In his graphic novel, Spiegelman uses a literary device known as anthropomorphism to show the difference between races, including Americans, the Germans, and the Jews. This device makes the severe issue seem simpler to understand, and the readers pay more attention to the ideas expressed by the author. In Maus, Spiegelman portrays the horrors of the holocaust and reminds the readers that the holocaust’s victims and survivors also had their own lives and dreams.
The first section to be discussed is Chapter 1 – “The Sheik.” In this section, the main character Artie asks his father Vladek to tell him about his life during the war. Instead of describing the horrors Vladek faced during the holocaust, he prefers to tell his son about his happy and careless life in 1935 (Spiegelman, 1980, pp. 13-23). This desire to recall the good old days proves that the victims of the war prefer to remember the pleasant times.
The second section is Chapter 3- “Prisoner of War.” In this part of the novel, Vladek talks about the first events he witnessed as a soldier. Interestingly, Vladek remembers the name of a soldier he killed, and this detail shows that even during the terrible events, one’s brain catches the small and unmeaningful things (Spiegelman, 1980, p. 50). Finally, Vladek says that he was reunited with his family, and this event matters more than what he experienced as a prisoner of war.
The third part to analyze is Chapter 5 – “Mouse Holes.” This section shows that, for many mice, war is a series of difficult decisions that must be made in order for them to try to survive (Spiegelman, 1980). Even when parents learn about the death of their children, they need to keep a cold mind so as not to get caught by the cats.
To draw a conclusion, one may say that this graphic novel is a unique literary work about World War II. In these comic drawings, Spiegelman managed to portray the horrors of the holocaust and those little but meaningful things that supported the victims and helped some of them to remain hopeful. Despite the fact that the war was full of violence and murders, the author shows the irony of the situation – the Germans are just animals who imagine they are better than others.
Reference
Spiegelman, A. (1980). Maus: A survivor’s tale. Penguin Books.
One choice that demonstrates the author’s theoretical awareness well is the concluding scene in the first chapter of Maus, when the narrator’s father warns him not to disclose what he told about his youth. It demonstrates that Spiegelman is rhetorically aware of the fact that most of his audience would not have first-hand knowledge of the Holocaust and, for them, it would be just a page from history books. By reiterating the amorous adventures of the main character’s youth, he manages to make him more understandable, relatable, and, despite him being depicted as a mouse, more human. This rhetorical choice allows the audience, which would most likely not know about the Holocaust beyond the high school history class, to connect to the topic on a more personal level.
Moreover, the very fact of including this scene in the chapter endows it with a confessional quality. Within the scene, the father asks the narrator to omit what he just told because it has nothing to do with the Holocaust, signifying it as personal information. However, by virtue of reading the chapter, the readers already know that the narrator does not keep his promise because the story is right there, told through both drawings and text. Once again, adding this scene demonstrates Spiegelman’s awareness that most of his audience would not have a direct and personal connection to the Holocaust. Yet, by including this scene, the author makes the audience feel as if they have been let onto something personal and intimate, which fosters a better connection to the topic. Thus, the choice to include the episode with the narrator’s father asking to omit the stories of his youth is rhetorically aware in more than one sense.
Survivor’s guilt is when a person feels guilty for surviving a life-threatening situation when others didn’t. Veterans are some of the people who face guilt and blame. Holocaust survivors, responders, and people who have experienced traumatic events, among others, also suffer from this type of guilt. The survivors tend to question why they survived an event, and others do not, asking themselves what they could have done to help the victims. Survivors’ guilt can be handled by connecting with others, including family and support groups, and accepting the feelings (De Leon 4). One may cope with guilt by processing the issue and allowing the mind to heal from the trauma. It can be accomplished using mindful techniques like breathing exercises during the flashbacks and practicing self-care like engaging in sports and taking long or short walks, among others. In Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, guilt is the main theme depicting how survivor’s guilt can be detrimental using the main character, Maus’, experiences following the Holocaust.
