"Do you think my father is like that? Like Hitler?" Anton looked thoughtful. "Cruelty is, after all, cruelty and the difference between the two men may have more to do with their degrees of power than their degrees of cruelty. One man is able to affect millions and the other only a few. Would your father's cruelty cause him to crush weak neighboring states? Or would the Fuhrer's cruelty cause him to beat his own daughter? Doesn't it seem to you that they both need to inflict pain?"
Anton, having seen Patty's father beating her with a belt, realizes that the only difference between Patty's father and Hitler is location and standing in the world. Hitler is the dictator of an entire nation and is able to inflict harm and cruelty on millions. Patty's father is not a politician or leader and has no authority over anyone except his children, but still inflicts as much cruelty and harm as he is able and in the same way Hitler attempts to justify his cruelty Patty's father does the same. This brings up many interesting philosophical points as men like Hitler are widely accepted to be among the most evil men in history because of the volume of deaths they cause; Anton believes that men like Patty's father who brutally abuse their children are every bit as evil, but just not as prolific, believing that evil should be measured by degree of cruelty a person is capable of, not the number of people who are victims of it. It is also ironic that Patty's father hates the Germans and considers Hitler evil and cruel when their characters are extremely similar. This conversation is the first time Patty has seen her fathers cruelty as something others regards cruel, not just as something that demonstrates his dislike of her and causes her to hate him.
