Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
From: :http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/vaclav_havel.html#ixzz1nyabA6CI
While googling quotes from Havel, this is what I found. In fact, I found many quotes about hope. I love this quote so much because a lot of people do think that hope is associated with optimism, but hope is actually just knowing that what's happening is happening for a reason. I believe that everything happens for a reason, so I'm glad that I found this quote. In relation to the texts, I don't think Ludvick has hope, but I don't think he is optimistic either- I think he's just cocky that everything is going to go his way. I think if he had some hope, that someday his life will turn around and that he will be happier, then he wouldn't have forced himself on Lucie and wouldn't have hit her. I'm sure it's really hard to have hope when you're at a camp like the one Ludvick is at, but I wish that he would have some hope that he will be happier, because that would help him get through the hard times more.
I think as you read further you'll see that Ludvik's "hope" is very much misplaced. Perhaps not until the very end does he realize this notion of Havel's. Perhaps that could be understood as a main theme of The Joke, the loss of hope.
ReplyDeleteAfter finishing the book, I think we see that Ludvik's hope is non-existent until the very end of the book. Up until the end, Ludvik has no hope because he doesn't believe everything happened for a reason. Instead, he keeps living in the past, trying to fix every thing that happened to him that he didn't like. But at the end Ludvik realizes that he cannot continue to live in the past - that just because he wishes he could change things, doesn't mean he can.
ReplyDeleteAs a reader it was very satisfying that Ludvik had some sort of change in character at the end, because up until then I didn't like him and wished he would just let go of the past. Although, I do think it is a very human thing to do to dwell on the past and relive those moments that hurt you the most. I wonder how that fits in with hope...