An Overview of Events and Characters concerning Guilt
Maus details Spiegelman’s father’s story Vladek about his experiences as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. The story runs parallel with the story of Spiegelman’s numerous interactions with his father during his visits to record his memories (Gavrilă 61). The characters in the comic are presented as animals used to highlight the author’s point of view. The dogs represent the Americans, the Cats stand for the Germans, and the Jews are depicted as mice (Gavrilă 61). Maus bases his story on the terrifying facts about the Holocaust, which saw the systematic genocide of millions of Jews that was carried out by the Nazi regime in World War II (Gavrilă 63). Maus represents the Second-generation literature about the Holocaust written from the perspective of the survivor’s children as told by their survivor’s parents (De Leon 10). It is a way for the children to connect with their family’s past, which is a Jewish tradition.
Maus’ Guilt
Guilt greatly consumes the victim’s life, but it is one way of learning from their and other people’s experiences. Spiegelman, through Maus, talks about his guilt for not suffering from the Holocaust like his parents and stepmother did (De Leon 5). He is guilty of the fact that his life is way better than theirs because by the time he grew up, the nightmare was over, and he wasn’t directly affected by the Holocaust (De Leon5). The guilt makes him feel disappointed, and through his experiences, a survivor’s tale is developed. In this case, Maus feels bad that he did not go through the Holocaust like his family members. He wishes he had joined in with the terror survivors. Using the character of Maus, Spiegelman shows how survival is highly-priced through the lens of his father’s experiences.
Levels and Causes of Guilt
Maus talks about guilt and blame on two levels, the first being the individual part. In a personal case, the Holocaust victims try to come to terms with their guilt of surviving the ordeal when others died in camps. Maus, through the comic, explains the Holocaust through his father’s experience, and we see that it was not an easy place to come out because of the horrors and mistreatment in the concentration camps (De Leon 4). The people who went through the experience directly are guilty because they watched their loved ones, and they feel like the ones who died deserved to live more than them.
In life, some cultural artifacts and symbols are used to remind people of their duty to self and community. The concentration camps made it such that individuals had to think about their need to survive and their sense of responsibility to others (Gavrilă 63). This means that in the camp, it didn’t matter if it was your child/sister/ mother who was next on the line to die; the most important thing was an individual’s survival, which further demonstrates their guilt. Maus’ narration involves the character of Vladlek on a stationary bike (Spiegelman 11). The stationary bike symbolizes the impact of survivor’s guilt on an individual (Gavrilă 67). The person keeps trying to move forward, but the pain keeps pushing them back. Even though he survived the Holocaust, Vladlen is still guilty of the fact that other people did not survive like him.
In some cases, individuals may feel guilty as a group rather than individually. The second level of guilt, the collective one, is when the children of the holocaust victims feel guilty over not sharing their parent’s experiences (De Leon 13). This resembles Maus’ character, who had to question the reasons why the Holocaust had to happen, who, apart from the Nazis, were involved, and why the whole world couldn’t intervene to rescue the victims. The stories were passed down to them by their parents, making both of them get troubled by the same trauma (Gavrilă 69). The children felt angry about the situation, and some pushed for the survivors’ justice to get over the guilt. This is the reason why there are memorial days. The days are used to reflect on what happened during the Holocaust, and the people get to learn from others’ experiences to know what they would have done differently.
Spiegelman may have been born after the world war but is guilty of the fact that he was awakening the pain and digging into the wounds of his father, making him recount the pain of the Holocaust. He feels even guiltier because he will get to sell and make a profit from talking about the people’s pain, knowing that they won’t ever get justice and the Holocaust shouldn’t have happened (Spiegelman 33). Maus explains the Nazi ideology and consequences, which showed that they saw the Jews as sub-humans who were not worthy of ethical consideration. The Holocaust shows how weak ethics and morality are when truly tested and how bonds like friendship and family are broken. This is evident when one has to think about whether to consider the relationship they have with others or survive something like the Holocaust.
