A Survivor Feeling Guilty of His Survival Essay

Vladek is depicted as a hero who shows countless acts of selflessness and generosity and a villain who is, “opinionated, tight-fisted, and self-involved”. (Brown 6) Art Spiegelman’s book Maus, tells the story of how Vladek and Anja Spiegelman survived the Holocaust. Spiegelman illustrates Vladek as a man who single-handily saved his family from starvation and Auschwitz in World War I. During Spiegelman’s interviews, we get an idea of Vladek’s darker side since the war ended. Mala to speak of her astonishment and disgust in Vladek’s character. Which leaves us to question how truthfully these stories are being told. In the end, Vladek’s unsuccessful heroism is a constant reminder of his failure; survival with Anja was always easier, after her death, Vladek pushes everyone away with his “guilt and manipulation” (Brown 7)

When one loses someone or something valuable to them, the grief can be intense. But what happens when what they lose is actually a piece of them? Novels depicting a witness account of The Holocaust (1941 - 1945) paint a picture of the violence and moral anguish, which is accompanied by a loss to the protagonist. The plot shows a process of events that ultimately leads to death and devastation. Both protagonists in Elie Wiesel’s Night and Wladyslaw Szpilman’s The Pianist gradually fall into the abyss of inhumane behaviour. Post Holocaust, they embark on a new life free from social restraints and become either unmindful or compliant to the losses they faced on their journey. Elie and Wladyslaw

In chapter one of book II Art reveals that he feels extremely guilty about not having to go through the Holocaust like his father did and says "Somehow, I wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents so I could really know what they lived through! …I guess it's some form of guilt about having had an easier life than they did"(Spiegelman, MausII,16).

Certain relationships cannot be fixed because of irreconcilable differences. Art Spiegelman's graphic novels Maus I and Maus II retell the stories of the Holocaust through the eyes of Art’s father, Vladek. However, the novel includes a subplot of Art’s poor relationship with his father, and how they never seem to come to coincide. Vladek and Art misunderstand each other because they have had very different experiences. In addition, their relationship is distant and contentious because they cannot cope with one another. Vladek and Art’s relationship is inadequate because they cannot be of one mind.

survive. People will usually not feel the effects of guilt or pain at that moment in time because it was for their own sake to live. During the Holocaust, everybody thought they were going to die in the concentration camps, that death was inevitable in the camps, so surviving alongside their family members or by themselves as much as they could was the end goal. Many people changed mentally and physically because of what they experienced during their time in the camps, which could be the cause of some regrettable actions that could have been prevented if the person did not experience such brutal treatment by the Nazis. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the author writes

The Holocaust, yet another unpleasant time in history tainted with the blood and suffering of man. Human beings tortured, executed and starved for hatred and radical ideas. Yet with many tragedies there are survivors, those who refused to die on another man’s command. These victims showed enormous willpower, they overcame human degradation and tragedies that not only pushed their beliefs in god, but their trust in fellow people. It was people like Elie Wiesel author of “Night”, Eva Galler,Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser, and Solomon Radasky that survived, whose’ mental and physical capabilities were pushed to limits that are difficult to conceive. Each individual experiences were different, but their survival tales not so far-reaching to where the fundamental themes of fear, family, religion and self-preservation played a part in surviving. Although some of these themes weren’t always so useful for survival.

The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.

In Art Spiegelman’s graphical novel Maus his demonstration of the Holocaust and its recollection in Maus was very emotional, affecting and the most expressing. The approach that the author has taken construes and magnifies the comical shape of telling history. It portrays Spiegelman dialog between himself and his father about his happenings as holocaust and polish jew survivor. Most of the narrative specifically focuses on Spiegelman 's difficult connection with his father, and the nonappearance of his mother who committed suicide when he was 20.In this essay I will be examining the experience of trauma and memory in Maus. Also I will be showing how the pain and trauma of the Holocaust affected Artie and Vladek 's diasporic memories. Trauma usually describes the association with chronological or combined traumatic proceedings to experiences that happen to others. These occasions are internalized circuitously through images, and stories and other recaps and reminders of their family’s occurrences. Spiegelman also investigates and addresses the load and legacy of distressing reminiscence on second-generation survivors. In the narrative Maus discovers and documents this behavior of dual memory. Throughout the story Art talks about the state of affairs in which his father’s reminiscences are expressed. The chronological and personal trauma produced by the Holocaust, and by simplifying the reintegration of the following generation to its past.

After experiencing tragic events, emotions can cause people to question their own life. This is shown in the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, where he shares his experiences during the Holocaust. After being transported to Birkenau, Elie and his father are chosen to work, instead of being burned in the crematoria. Elie experiences brutal conditions, deaths, and injuries, but he still stays strong. During the time of the Holocaust, Elie and other prisoners had to deal with severe and disturbing circumstances, which results in emotionally giving up during this hardship.

Early in this graphic novel the reader encounters a tension between Vladek and his son, Artie. In the opening sequence the reader is told that Artie has not visited his father in two years, even though they lived very close, and details the status of their relationship. There are two types of guilt in this novel; survivors guilt which laid the foundation for family guilt.

Reality television shows have been a craze in America over the last few years. Shows like Survivor, Big Brother, The Bachelor, Fear Factor have been flooding the channels. Survivor is not only flooding the channels, but also stands out in its context and its ability to survive the ratings. Survivor is a reality game show, where sixteen contestants are dropped on an island or a desolate location and have to learn to survive in nature and the elimination votes of their fellow castaways. A show generally consists of one award challenge where the two different teams compete for an award and an immunity challenge where they see which team has to go to tribal council to vote a member off. The challenge these contestants must endure is "how to

(pg. 39, The Perversion of Loss) He feels guilty about having been born after the Holocaust, and that his parents had to live through it, while his life has been easy. This strains Art and pushes him further away from his father, when he asks himself which of his parents he would save from a concentration camp he tends to pick his mother. This guilt is visible when Art is talking to his wife and tells her that he “somehow wishes he could have be in Auschwitz with his parents, so he could really know what they lived through.”

The holocaust has effected more lives than anybody could imagine, the tragedy has not only affected those who were there or primarily affected but those of every generation to come after that. This illustrated by Art and Vladek’s inability to get along, Vladek’s personality quirks, Anja’s suicide, Art’s guilt, are all factors that contributed to the rocky family relationship the Spieglemans had, and are all due to the horrors of the holocaust. The horrors of which did not end when the Nazi’s were defeated in WW2, rather continuing to have an impact on further generations, in which all of their stories will never be

Art’s choice to include a 2-page prologue before the beginning of the book proper helps to very clearly illustrate the relationship that Art and Vladek have had up until the beginning of the book. Art is abandoned by his friends, and his father attempts to comfort him, however this appears to Art, and therefore the reader, as more of a comparison between Vladek’s experiences during the holocaust and Art’s childhood suffering, especially with the mention of “no food for a week”, which Art has utilised to create a sense of emotional distance, of an incompatibility between the two.

Guilt is defined as an emotion of regret or accountability for some offense, which drives a person to make amends in some way. Shame is defined as a painful emotion arising from the consciousness of committing something immoral. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, is a novel that is filled with various examples of guilt and shame. Guilt is especially important because the symbolic meaning of the story contains illustrations of both collective and personal guilt. This emphasis on guilt begs the question: “How can the novel, The Reader, be seen as a study in collective and personal guilt?” The Reader can be seen as a study in collective and personal guilt because it shows how Hanna and Michael represent the guilt of Germans communally and individually.