Maus and Traplines

1321 Words3 Pages

In Maus, Spiegelman tells his own story though an array of significant images while trying to gain insight into his father’s life before and during the Holocaust. Henceforth, Spiegelman ultimately acknowledges that his troubled relationship with his father is a direct result of the tragic events his father was never able to recover from post Holocaust. In contrast, Traplines is a story of a family, who is presumably First Nations, however Robinson makes subtle mentions of this within the text. Robinson writes about the struggles the family faces and how drugs and alcohol become a prominent way of dealing with their pain and suffering. While Maus and Traplines are stories that take place in different periods they both explore the repercussions of horrific past events. Under these circumstances, both stories include father-son relationships, which are living in the shadow of the institutional oppression that once haunted them. The troubles they face during the course of the story are directly linked to the agony they previously endured. Spiegelman illustrates the troubles his father faced in Maus I and II, whereas Robinson is very discreet in describing the troubles the family faces. Maus and Traplines both include fragile father-son relationships where there is an extreme lack of communication, which causes ineffective parenting and troubles with displaced suffering that haunts both the generations. Despite its uncontrollable circumstances, historical traumas such as the Holocaust and aggressive assimilation create intergenerational conflict on the children of genocide survivors because for them the trauma never fully subsides.
Spiegelman opens his story in attempt to gain a deeper understanding about the time his father spent...

... middle of paper ...

...thic Short”. Powerpoint presentation for
ENG1200, University of Ottawa. 2014

Dobson, Kit. "Indigeneity and Diversity in Eden Robinson's Work." (2009): n. page.
Print.

Elias, Brenda, Javier Mignone, Madelyn Hall, et al. "Trauma and suicide behaviour histories among a Canadian indigenous population: An empirical exploration of the potential role of Canada's residential school system." Social Science & Medicine. 74.10 (2012): 1560-1569. Print.

Prager, Jeffrey . "Lost childhood, lost generations: The intergenerational transmission of trauma." Journal of human rights. 2.2 (2003): 173-181. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

Robinson, Eden. Traplines. 1996. Print.

Speigelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivors Tale. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1991. Print.

Spieleman, Art. Maus II: A survivors tale. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1991. Print.

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