrote them pretending to be Papa. Though if Papa was able to send letters he would have said that everything was okay so that Marie-Laure didn't become more worried or stressed.

[briannaanderson]

I do think those are two possibilities, but I would go with the idea that he probably wanted to sound optimistic. The last thing he would want is for his daughter to be consumed by the fact that she doesn't know what is happening to her father. He probably figured one person is enough to be dragged into the mess. He would want her to be able to live her life without the fear of her father's fate looming over her.

[Cole Powers]

The attitude of his letters matches that of when he told Marie-Laure that they had found a hotel when they were forced to sleep in stables. He is not the kind of parent who always tells the truth. He is perhaps over protective of his daughter: He would rather lie to her than worry her. And yet there was something missing from each of these letters: concern for his Marie-Laure. Though the week before he left he was to worried about Marie-Laure's safety to let her go outside, he does not once in is letters ask how she is doing. He does not convey any worry for her, only that she knows he is safe. Why is this?

[taylor]

I think Marie's father wrote the letter. It seems unlikely that the Nazi's would take time out of their day and pretend to be their prisoners. Marie's father wrote in a reassuring manner, as not to alarm Marie. Not being able to see and living in a strange place during a war puts enough stress on Marie. Because of this, Marie's father didn't want to add to her stress. The letter does seem as if her father isn't telling the complete truth of his experience. However being the kind of person who wouldn't want to worry his daughter, the letter fit into Marie's father's character.

[hannahdorros]

I agree with Taylor in the sense that the Nazi's wouldn't care enough to write letters as the prisoners. I believe that Nazi's did however censor the letters, because if you look back to Werners letters back home most of the sentences are blacked out. I do believe however that the letter was all written by Marie's father because he knew she would be very worried if he told her the truth and there was nothing she could do about it anyways.

[baazjhaj]

I believe that Marie-Laure's Papa was most likely trying to keep her upbeat. She was probably worrying very much, and he tried to soothe her.

[claireaspeitia]

On page 258 Papa writes, "My angel has promised to deliver this letter for me at great risk." Then again on page 289 he writes, saying, "My angel is leaving, so if I can get this to you I will." I assume that the angel that Papa is reffering to is someone who has been smuggling the letters out to Marie-Laure. Therefore, that means that the letters were not going through his German captors. Of course Papa is not being truthful about the conditions he is living in, but he is only doing it for Marie's sake.