A Father and a Son
“Maus” weaves through the past and present to tell the story of Holocaust survivors Vladek and Anja Spiegelman as well as how Art, their son, dealt with the repercussions of his father’s experiences. The author, Art Spiegelman, wrote “Maus” in comic form and portrayed Jews as mice, Poles as pigs, and Germans as cats. “Maus Ⅰ” begins in mid-1930’s Poland with his soon to be wed parents and concludes with them at the gates of Auschwitz in the winter of 1944. In “Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History”, by Art Spiegelman, the characters of Vladek and Art both struggle, although differently, to cope with their own blameworthiness, which demonstrates the power that guilt can hold over an individual’s life. Throughout
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In “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”, Vladek’s agonizing remorse over Anja’s death is demonstrated at the funeral home when he grabs onto the casket, screaming his dead wife’s name, over and over again, as if it will make her come back (102). Vladek’s reasoning behind his crushing guilt is better understood when he comforts Anja when she says she does not want to live anymore because she has lost her entire family. Vladek tells her, “No, darling! To die, it’s easy...but you have to struggle for life! Until the last moment we must struggle together! I need you! And you’ll see that together we’ll survive” (122). Vladek says the final part of that quote in the present, his facial expression making it so clear that he believes he has failed Anja by not comforting her enough when she became despondent. It seems that Vladek’s second marriage to Mala will never be a happy one, as he thinks he has failed Anja. Vladek makes this explicitly clear when, after recalling another fight with Mala, he asks, “Why, Artie? Why I ever remarried? Oy, Anja! Anja! Anja!” (127). Vladek and Mala fight constantly not only because of their conflicting personalities, but also because Vladek thinks that he is betraying Anja by having another wife. Consequently, he treats Mala poorly. Vladek’s feels responsible for Anja taking her own life and haunts him for …show more content…
Art’s thoughts regarding his mother’s suicide are best explained in his short comic strip “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”, which tells the story of his mother’s suicide and the days following it from his perspective. Art cries in the hall when he leaves Anja’s funeral service and a family friend admonishes him, “Now you cry! Better you cried when your mother was still alive!” (102). As this is Art’s telling of his mother’s death, he would have only included this remark if it affected him. This is seen to be true in the next panel when Art states, “I felt nauseous… The guilt was overwhelming!” (102). Obviously, Art felt as though he were to blame in the moment, but it becomes clear that these emotions remain because Art sketches himself inside of a prison cell wearing a striped prisoner’s uniform, almost identical uniforms worn in Holocaust concentration camps (103). This implies that Art is the “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”, guilt being Hell Planet and Art being regret’s captive. Art also feels another type of culpability, one that is related to his father, throughout the
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.
“I'm not talking about YOUR book now, but look at how many books have already been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed... Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust.” These words were spoken by author Art Spielgelman. Many books have been written about the Holocaust; however, only one book comically describes the non-superficial characteristics of it. Art Spiegelman authors a graphic novel titled Maus, a book surrounding the life a Jewish man living in Poland, named Vladek. His son, Art Spielgelman, was primarily focused on writing a book based on his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. While this was his main focus, his book includes unique personal experiences, those of which are not commonly described in other Holocaust books. Art’s book includes the troubles his mother, Anja, and his father, Vladek, conquered during their marriage and with their family; also, how his parents tried to avoid their children being victimized through the troubles. The book includes other main characters, such as: Richieu Spiegelman, Vladek first son; Mala Spiegelman, Vladek second wife; and Françoise, Art’s French wife. Being that this is a graphic novel, it expresses the most significant background of the story. The most significant aspect about the book is how the characters are dehumanized as animals. The Jewish people were portrayed as mice, the Polish as pigs, the Germans (Nazis in particular) as cats, and Americans as dogs. There are many possible reasons why Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans. Spiegelman uses cats, dogs, and mice to express visual interests in relative relationships and common stereotypes among Jews, Germans, and Americans.
Art Spiegelman's Maus II is a book that tells more than the story of one family's struggle to live thought the Holocaust. It gives us a look into the psyche of a survivor's child and how the Holocaust affected him and many other generations of people who were never there at all. Maus II gives the reader a peek into the psyche of Art Spiegelman and the affects of having two parents that survived the Holocaust had on him. Spiegelman demonstrates the affects of being a survivor's child in many ways throughout the book. Examining some of these will give us a better understanding of what it was like to be a part of 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.
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 format of "Maus" is an effective way of telling a Holocaust narrative because it gives Art Spiegelman the chance to expresses his father 's story without disrespecting him at the same
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.
Survivors guilt is a mental condition that occurs when a person survives a traumatic event that others did not. This is something that many people, especially Jewish people, experienced during and after the Holocaust. In Elie Wiesel's Night and Art Spiegelman's Maus, survival and survivor’s guilt are a common theme, and the main characters write about very similar situations. Wiesel is writing from personal experience, whereas Spiegelman is writing about his father’s experience. Both authors have the themes of public hangings, illnesses, and the father-son relationship woven throughout the books.
Nearly two thirds of the Jewish population in Europe was killed during the Holocaust, one of the darkest parts of mankind’s history. Vladek Spiegelman is a survivor of the Holocaust whose story is told in the graphic novel Maus by his progeny, Art Spiegelman. He is shown as being very intelligent which helps him avoid death numerous times during the Holocaust. In addition, Vladek is characterized with extreme frugality due to the Holocaust and his conservative attitude.Vladek holds his values and abilities close because they were essential to his survival through traumatic experiences; therefore, others find him unique and untraditional.
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.
Spiegelman’s despondent and historic account in Maus portrays the lifetime and struggles of a holocaust survivor, Vladek, while concurrently exploring the journey of a son trying to form a relationship with his father, if anything, to understand the post-memory he was constantly subjugated to. Many of the recurring and significant ideas employed throughout the novel are introduced in the prologue itself, providing an ‘introduction’ of sorts to the graphic novel. Notions of a fractured relationship between father and son are introduced through generational gaps. The impact of the holocaust is also echoed throughout the prologue, on both direct and indirect survivors. Whilst
The story Maus a Survivors Tale is an impassioned story shared from the perspective of a holocaust survivor’s son, Art Spieglman, as he listened to his father’s story. Spieglman’s father, Vladek Spiglman, shares his extraordinary story to his son, giving them both a sense of closure to the horrifying events that happened to their family. In book one of two, Vladek and his wife, Anja, are traveling on a train and gaze out their window to see for the first time ever the swastika. On page 32 of distress, Spieglman uses multiple points of view over a short moment of time to display the setting and emotion the scene holds. Despite the page being a major turning point in the story, little words are needed to describe the scene and the swastika is
Using lines and basic shapes to emphasize shading and detail and then teamed with such a complex theme, Art’s story and graphics join together in a complimentary marriage. With the nearly childlike drawings and the intense mature storyline, there is a message that this is being written by the child telling the story of the parent. The story emphasizes his father’s inability to grow and repair from his past but even without the words you can almost see that Art has never truly be able to move past his the trauma of growing up with his parents. Using his frustrations and the need to explore the history of his father’s idiosyncrasies, Art creates a poignant story not only about the tragedy of the holocaust, but of the realities of being a child growing up with survivor parents.
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.
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.