In the concentration camps, Vladlek gives Spiegelman a picture of how poor the conditions were. There was inhumane treatment with little food, and people were treated like objects of no value. The goal of victims like Valdek was to survive the Holocaust. That is why he accepted being drafted to go into different camps where life may not have been better, but he was treated differently in the concentration camp (Gavrilă 69). He was later released and managed to get his business back, but that did not mean that he could forget the people he lost in the camps.
The Therapeutic Role of Storytelling
Storytelling plays a therapeutic role in the lives of the victims. The holocaust victims, just like Spiegelman and Vladlek, were encouraged to talk about their experiences to help them heal. Talking about their experiences to the children not only connects their children with their past and makes them appreciate the struggles of the survivors but also aids in the push for justice and reconciliation. It allows the other generations to learn what to expect from fellow human beings and helps them strive to be better individuals (De Leon 9). These stories should be told by both the Nazi generation and the Jew generations to push for reconciliation. The surviving Holocaust victims need to be given a platform to speak about their experiences to expose the rot in the justice system and find answers for the ones who did not.
Conclusion
In conclusion, survivor’s guilt arises from surviving horrifying situations that would have almost led to death. These instances can occur at any time in a person’s life. The main challenge is in overcoming such feelings, especially when one feels separated from society in one way or another. Although some people may try to handle this guilt on their own, seeking support from caring individuals such as family and friends would help. Maus is a comical narration of a survivor who happens to be Spiegel man’s father. Maus is the main character affected by guilt resulting from his not participating in the Holocaust. His family members are considered to be survivors of what they endured, while Maus blames himself for not being present in the tribulations. Through this story, therapy for Holocaust victims can be realized.
Works Cited
De Leon, Danielle. “‘My Father Bleeds History’: Survivor’S Guilt and Filial Inadequacy in Art Spiegelman’S Maus: A Survivor’S Tale and E.L. Doctorow’S The Book of Daniel.” Wonderer, 2020. Web.
Gavrilă, Ana-Maria. “Holocaust Representation and Graphical Strangeness in Art Spiegelman’S Maus: A Survivor’S Tale: “Funny Animals,” Constellations, And Traumatic Memory.” Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Communicatio, vol 4, no. 1, 2017, pp. 61-75.
The two most shocking stories that depict the life paved with sufferings in the most explicit way, The Dew Breaker and Maus do have much in common. Because of the air of despair that the two stories are pierced through with, they seem to have many points of contact. Despite the seeming difference in the details of each of the seven stores, there is the invisible and almost intangible connection between the seven parts of the book.
It is quite peculiar that the Ka family, appearing in the first story, is intertwined with Nadine’s life further on, as Danticat moves further on in his story of a million of lives making the elements of the whole. Another peculiar connection that can be made here is the sequence of events occurring in Michel’s life. Once appearing as a tenant sharing a dwelling with Dany, this character further on appears in Monkey’s Tail for the readers to see the way this personality develops.
When Life Goes in Spirals
Art Spiegelman had seated himself in the chair comfortably and was watching Edwidge Dandicat browse through Maus. Dandicat lifted his eyes and nodded.
“It burns my fingers. Literally.” He fell silent for a moment, and then added, “And my eyes, too.”
“Have you ever asked yourself a question, what’s the point of this mental torture?” Spiegelman wondered. “What is the use of reviving the most painful experience of the past?”
“That is the question,” Dandicat agreed in a mock-Shakespearean manner. “In fact, this helps to reevaluate the event of the past, see some people in the other way. That is a way to shed some light on the situation. That’s what happens in Maus, If I am not mistaken. It is much like the story told in Maus in a train, the one about “one fellow’s cousin what lived in Germany” (Spiegelman 33)”
“I agree,” Spiegelman nodded. “That was your idea in The Book of Dead. This is all about the attempts to understand the past and make the other see it with your own eyes. As your character, Ka, said, “It was hardly revolutionary, rough and not too detailed, minimalist at best, but it was my favorite of all my attempted representations of my father” – that is rather fine definition of what we have created, isn’t it?”
“Exactly,” Dandicat said.
