Geary 1
Chandler Geary
Dr. Propst
Univ 190-18
19 Oct. 2014
The Dilemma with Guilt
“Guilt is cancer. Guilt will confine you, torture you, destroy you as an artist. It’s a black wall. It’s a thief.” – Dave Grohl. The Holocaust is a terrible event that happened in our world’s history. It’s an event so sickening that some people would rather erase the Holocaust from their minds. Even though the Holocaust was a horrendous event, the knowledge and the history of it still needs to be continued. It’s a very defining part of our history and for some it’s a defining part of their lives. This brings up the dilemma of how the knowledge, history, and reality of the Holocaust should be passed down to future generations. Some argue that the
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facts of the Holocaust should be presented so people will know of the Holocaust and about what happened. The only problem with this method is that future generations will only know of the Holocaust and not understand it. They won’t be able to feel the Holocaust and what those who went through it felt. If future generations don’t feel the fear, the loneliness, and the sadness that those who went through the Holocaust felt than a future “Holocaust” can’t and won’t be prevented. Art Spiegelman decided to take on the task of presenting the Holocaust in a way that future generations will be able to feel and fully understand. He decided to represent the story of the Holocaust by telling his father’s story of the Holocaust through a graphic novel called Maus. Spiegelman faced several dilemmas in writing and making the book Maus. While Spiegelman does face several dilemmas in writing a graphic novel about his father’s Holocaust experiences, none were as big as the dilemma of the guilt he felt towards his father, his mother, and the victims of the Holocaust during the writing of the novel Maus and the guilt after Maus was published. In order to deal with the guilt Spiegelman exposes what he feels guilty for through Maus I and Maus II In the book Maus Spiegelman’s relationship with his father is one of the main parts of his guilt. In the book Maus Spiegelman is shown interviewing his father Vladek. The book shows their real time conversations outside of Vladek just telling his story of the Holocaust. During these conversations almost every time Spiegelman and Vladek break into an argument. From Spiegelman smoking to Vladek burning Anja’s diaries from the Holocaust. Their arguing comes from Vladek’s stubbornness and the habits that he has created due to the Holocaust, like is habit of saving almost everything. Their arguing is also due to the fact that Spiegelman purposely rebels from his father like when Vladek asks Art to stop smoking and he continues instead of stopping. One of the main reasons for Art’s rebellious acts are because Art doesn’t feel like he was a good son. Art felt almost unwanted, he felt that if his parents could then they would’ve traded him for his deceased brother Richieu. The way that Vladek describes Richieu as a perfectly happy boy and how he was such a beautiful boy makes Art feel guilty that he could never live up to his brother, “an impossible competition” as Spiegelman puts it. The guilt that Spiegelman as of never being able to live up to his brother discourages him and because of this he acts out by being rebellious to his father. However, in doing this he ends up creating more of this. All of the rebellion and not being able to live up to his brother eventually build up and come crashing down when Vladek dies. He has so much guilt towards his father for always arguing and rebelling him and for not being the son that he wanted. Not only is Spiegelman guilty to his father, he also feels guilt towards his mother, Anja for not being the son that she deserved.
After his mother’s suicide, Art decided to write a short story called “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”. In the beginning of the story Art depicts himself in a prisoner’s outfit getting what appears to be a mug shot. In the story Spiegelman talks about his mother and how she committed suicide and without even leaving a note. He talks about how his mother had asked him if he still loved her and he said “Sure, Ma”. Spiegelman is then taken to a jail cell where he talks about how his mother had committed the perfect crime by murdering him through his suicide. What Spiegelman is saying is that once he found out that his mother had killed herself, all of the guilt over him not always caring for her and for not being the son that she deserved piled up and eventually broke Spiegelman. The story also depicts Spiegelman being in prisoner clothes the whole story even before he found out that she had committed suicide. This shows that Spiegelman felt guilty with his “crimes” before his mother killed …show more content…
herself. Spiegelman decides to talk about and write about the dilemma he has with his guilt.
What Spiegelman does to get over the guilt that he had with his mother is by creating the story “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”. He exposes himself and his terrible deeds out to the public. This is similar to the way that someone who has lied breaks from the guilt and admits the truth. Spiegelman decides that he can’t hide the truth any longer and decides to get it out of system by writhing about it. Similarly he does the same thing to get over the guilt of his father. The way that he does this is by showing how he acted towards his father in the book Maus. In a way he’s turning himself into the bad guy in order to get rid of the guilt. He does this by showing his father as an old man who has survived the Holocaust and his own son won’t even go over and help him fix the drain pipe. This makes the reader angry at Spiegelman for not helping his father who’s old and shouldn’t really be doing that kind of work. Spiegelman wants the reader to dislike. He purposely portrays the flaws that he has so that he can get over the guilt of having them. Maus is closure for him with his guilt by explaining what he’s
done. Spiegelman also feels guilty for making a success and becoming famous off of such a tragic event like the Holocaust. In Maus II Spiegelman draws the guilt he felt for becoming famous over the Holocaust. (Maus II pg.41) To show his guilt he drew himself talking about all of these great things that have been happening to him. The comic expands out and shows that pile of dead Jews underneath him. This shows how Spiegelman made a success of off all of the people that died from the Holocaust. It disgusts him that because millions of people suffered he was able to get deals from movies and other chances to get even more money. In order to deal with this guilt Spiegelman tells the reader the “crime” that he has committed. He exposes himself and in a way is turning himself in. He does this in a similar way that a liar tells everyone that he has lied. Art needs to let everyone know that he never intended to get all of this fame from his book. He just wanted to preserve the story of the Holocaust and memorialize it. In writing a novel about his father’s Holocaust experiences, Spiegelman is faced with the dilemma of his guilt. He feels guilty for not being able to be the son that his parents always wanted. Spiegelman feels guilty for rebelling against his parents even though they were trying to give him the best life he could after they had experienced the Holocaust. He also feels guilty for the success and fame that he has received off of such a tragic event and off of the millions of people that died. However, instead of his dilemmas defeating him and controlling him he instead finds a way around them, a way in which he can have closure. Spiegelman decides to expose himself to society and the world. He shows everyone what he’s done and the guilt that he feels in performing his actions. By doing this he makes himself the bad guy which in turn makes people feel more for his parents and for those who suffered in the Holocaust. This allows Spiegelman closure of his guilt by showing he was at fault and that he wish he could’ve done some things differently. Bibliography Grohl, Dave. "Guilt Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
The Holocaust is a topic that is still not forgotten and is used by many people, as a motivation, to try not to repeat history. Many lessons can be taught from learning about the Holocaust, but to Eve Bunting and Fred Gross there is one lesson that could have changed the result of this horrible event. The Terrible Things, by Eve Bunting, and The Child of the Holocaust, by Fred Gross, both portray the same moral meaning in their presentations but use different evidence and word choice to create an overall
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.
