Maus II: A Survivor's Tale

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Art Spiegelman’s Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale, explores desire for success. Art’s desire is catalyzed by his troubled and damaged father-son relationship, creating the pivotal question of how we create success and meaning in life. Art’s interactions with his father provide an understanding of the struggles that not only survivors of trauma experience, but the psychological afflictions that are projected upon their children of survivors. Art fears that he will never live up to his father’s achievements and expectations, as well as the unfulfillable perfect conceptualized version of who his deceased brother would have become. These conditions drive his desire to become successful in life. Art has no way ever achieving the same version of success …show more content…

Art only knows Richeau in the form of a photo, as he was killed as a result of the Holocaust by his Aunt who refused to allow her children, herself, and Richieu to succumb to death through the gas chambers, instead she poisons them (Spiegelman 121). Art feels that Richeau is the more loved one as they did not hang photos of Art on their wall, because he was still alive (15). In addition, Art stated “ the photo never threw tantrums or got in any kind of trouble. It was an ideal kid and I was a pain in the ass. I couldn’t compete” (15). This statement provides evidence that could place Art in the spectrum of a “replacement child” (Vollmann 220). “Researchers have commonly defined replacement children as subsequent siblings who are conceived either with an intention to replace their lost sibling, or who are expected, consciously or unconsciously, to replace their deceased predecessor and to fill the void of their absence” ( Vollmann 220). Numerous effects of being a “replacement child” (220) are notable in the way Art was raised. Typically, replacement children have “The hopes and expectations which were previously assigned to the deceased child may be transferred to the subsequent sibling, with possibly hazardous consequences for the identity formation of the subsequent child” (Vollmann 220). This concept becomes fundamental when Art rebuked that Richeau “ would have become a doctor, and married a wealthy Jewish girl….The creep” (Spiegelman 15). Rather than grieving the loss of his deceased brother, the thought of him only provokes Art, causing negative connotations and

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