Hardship and Survival

Over the weekend I watched Letters from Iwo Jima. The story is told from the Japanese point of view. They lost the battle. Nearly every character dies.

Right now I'm reading Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal by Mal Peet. Much of the book is set in German-occupied Holland during the winter of 1944, a historical fiction about characters who were part of the Dutch resistance. Many people died of cold, starvation, and abuse that winter, and everyone underwent hardship.

I'm also listening to Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. It's a futuristic novel in which an asteroid knocks the moon closer to the earth. The result is huge tidal waves that destroy most coastlines around the world, terrible earthquakes, and erupting volcanoes that cover the earth in a cloud of ash. Civilization basically comes to an end and the book tells the story of one family's efforts to survive.

I feel melancholy and depressed.