What Makes One Cause Pain
Ridden with pan and sorrow, both stories not only tell about the sufferings of the victims, but also reveal certain traits of their torturers’ character. One of the most crucial problems of the two stories is the answer to the question, “What makes those people torture the others?”
The answer, plain and terrifying, is lying on the surface. It is all the fear that makes these butchers pursue heir victims and cause them pain. Once the torturers disobey, they will share the fate of their victims, and this is the main reason for the brutes to continue committing their crimes: “This man who cut my face,” he continues, “I shot and killed him, like I killed many people.” (Dandicat 22)
In Quest for Hope
Despite the terrible things that occur in The Dew Breaker, it still seems that there is some hope left. Learning to understand what makes people fear and act against their will, one can see the ways to fight the both. The Dew Breaker helps to deal with the reader’s own fears and overcome them, which means that there is still some hope for happiness to come.
Works Cited
Edwidge Danticat. The Dew Breaker. New York City, NY: Vintage Books, 2007. Print.
The Holocaust of the Jewish nation during World War II is one of the most tragic episodes in the history of mankind. Literature, as a form of art created to reflect the reality as such addresses the topic of the Holocaust rather often, but the means of its depicting typically remain the same, as scholars resort to documentation overview and historical analysis. The short stories Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman are the examples of the innovative, not traditional approach to the topic of the Holocaust. In his Maus II, Art Spiegelman depicts the legacy of Holocaust using the animal images and comic book techniques.
The interesting point about the short story by Art Spiegelman is the fact that this work of art uses the comic book technique to represent the events of the past and their effects upon the present. Depicting the controversial feelings of Art, one of the main heroes of Maus II, Art Spiegelman tries not only to reflect his personal memories about his family’s being among the prisoners of Auschwitz, but also reflects on the complexity of guilt experienced by his generation: “I guess it’s some kind of guilt about having had an easier life than they did…” (Speigelman (1993) as cited in Lauter, 2009, p. 780). Thus, apart from the historical perspective, Art Speigelman considers the moral and emotional perspectives of Holocaust.
The memory of the next generation, in relation to the generation that lived through World War II and the Holocaust, is a crucial concept in the present. Therefore, Art Spiegelman shows how much the people that did not see the horrors of Auschwitz want to save the memories of their parents, and how difficult, at the same time, it is for them to reproduce the memories of actual Auschwitz prisoners: “Reality is too complex for comics…so much has to be left out or distorted” (Speigelman (1993) as cited in Lauter, 2009, p. 781). The example of this controversy of wishes and actual opportunities is Art with whose considerations and moral dilemmas Maus II begins.
Analysis of the issue of the legacy of the Holocaust is a complex task. It involves understanding the nature of the people’s experiences about the Holocaust as well as the mentality of next generations that display certain guilt for being placed into easier living conditions than their parents and grandparents. The example of Art from Maus II can serve as a bright illustration to this point. Being a son of the former Auschwitz prisoner Vladek, Art tries to reflect his father’s experiences in a comic book but soon realizes that alone he is unable to render the actual emotions and pain of the Holocaust as he did not experience it. So, he is partly afraid of distorting the truth or being forced to drop certain details. Here, the legacy of the Holocaust is observed again; this time in the mentality of people.
Thus, the short story Maus II by Art Spiegelman is not only a comic book considering the Holocaust experiences of the author’s father Vladek, but also an insight into the mind of the next generations of people some of who often have respect for Holocaust victims, while others feel free to interpret the events of the World War II without confirmation from those who actually know the truth.
Works Cited
Lauter, Paul (Gen. Ed.) The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Contemporary Period (1945 to the Present). Cengage Heinle, 2009. Print.
The novel begins with a young writer called Art, asking his father about his World War II experiences so that he can record them and come-up-with a book regarding those experiences. Intertwined throughout the story is the turbulent and pragmatic relationship between Art and his elderly father. His father’s story starts when he met Anja (Art’s mother), who committed suicide after the warfare.
This was the root of the overwrought relationship that existed between Vladek and his son because he held his father responsibly. Vladek is affected by the Holocaust specter which partially leads to personal traits like aversion to waste and tightfistedness; this infuriates and aggravates his son. Their relationship is continually strained because of these traits/qualities; the pressure also burdens Art.