Art Spiegleman's comic book within the comic book Maus is titled "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History." This text within a text describes, in horrific detail through pictures, Artie's failed effort to get through the painful loss of his mother due to suicide. This text also in a way, represents a part of Artie's mind where he expresses his feelings of loneliness, doubt, fear, anger, and blame through the form of a dark, gloomy, depressing cartoon.
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.
When the blame for the Holocaust is brought to mind, many immediately think of blaming the Nazis, and only the Nazis. This is not the case, however. The Holocaust was a lesson to humanity, of utmost importance. Blaming the Nazis for the atrocities is an exceptionally important part of this lesson, which is unacceptable. In Elie Wiesel's book, Night, it is evident that blame be passed to Yahweh, the Jewish people themselves, and the non-Jewish Europeans.
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.
This is a very serious case to show what Nietzsche’s punishment and guilt are. I am sure we have all had a situation when we were young or recently that we did something that we didn’t asses the consequences of what would happen. Then when more people go involved because of something you did and it affected them you start to feel yourself getting nervous and feeling guilty for what you did. Just the guilt can leave a memory in year head and make you not do that same thing twice. The punishment was a big statement to make sure the memory or message will stick.
Jane Yolen once said: “Fiction cannot recite the numbing numbers, but it can be that witness, that memory.” Preserving the memories of the horrifying incidents of the Holocaust is the best way to ensure nothing like it ever occurs again. Authors use their novels to try and pass these memories down through generations. Examples of this are the novels Night by Elie Wiesel, and MAUS by Art Spiegelman. The main discussion in these novels revolves around the Holocaust and the violence against Jews. Both have captivating stories and are worthy of recognition, but MAUS is a better novel for educating students. This is because unlike Night it discusses the familial guilt faced by the families of Holocaust survivors. In addition, MAUS gives a visual
In the story if Maus, written by Art Spiegelman, is not only a story about a father’s story of his life in the Holocaust, but one of a father who has horrific problems relating to his son. These issues are shown from beginning to end and in many instances show the complexity of the...
As early as age thirteen, we start learning about the Holocaust in classrooms and in textbooks. We learn that in the 1940s, the German Nazi party (led by Adolph Hitler) intentionally performed a mass genocide in order to try to breed a perfect population of human beings. Jews were the first peoples to be put into ghettos and eventually sent by train to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. At these places, each person was separated from their families and given a number. In essence, these people were no longer people at all; they were machines. An estimation of six million deaths resulting from the Holocaust has been recorded and is mourned by descendants of these people every day. There are, however, some individuals who claim that this horrific event never took place.
Gottfried, Ted. Deniers of the Holocaust: who they are, what they do, and why they do it. Brookfield , Connecticut : Twenty-First Century Books, 2001. Print.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, it is the responsibility of society to understand the loss experienced by the Jews to help prevent mass genocide. While the idea of six million Jews killed in the Holocaust may seem like a lot, it is still just an abstract number to those not concerned with the Holocaust directly. What society needs to understand is that the six million is someone’s mother, son, grandparent, or friend. Those who survived the Holocaust must live with this trauma everyday; for them, it is not just a historic event.2 Innocent Jews were persecuted, tortured, and murdered for their faith and only for their faith. The unimaginable actually happened to them. Once society can understand the loss felt by the Jews, it can learn how to prevent the Holocaust from happening again.
Ian McEwan illustrates a profound theme that builds details throughout the novel Atonement, the use of guilt and the quest for atonement are used with in the novel to convey the central dynamic aspect in the novel. McEwan constructs the emotion of guilt that is explored through the main character, Briony Tallis. The transition of child and entering the adult world, focus on the behavior and motivation of the young narrator Briony. Briony writes passages that entail her attempt to wash away her guilt as well find forgiveness for her sins. In which Briony ruined the lives and the happiness of her sister, Cecilia, and her lover Robbie. The reality of the events, attempts to achieve forgiveness for her actions. She is unable to understand the consequences of the actions as a child but grows to develop the understanding of the consequence with age. McEwan exemplifies an emotional novel that alters reality as he amplifies the creative acts of literature. In this essay I will be arguing that, the power of guilt prevents people from moving on from obstacles that hold them in the past.
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Deniers of the Holocaust: Who They Are, What They Do, Why They Do It. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2001. Print.