The authors of the books, Survival in Auschwitz, All But My Life, and Maus II, tell their heart-wrenching, brutal, and hopeful journey of their lives throughout the Holocaust. Though, the stories are written regarding the same historical event, their paths lead to strikingly different outcomes. Primo Levi, an Italian Jew, was sent to Auschwitz where he endured years of the Nazi’s brutality and the horrific images that followed. Art Spiegelman’s Maus II tells the story of how his father, Vladek Spiegelman, survived the war. While Gerda Weissmann Klein describes her own journey in which World War II had taken her. Though these three authors describe very horrific, disgusting, and heartbreaking scenes from their experiences, their books end similarly, …show more content…
In the months leading up to liberation, Spiegelman continued to work in the camp to the best of his ability. However, as the Russian front edged closer to Auschwitz, many of the German officials ran off in fear they would be killed and rumors spread to the prisoners that the Germans were planning on taking the prisoners back to camps inside Germany. Vladek, along with a few other prisoners, plotted to hide in an abandoned room inside the camp to escape the officials and their brutality. However, while hiding they heard that the camp would be bombed, so they decided to march alongside the rest of the prisoners, where their fate would soon be decided. Throughout the march those who were tired, or could not walk fast were shot. They marched from Auschwitz, in Poland, to Gross-Rosen, in Germany. Gross-Rosen was a small camp with thousands of prisoners being pushed back into Germany. The next morning, however, the Germans marched them out once more to trains made for shipping animals. In this train, they pushed as many people as they could into one car. Vladek used the blanket they had given him to create a sort of hammock to rest on and provide some space for himself. “This saved me. Maybe 25 people came out from this car of 200.” Finally, the train had begun to make its way to Dachau, where Vladek’s troubles truly began. In Dachau, he experienced lice and with lice came typhus. In order for the prisoners to receive their ration of soup, they must show their shirt, if you had no lice you would receive your ration of food. However, it deemed impossible to be free of lice, as lice lived in the straw where they slept. After Vladek spent some time in the infirmary, he happened to meet a Frenchman interested in speaking English with him. Each day the Frenchman found Vladek to share his Red Cross package with him, this is yet another gesture in which Vladek claims to have saved his life. A
Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz is a vivid and eloquent memoir of a Holocaust survivor from the largest concentration camp under German control in World War II. The original title in Italian is Se questo e un uomo, which translates to If This is A Man, alluding to the theme of humanity. The overall tone is calm and observational; rather than to pursue the reader, it is “to furnish documentation for a quiet study of certain aspects of the human mind” (Levi 10). The memoir is a testimony of Levi and the other prisoners’ survival at the Nazis’ systematic destruction attempts at the prisoners’ humanity.
Both articles concern the highly contentious subject of the British strategic bombing campaign in Germany during the Second World War. This subject focuses around the historical debate that the British government knowingly targeted civilian cities in Germany, killing hundreds of thousands of non combatants while also gravely misinforming the British public as to the purpose and results of their strategic bombing campaigns. In the years after the war the debate had come to light due to the renewed interest in the strategic bombing campaign. The articles by Mark Connelly and Alex Bellamy are products of this renewed interest. This essay seeks to compare and contrast the articles on three grounds: the different methods hat each historian uses
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the audience is led through a very emotional story of a Holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with the author, who is his son, and his wife. Throughout this novel, the audience constantly is reminded of how horrific the Holocaust was to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the novel finds very effective ways to insert forms of humor in the inner story and outer story of Maus. Although the Holocaust has a heart wrenching effect on the novel as a whole, the effective use of humor allows for the story to become slightly less severe and a more tolerable read.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
Christopher McCandless and Adam Shepard both did some similar targets in their lives, at the end it lead them to unexpected situations. Christopher McCandless was a young man who didn't believe in society and he chose to get away from that and left everything he had, including his family. He developed important relationships with key people that helped him on his journey into the wild. Similarly Adam Shepard was a young man who left with only $25 and a sleeping bag to go prove his point that the american dream does exist and to see if he can achieve it in a couple of months. Overall comparing McCandless and Shepard, Christopher McCandless had a greater impact in people, motivated many, and was selfish in plenty of good ways.
By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
In The Complete Maus, by Art Spiegelman, a son of the Holocaust survivor, Art Spiegelman, learns the story of his father, Vladek Spiegelman. Art Spiegelman learns the causes of why his father acts the way he does and the reason for the eccentric nature he has. Although Vladek Spiegelman physically survives the Holocaust, his actions show that he is psychologically affected by his experience in the camps.