Vladek and Art are not friendly or close: they are not comfortable with each other. Art feels guilty because he thinks that he does not treat his father as he ought to. Art says that, he is not close to his father and that he has not seen him for some time. In a different scene, Art smashes his roller skate and his friends end up skating without him: this happens to many children all over the world and parents comfort them when confronted with such a situation.
In Art’s case, his father starts to evaluate that situation in-reference-to the Holocaust (Spiegelman, 102). Vladek seemed like he compares everything to the Holocaust and this strained his relationship with the son. Art was also obsessed with the Holocaust because those thoughts filled his father’s mind. Their relationship was not an easy one and they did not feel close like fathers and sons ought to be; Art felt guilty about it. The quilt is a central theme in the story.
The topic of World War II is not easy to discuss or display. Such works are often subjected to severe criticism for their relevance to reality (Kohli 4). Particularly close attention is paid to the deviation of the narrative from any generally accepted canons in content and form. Art Spiegelman’s Maus belongs to the latter type, as it presents the reader with a story about the life of a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust in the unusual form of a graphic novel.
However, despite the chosen environment’s unusualness to reflect such topics, Spiegelman uses its features to his advantage. Considering the format selected by the author, this work should be examined precisely in the context of a visual rather than a purely textual narrative (Ewert 87). Graphical display of events allows switching between two time periods without losing the narrative’s coherence, even if one timeline suddenly interrupts the other. Thus, Spiegelman uses graphic means to convey the narrative in more detail, paying attention to critical points and developing characters who think about the story being told right during the retelling. This essay aims to research this graphic novel using additional sources to support the thesis put forward.
Several vital elements characterize Maus’s graphic form. First of all, a distinctive feature of the work is the use of anthropomorphic animals as characters, while the type of animal depends on nationality. Thus, Jews are represented as mice, and Germans are portrayed as cats. The riskiness of such a step, which may be associated with national stereotypes, is justified by the need to vividly visualize the horrors of the Holocaust (Gavrilă 61). Secondly, as mentioned above, there are two timelines in the novel, the first of which takes place in the present relative to the author of the time, and the second is the memories of one of the characters.
The story is recorded from the words of Vladek Spiegelmann by his son Artie, whose names coincide with the names of the author himself and his father. Artie’s father is a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, so this story aims to convey the story of the Nazi invasion (Spiegelman 23). Already here, one can note the skillful use of the graphic form of the novel. Anthropomorphic animals’ use does not make the story more childish but instead expresses specific subtext (Munk 55). The choice of animals implicitly indicates the relationship between the Nazis and the Jews since the former hunted the latter in the same way as their animal counterparts.
However, to analyze Maus more deeply, it is necessary to turn to how the narrative is structured. First of all, one can note the presence of the author’s voice in the form of Vladek and gaps in the text (Rajkhowa 45). Transitions from one timeline to another are a crucial element of the narrative, as they are almost always associated with Vladek’s comments on the situation. Most of the story takes place in the past tense; however, Artie and Vladek periodically interrupt it with their lines, asking questions to comment on what is happening.
One of the first manifestations of this technique can be seen already in the book’s first pages. Behind such moments, the direct reaction of the characters to the described events is hidden and the assessment or reassessment of what is happening. The first example of this behavior can be noted when Artie asks his father an awkward question about the nature of Vladek and Lucia’s relationship (Spiegelman 15). Although Vladek responds with just one line, the reader can see the character’s regret for what happened thanks to the graphic display. The father recalls moments of his life, rethinking them and admitting his mistakes.
Such moments make the characters much more alive and turn Vladek from a storyteller into a living person who doubts his deeds and sometimes interrupts the story because of everyday trifles. A man can be distracted, for example, by fallen ash, thereby showing himself as a character with his own emotions and attitude (Spiegelman 52). Often, Vladek is quite strict both to his son and those around him. Besides, in his everyday comments, a reader can see the traits of a Holocaust survivor, for example, in an uncompromising attitude towards money, which saved his life many times, or leftover food (Merino). For a person who has gone through tremendous hardships, waste of food or a frivolous attitude towards things is unacceptable.
