Trauma In Maus By Art Spiegelman

Maus and the effects the Holocaust has on younger generations Maus by Art Spiegelman is a comic book about his journey to uncover his father’s past while struggling to mend their unsteady relationship. While interviewing his father, Artie realizes just how much trauma his father had endured in the Holocaust. Through gathering information from his father Artie realizes that he had accumulated some of the same paranoia from his parents. The second generations of Jewish people specifically the descendants of Holocaust survivor’s acquire a large amount of grief, depression, and anxiety from their parents through various ways. In Artie’s case he was inflicted with the grief of not having endured the Holocaust like the rest of his family, whereas

Not only does Artie feel guilty for being the only member of his family who did not suffer through the Holocaust, but also for taking his mother for granted. Both Artie’s parents dealt with some sort of extensive trauma through their lives, because of their experiences in the Holocaust. Vladek Spiegelman had a habit of hoarding things and conserving anything he found useful, which was a result of the technique he used to survive in Auschwitz. As for Artie’s mother, she suffered with depression all along, but the severity of her situation took its toll and lead her to take her own life in 1968 when Artie was just 20 ( Maus I, 100). The death of his mother lead Artie to feel abandoned and imprisoned by the new situation he was forced into and resented her for it. The reader can see that Artie suffers with the inability to relate to his father predominately in book one. It is not until book two when Artie gives the reader an idea of how traumatic his paranoia about the Holocaust was and how the guilt inflicted by his parent’s experiences affected him. In the beginning of Maus II Artie tells his wife Francoise about how he feels privileged to have been given a better life than his family and wished that he endured Auschwitz with them so he could understand them better (Maus II, 16). Artie also recalls having vivid dreams of being dragged out of class by S.S. Men and would on occasion picture

As for Art Spiegelman specifically, he dealt with a lot of his trauma by publishing comics that illustrated his dysfunctional family life. When taking in consideration the research done by Rachel Yehuda and the National Israeli Center for Psychological Support of Survivors of the Holocaust and the Second Generation then it is easier to see how descendants have acquired the trauma and depression genetically. How this affected generation has obtained these mental health issues is only part of the problem. The other half is getting the recognition that they deserve for both their suffering and their parents. It is completely unfair that an entire second generation of Jewish descendants feel burden by their parents past and are traumatized by the experiences they had to endure before they were even born. Ironically, though so many of them like Art Spiegelman take on their pain and turn it into books for future generations to understand just how extensive the trauma of the Holocaust was. By producing Maus Art gave an entirely different visual of the family dynamic with Holocaust survivors for readers everywhere. He also managed to include a voice for the descendants who have relationship issues with their parents and suffer with severe mental pain. Two very distinct characteristics