Waiting for Godot
Albright quotes playwright and former Czech leader Vaclav Havel on the subject of the two types of hope forged in the fire of the Cold War. One references the most famous play by another dramatist—Samuel Beckett—to create a metaphor for “the hope of people without hope.” Within such a type of hope action lies stillborn as people:
“lost the feeling that there was anything they could…So they waited for Godot…But Godot is an illusion. He is the product of our hopelessness.”
The Iron Curtain
Albright’s history is one shaped by the heat of World War II and the cold of the post-war rise of communism. Without understanding the metaphor of the term “Iron Curtain” one is sure to be lost.
“Winston Churchill had declared that an Iron Curtain was descending across Europe. He had cited Czechoslovakia as the only country lying behind the curtain that was also a democracy.”
The term is a metaphor for the division between the countries ruled by Soviet communist influence in eastern Europe and the countries ruled by Parliamentary-style democracy in the west.
Czech Democracy
Churchill’s assertion was more hope than fact. It was really only a matter of time before it fell under the sway of Soviet influence and Albright uses metaphor to describe the state of play which hastened that transition:
“Czechoslovak democracy had become like a rundown car with overused shock absorbers; every bump was felt, and the next jolt might be the last. Still the car kept rolling and the potholes kept appearing.”
On Robots and Communists
Yet another playwright is referenced for yet another metaphor. Karel Capek wrote the play which made the term robot recognizable around the world and Albright quotes his views toward communists being something akin to robot because they saw the world in either/or computer-like code. For communists
“the world contains no lunch or dinner; it is either the moldy bread of the poor or the gorging of the overlords.”
Life in the Ghetto
The term ghetto when applied Europe during World War II is quite different from what one thinks of when applied to poor neighborhoods in American cities. As a frame of reference, think of the city in Schindler’s List before the troops arrived to round up all the Jewish residents and kill the little girl in the red coat. Imagine living that life as a young girl and then look back over these metaphors and take special note of the prevalence of playwrights to which Albright alludes. This last example will make so much more sense:
"Like a desert oasis, culture and the arts enlivened the ghetto’s landscape. There was a constant menu of lectures, readings, and plays, while musical performances were hostage only to the scarcity of functioning instruments.”