However, even more essential breaks in the narrative are those that directly or indirectly emphasize Vladek’s ability to survive under challenging conditions. For example, describing his life as a prisoner-worker, the father notes that some prisoners could not bear the hard work and returned to the cold camp to starve. However, Vladek notes that he does not know what became of them, thereby hinting that he had enough strength to work and survive even under the Germans’ yoke (Spiegelman 56). Later, having already lived in the ghetto with his wife, Vladek began to sell various items and stealthily delivering sugar to shops. Vladek comments that despite the immense danger of being hanged, even when he was caught, he managed to wriggle out, pretending to have a grocery store (Spiegelman 85). Such moments show the character’s assessment of his actions, which helped him survive.
There are also abundant moments of reevaluation and rethinking of the spoken words. Vladek’s memories are quite heavy, and he retells them either reluctantly or with a heavy sadness. So, for example, at the moment of grief of the father’s wife for relatives who ended up in a concentration camp, the narration is interrupted, while Vladek from the “modern” timeline repeats the words he said many years ago (Spiegelman 122). At other times, Vladek had to sacrifice his interests to survive and ensure his wife’s survival. Despite facing insults towards Jews, the man maintained his disguise using a fascist greeting (Spiegelman 149). Through an assessment of the past events, one can emphasize the courage and dedication of Vladek, who hid right in the enemy’s lair, using only his arrogance and cunning. However, in many cases, he had to be ruthless and manipulative for his survival, lying to the people (Ketchum Glass 16). Through the available visualization, the reader can see that Vladek regrets many of his actions but considers them necessary.
Thus, most of the moments when the narrative is interrupted by the words of Artie or Vladek communicating with his son serve several purposes. First, Vladek gives the reader his assessment of his ability to survive, allowing him to understand him as a character better. Besides, a man periodically shows his perspective and doubts it, hesitating about the correctness of certain decisions. Finally, such moments are sometimes associated with how a man survived and with simple, everyday trifles that reveal him as a character – courage, resourcefulness, and perseverance. Through interactions in the “modern” timeline, the reader can better understand what Vladek went through, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the depth of the tragedy of the Jewish people in World War II. Thus, Spiegelman’s graphic means are an effective way of conveying the author’s thoughts, which would otherwise need to be expressed in a large number of detailed descriptions. Using the graphic novel format, Spiegelman made a much shorter but no less meaningful story than full-fledged text novels, replacing some of the text tools with graphics and illustrations.
Works Cited
Ewert, Jeanne C. “Reading Visual Narrative: Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”.” Narrative, vol. 8, no. 1, 2000, pp. 87-103.
Gavrilă, Ana-Maria. “Holocaust Representation and Graphical Strangeness in Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale:“Funny Animals,” Constellations, and Traumatic Memory.” Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Communicatio, vol. 4, 2017, pp. 61-75.
Ketchum Glass, Susannah. “Witnessing the Witness: Narrative slippage in Art Spiegelman’s Maus.” Life Writing, vol. 3, no. 2, 2006, pp. 3-24.
Kohli, Puneet. “The Memory and Legacy of Trauma in Art Spiegelman’s Maus.” Prandium: The Journal of Historical Studies at U of T Mississauga, vol. 1, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1-23.
Merino, Ana. “Memory in Comics: Testimonial, Autobiographical and Historical Space in MAUS.” Transatlantica. Revue d’études américaines. American Studies Journal, vol. 1 (2010).
Munk, Tea-Maria. “The Holocaust in Pictures: Maus and the Narrative of the Graphic Novel.” Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English, vol. 2, 2018, 54-59.
Rajkhowa, Baishalee. “Multimodal Stylistics in Graphic Novel: Understanding the Visual Language Syntax in Art Spiegelman’s Maus.” International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, vol. 4, no. 1, 2021, pp. 45-51.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History. Pantheon, 1986.