Never Forgotten Artie Quotes

Dominique Caston August 28, 2015 English 215 The Past is Never Forgotten In this graphic memoir, what really caught my attention is the way Artie was portrayed in this book. He was portrayed as showing emotions through actions, but once he opened his mouth it came out as selfishness. When Artie was younger, his mother committed suicide and that made him feel guilty. In the comic he wrote about his mother, he admitted to feeling guilty and that he blames his mother for putting him in an institution. He didn’t seem like he was completely sad when his mother died, because he was too busy feeling guilty for not telling her he loved her and he cared about how other people “blamed” him for his mother’s death. Even with Valdek, it’s obvious that Artie cares about his father health, but not his father’s overall happiness.

Plenty times in the book Valdek tries to get Artie to learn about his current life and not always in the past during the war.

However, Artie’s selfish words always blocked his father out and he never listened to anything his father had to say unless it was about the war. Similarly, I was really surprised at Artie’s reaction when his father told him Mala left. When Mala left Valdek and Valdek was trying to tell Artie about how it happened, Artie just completely ignored his father and wanted to hear more about the war. While I was reading the whole story, I was just feeling as if Mala reminded Artie of his mother and that’s why every time his father brought Mala up he always wanted to change the subject. Deep down inside, just like Valdek do not want to be reminded of the past, I think Artie feels that same way but just doesn’t want to admit it. Because Artie’s mother died with him having a guilty conscience, he just wants to forget it but he can’t, which is why I think he wanted his mother’s diaries so

bad. I think he wanted to see if he can find a reason in her diaries for killing herself, this way other people won’t blame him for “killing” his mother and he can clear up his conscience. All in all, even though Artie can come off as a little harsh and sometimes selfish, he loves his parents.