The Shoah altered and blurred the definition of who were considered people. Andre Schwarz-Bart’s The Last of the Just, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, focuses on the different types of degrading animal and insect images of the Jews during the Shoah. By drawing upon both Edmund Russell’s article and Howard Stein’s article, one can come to understand the consequences that arise from the portrayal of the Jews as either animals or insects within the two novels. Thus, when an individual ceases to identify himself or herself as an animal or an insect, that individual is able to find the strength to cope, and survive such calamities.
It is important to understand how animal and creature imagery have characterized the Jewish population in relation to the Shoah. In the article, “Speaking of Annihilation: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies,” Edmund P. Russell III argues society’s recognition of Jews as “half-human abd half-insect[s]” rather than normal and ordinary people adds even more shock value to the deaths and sufferings that were incurred during the Shoah (Russell 1505). Noticing the way people were portrayed as insects, Russell argues, the word like “exterminate, suggests that these metaphors appealed to long-standing values,” of society (Russell 1509). Therefore, the metaphor of the Jews as insects or animals only propelled the fallacious belief that the Jewish population should be annihilated. These metaphors also continued the prevailing belief that Jews were burdens and were not respectful of their boundaries. These animal and vermin metaphors are clearly used by Andres Schwarz-Bart in The Last of the Just and by Art Spiegelman in both Maus I and M...
... middle of paper ...
... they feel like there is no opportunity to escape. As seen in both The Last of the Just and Maus I and Maus II, Ernie and Vladek both recognize that whatever actions they choose, whether they may be death, or survival, by realizing the power of their own identity, they are no longer accepting the role as a dehumanized creature, and instead, emerging as victorious
Works Cited
Russell, Edmund P. “Speaking of Annihilation: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945.” The Journal of American History 82.4 (1996): 1505-1529. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. .
Schwarz-Bart, Andre. The Last of the Just. 1960. Trans. Stephen Becker. Woodstock, NY: Overlook P, 2000. Print.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale I and II [My Father Bleeds History (1986); And Here My Troubles Began (1991)]. New York: Pantheon, 1993. Print
Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
Schwalbe, F. H. (1953). Of Bugs and Bombs. Retrieved 05 21, 2014, from University of Missouri, St Louis: http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/schwab.htm
Maus, a graphic novel by cartoonist Art Spiegelman, is not just another Holocaust story, but a work of art that delves into the physical, emotional, and psychological strains suffered by many of the survivors. The story is told through an ongoing conversation between Art and his father Vladek. Although the novel focuses on Vladek’s story, it also portrays how the Holocaust’s effects stretched across multiple generations. Spiegelman explores the psychological state of some more than others. Throughout his graphic novel, Maus, Art Spiegelman thematically and stylistically portrays the character Anja as emotionally unstable through her periodic outbursts and her relationship with Vladek, implying that suicide was an inevitable outcome for her.
Sann, Paul. The Lawless Decade. New York : Crown Publishers, Inc, 1957. p. 21-24. 115-120
The Maus series of books tell a very powerful story about one man’s experience in the Holocaust. They do not tell the story in the conventional novel fashion. Instead, the books take on an approach that uses comic windows as a method of conveying the story. One of the most controversial aspects of this method was the use of animals to portray different races of people. The use of animals as human races shows the reader the ideas of the Holocaust a lot more forcefully than simply using humans as the characters.
Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a novel about the Vladek and his experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. It narrates the reality of the Holocaust wherein millions and millions of Jews were systematically killed by the Nazi regime. One of the themes in the story is racism which is evident in the employment of animal characters and its relationship with one another.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
War propaganda was essential in the dehumanization of groups involved in the war. The Germans used it to convince their people that the Jews were subhuman and parasitic. The propaganda campaign created an atmosphere tolerant of vio...
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began. New York City:
Carl von Clausewitz, “What is War?” On War. Edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, 89-112. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: a Survivor’s Tale : And Here my Troubles Began. New York:
Lane, Anthony. "CONFLICTING STORIES." New Yorker 83.39 (10 Dec. 2007): 116-117. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.]WCC Library, Valhalla, NY. 17 Apr. 2008 .