The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses animal abuse, genocide, rape, and child soldiers.

As Doug and Jane speak, they slowly define the parameters of hope. Jane sees hope as a key aspect of human nature and survival. She thinks that people need hope to live and that a key aspect of having hope is taking action to see hope through to fruition. Doug agrees with her anecdotal thoughts about hope based on his own preferred mode of analysis, which is research.

Jane is careful to account for people whose current circumstances might not allow them to take immediate action for causes like combatting climate change. She elaborates by discussing “a group of conservationists who have been tried and given long sentences for putting up camera traps to record the presence of wildlife” (9). This group cannot currently take action to fight climate change, but Jane says that hope can still exist in such circumstances.

When hope survives, even in situations where people cannot take immediate action, it is powerful enough to keep people alive in dire circumstances. Doug tells a story about Dr. Edith Eger, a Hungarian psychologist who was interned in the Auschwitz death camp at age 16.