Max’s dream of fighting Adolf Hitler is an extended metaphor for his current situation. Discuss the meaning of the fantasy’s various elements. Why in the first version is he seemingly defeated, but in the second dream he tells Liesel he wins?

In Max's fantasies of fighting Hitler, he can take hours of punches one-on-one, then beat the Fuhrer in just seven blows. Yet Hitler then announces that Max is a threat to the German people and commands them to defeat him. Max's cartoon depicting Hitler as a conductor illustrates Hitler's total control over the German people, who obey his commands no matter how violent or illogical they are. Max sees himself as up against an entire brainwashed nation, yet he maintains his fortitude as he exercises. Max is finally, in his dreams, victorious over Hitler because he feels stronger and more resolute. This can symbolize a turn in the war as well.