Marcel thoroughly breaks down what hope is.

He starts out with

setting the ground rules on what hope is and what hope is not.
Hope is not a wish. In wishing, you would be indiferent in the
results of your wishing. Marcel gives an example of a love one
returning home from work. Hoping he would arrive early. Even if
he does not arrive early, you would indiferent about it. s long as
he arrives. Hope is also not optimism as being an optimist only
makes someone into a commentator. He would comment based
on experience or religious values. !hey feel that you must listen
to them as they have the keen sight. keen sight better than
yours. !hese are examples of diluted hope.
He does though gives us a framework and some characteristics of
uthentic Hope. uthentic hope is always situated within a trial or
a period of darkness. It is being deeply involved with the situation.
"omething that has bearing to you. uthentic hope is the refusal
to give in to despair.
!hen he tackles what authentic hope is. He mentions a variety of
points on what hope is. Hope as a positive non#acceptance. It is
an act by which we are victorious over despair and actively
overcome despair. Hope involves captivity. $here you are deeply
involved in the situation and where there is no way out of it. %ike
how a terminally ill patient believes he will be healthy again. Hope
is creative. %ike how the thesis statement mentions &Hope is the
patient seeking of the light, yet to be born, that cannot be seen
nor experienced in moments of captivity, capitulation, and
darkness.' $e see an image of a future that we want to have. (r
as Marcel would say, it is a Memory of the future. $e welcome the
possibility of something that may not even happen or will happen
in time.
t this moment we might be sufering or in despair but we have a
positive non#acceptance of that sufering. "ince hoping involves
sufering, it would also entail that while in hope we are also in
constant challenge to also give up hoping because of despair.
)espair closes all possibilities and traps the self in captive
darkness. darkness where you then expect that you will always
*ust be in that darkness. +ou succumb to the darkness and
become ,xated. $hich is the exact opposite of hope. Hope helps
one release his ,xation on the ob*ect of hope. -ust like love. +ou
do not hold on to someone you love as that would be called
obsession. +ou set them free. %ove is a key element in
understanding authentic hope. Hope is an act of trusting each
other, again, *ust like love. Hope helps one be open.
I believe that real hope only comes in when we have been
through darkness and captivity. $e can only hope something to
happen in time which is unlike despair that closes the sense of
time and think that there is no more chance of something to
happen. !hings will happen in time.
I think that Marcel was still not able to de,ne what hope really is.
s the concept of hope is rather vague. Hope is a bit sub*ective to
each one. Hope is our response. It is not automatic. It is an act of
will. It is a choice. It is a response to captivity. .or Marcel, the
more we are tempted to give in to despair, the more we are given
the chance to respond in authentic hope. I believe that hope is
the constant victory over despair. !o hope is a choice an act which
you do or make in order to outlast despair. s when falling into
despair you lose being communal, being creative, you will be held
captive, and losing all hope which leads to closing all possibilities
inside yourself. !he person who hopes does not exactly know how
that will happen. He also knows that he himself cannot make it
happen. He does not have the power to make the communion
live. /evertheless, he hopes in the Holy, that somehow, in some
way, the communion will be restored, will be renewed.