When reading a traditional book, it is up to the reader to imagine the faces and landscapes that are described within. A well written story will describe the images clearly so that you can easily picture the details. In Art Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus, the use of the animals in place of the humans offers a rather comical view in its simplistic relation to the subject and at the same time develops a cryptic mood within the story. His drawings of living conditions in Auschwitz; expressions on the faces of people enduring torture, starvation, and despair; his experience with the mental institution and his mother’s suicide; and occasional snapshots of certain individuals, create a new dynamic between book and reader. By using the form of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman created a narrative accompanied by pictures instead of needing to use immense worded detail.
Some people think that if they could only change one aspect of their lives, it would be perfect. They do not realize that anything that is changed could come with unintended consequences. “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken both illustrate this theme. They demonstrate this by granting the main character three wishes, but with each wish that is granted, brings undesirable consequences. The main idea of this essay is to compare and contrast “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish.” Although the “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish” are both fantasies and have similar themes, they have different main characters, wishes, and resolutions.
Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus unfolds the story about his father Vladek Spiegleman, and his life during the WWII. Since Vladek and Art are both the narrators of the story, the story not only focuses on Vladek's survival, but also the writing process and the organization of the book itself. Through these two narrators, the book explores various themes such as identity, perspective, survival and guilt. More specifically, Maus suggests that surviving an atrocity results in survivor’s guilt, which wrecks one’s everyday life and their relationships with those around them. It accomplishes this through symbolism and through characterization of Vladek and Anja.
The books Maus I and Maus II, written by Art Spiegelman over a thirteen-year period from 1978-1991, are books that on the surface are written about the Holocaust. The books specifically relate to the author’s father’s experiences pre and post-war as well as his experiences in Auschwitz. The book also explores the author’s very complex relationship between himself and his father, and how the Holocaust further complicates this relationship. On a deeper level the book also dances around the idea of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. The two books are presented in a very interesting way; they are shown in comic form, which provides the ability for Spiegelman to incorporate numerous ideas and complexities to his work.
The Holocaust is one of the most horrific and gruesome events in world history. It took a great toll on millions of lives in one way or another. One person in particular is Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor. Maus, by Art Spiegelman, consists of two main narratives. One narrative occurs during World War II in Poland, and the other begins in the late 1970s in New York. In relation to each other these two narratives portray the past and present.Throughout the novel, we often see Art Spiegelman questioning why his father acts the way he does. Although the war is over, the events of the Holocaust continue to influence the life of Vladek. Why do we allow the past to effect the present? Vladek's personality is largely influenced by his Holocaust experience. In Maus I and II, Vladek was stubborn, selfish, and cheap because of his experiences in the Holocaust.
What if you were a holocaust survivor and asked to describe your catastrophic experience? What part of the event would you begin with, the struggle, the death of innocent Jews, or the cruel witnessed? When survivors are questioned about their experience they shiver from head to toe, recalling what they have been through. Therefore, they use substitutes such as books and diaries to expose these catastrophic events internationally. Books such as Maus, A survivor’s tale by Art Spiegelman, and Anne Frank by Ann Kramer. Spiegelman presents Maus in a comical format; he integrated the significance of Holocaust while maintaining the comic frame structure format, whereas comic books are theoretically supposed to be entertaining. Also, Maus uses a brilliant technique of integrating real life people as animal figures in the book. Individually, both stories involve conflicts among relationships with parents. Furthermore, Maus jumps back and forth in time. Although, Anne Frank by Ann Kramer, uses a completely different technique. Comparatively, both the books have a lot in common, but each book has their own distinctive alterations.
Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996) [first published as If This Is a Man], p. 86.
Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish Anti-fascist who was arrested in 1943, during the Second World War. The memoir, “If this is a Man”, written immediately after Levi’s release from the Auschwitz concentration camp, not only provides the readers with Levi’s personal testimony of his experience in Auschwitz, but also invites the readers to consider the implications of life in the concentration camp for our understanding of human identity. In Levi’s own words, the memoir was written to provide “documentation for a quiet study of certain aspects of the human mind”. The lack of emotive words and the use of distant tone in Levi’s first person narration enable the readers to visualize the cold, harsh reality in Auschwitz without taking away the historical credibility. Levi’s use of poetic and literary devices such as listing, repetition, and symbolism in the removal of one’s personal identification; the use of rhetorical questions and the inclusion of foreign languages in the denial of basic human rights; the use of bestial metaphors and choice of vocabulary which directly compares the prisoner of Auschwitz to animals; and the use of extended metaphor and symbolism in the character Null Achtzehn all reveal the concept of dehumanization that was acted upon Jews and other minorities.