In Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. I. My Father Bleeds History, I found one panel particularly daunting, chiefly through an introspective lens. On page 147, when Vladek and Anja are hiding from Nazi capture in Katwa’s cellar, the two notice a rat scurry across the room. While Spiegelman typically reimagines various nationalities through animals – e.g. then French as frogs, Americans as dogs, etc. – the author chose to keep rats unchanged – although a species rather than a nationality, the decision is significant nonetheless. This, I see, as an intentional parallelism between how Jews were perceived during the War and the perception of rats as a disease-ridden rodent. By acknowledging rats’ close relation to mice (i.e. to a species …show more content…
similar to the Jews in Maus,) Spiegelman is subtly introducing a growing perception of Jews throughout Europe; one identifying Jews as having a repulsive nature, and ultimately, the belief that Jews are a vermin to be rid from society. Moreover, Anja becomes frightened when spotting the mouse. This may possibly be approached as an introspective take on the Jewish identity, showing that Jews themselves might have began to question their own place and value within society. Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.
I. And Here My Troubles Began takes a survivor’s perspective often avoided by most authors -- whether intentional or not. Specifically, Spiegelman anecdotally criticizes the hypocritical prejudice his father, Vladek, has towards other marginalized groups. On page 99, Vladek openly curses as Françoise allows a black hitchhiker into the car. Although defending his animosity towards the black community as a product of his history in the United States, it is clear that (despite this exact unjustified prejudice he faces as a Jew in Europe) Vladek does not understand the hypocrisy of his opinion. Although Spiegelman has made it clear that his father is emotionally and behaviorally an anomaly in the pool of Holocaust survivors, he does in fact question the lessons humanity learns from history: If those who survived the Holocaust are not able to learn and grow as the receivers of prejudice and inhumanity, how are future generations possibly expected to do the same? I believe the answer lies in the books we have been dissecting throughout class. Although current and future generations may not have directly experienced the Holocaust, we can certainly learn and understand its implications towards humanity, and use literature as a tool to progressively the prejudice of the
past.
In late July of 1944, the Soviet Red Army comes upon the first Nazi war camp in Poland known as Majdanek that was discovered by the allies. After liberating the people there, they move further west in an attempt to invade Germany". On their conquest to the German homeland, the Soviets liberate hundreds of work camps that ranged from small prisons all the way to full-fledged concentration camps. The Soviet Union, along with other allied powers such as the United States, liberated thousands of people from Nazi rule. For many, the sight of the allied powers signaled a renewed freedom and a better life to come, just as it did for Vladek Spiegelman in his son’s book Maus. Maus is the story of Vladek Spiegelman's life. The book focuses on the time
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 people’s outlook on life. Wiesel’s identity transformed dramatically throughout the narrative. “How old he had grown the night before! His body was completely twisted, shriveled up into itself. His eyes were petrified, his lips withered, decayed.
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.
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.
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.
Art Spiegelman decided on a very interesting, and possibly offensive to some, scheme of different animals to use. The first type of animal that appears is the mouse (Maus 1 p. 5). Mice were used to represent the Jewish people during the Holocaust as well as the present day. Polish police were involved in the first arrest of Jewish persons (Maus 1 p. 27). Polish people were represented with pigs. Once the Germans appeared, the scheme of the animals began to make sense (Maus 1 p. 33). Germans were shown by the use of cats. The last animal to appear were the dogs (Maus 2 p. 12). The dogs are Americans, and were always friendly to the Jewish people.
Authors sometimes refer to their past experiences to help cope with the exposure to these traumatic events. In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel recalls the devastating and horrendous events of the Holocaust, one of the world’s highest points for man’s inhumanity towards man, brutality, and cruel treatment, specifically towards the Jewish Religion. His account takes place from 1944-1945 in Germany while beginning at the height of the Holocaust and ending with the last years of World War II. The reader will discover through this novel that cruelty is exemplified all throughout Wiesel's, along with the other nine million Jews’, experiences in the inhumane concentration camps that are sometimes referred to as “death factories.”
...s that surviving a tragedy, such as the holocaust, can cause survivor’s guilt, which influences both the survivor’s life and his/her relationships with others. Every day, Vladek and Anja suffer from the survivor’s guilt and from the memories of the war. Their character, which was affected by the war, exhausts their family and friends and eventually chases them away. Vladek is heavily influenced by the war in numerous ways. Ironically, even Vladek, a holocaust survivor deeply affected by the war and racism, continues to be racist. If a holocaust survivor cannot change his perspective on racism, then what can possibly end racism?
Many different responses have occurred to readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the Holocaust victims.
Although our past is a part of who we are nowadays, we will never be happy if we can never let go of the painful feeling attached to our suffering. In addition, “suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us” (Wiesel 96). We should not be afraid to let go of our haunting past and grow closer to others because “man carries his fiercest enemy within himself. Hell isn’t others. It’s ourselves” (Wiesel 15). The wise advice this book gives its audience is one reason it won a Nobel Peace Prize. The books are also part of a very famous Holocaust trilogy, which is one reason it has been so widely read. In addition, it blends everyday stories with Holocaust stories.Therefore, readers are very compassionate towards the narrator and readers create a bond with this character due to his hardships and the similarities he shares with us. Lastly, Day speaks to the needs of the human spirit by intertwining a love story. Readers wonder if his girlfriend will change his attitude towards life because he tells the doctor, “I love Kathleen. I love her with all my heart. And how can one love if at the same time one doesn’t care about life” (Wiesel
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.
During the Nazi reign, Jewish people along with other groups were persecuted and used as scapegoats to the German people. The Nazi’s and German people gathered up Jewish people and massacred about 6 million people in the idea that they were the vermin of Germany that was holding them down. Jew’s were robbed of everything they had and sent off to concentration camps where they were beaten, starved, and murdered. The novel Maus I: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman illustrates this by giving us a detailed encounter of the holocaust through the authors’ father’s experience. Spiegelman illustrates the Jews as mice because it symbolizes how the Jews were run off and were killed and hunted like vermin. The Germans were illustrated as cats because they were the “hunter”. The graphic novel Maus I: My Father Bleeds History gives you a personal view of the Holocaust and the horrific Nazi reign through guilt, survival and, luck.
... things up to the worst of it all. The readers can take away that just because you believe something different then somebody else, doesn’t make them or you a bad person or different in any way. This topic shows that long before the concentration camps, Jews were being singled out and treated terribly. The study of the Holocaust matters to show people what happened so that others can learn from it and learn to accept people no matter what their religion. It must not be forgotten because the people who suffered in it should be remembered. It was a terrible time that should never happen again. All of the laws passed leading up to the Night of the Broken kept increasing Hitler's power and ability to persecute the Jews because there was little reaction to his actions; the violence and persecution increased leading to the final solution because of this indifference.
The appearance of rats at the meeting raises a question: ';Are rats comrades?'; A democratic vote results in a ringing ';Yes!';. And Old Major proclaims, ';No animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. All animals are equal!';
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.