How The Pain And Trauma Of The Holocaust Affected Artie And Vladek 's Diasporic Memories

Hillary Chute’s essay “‘The Shadow of a Past Time’: History and Graphic Representation in Maus” addresses the praise and criticisms of Spiegelman’s choice to represent his father’s experiences in the Holocaust as a graphic novel. The author contrasts other critic’s views of the novel with her own, stating that “... Maus, far from betraying the past, engages this ethical dilemma through its form.” (Chute, 201) The ‘ethical dilemma’ in this case, being the potential trivialization of Vladek’s Auschwitz experience by showing it in pictures.

Postmemory affected Art throughout his life because of his father’s dramatic life experiences. Marianne Hirsch describes Postmemory with some hesitation because she thinks that it may imply that we are “beyond memory” and she doesn’t want people to think that’s what she means. Postmemory is different from regular memory because it is caused by generation gaps, like the gap between Art and Vladek. It is “a powerful and very particular form of memory precisely because its connection to its object or source is mediated, not through recollection but through an imaginative investment and creation...Postmemory characterizes the experience of those who grow up dominated by narratives that preceded their birth, whose own belated stories are evacuated by the stories of the previous generation shaped by traumatic events that can be neither understood nor recreated” (Hirsch, 1997: 22).

The perception that all representations are limited in perfectly conveying the absolute past due to the subjectivity and specific purpose of the composer is an acknowledged idea drawn from post-modernist beliefs. In both Mark Baker’s The Fiftieth Gate and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, composers represent past events through making particular choices to communicate the interplay of both history and memory in order to gain a deeper understanding of the past as relevant to one’s identity in the present. Both texts are able to achieve an emotive representation of the Holocaust through memory to gain a deeper subjective understanding of their personal Jewish identity rather than to seek the conventional objective truth. They also successfully demonstrate the value of including historical validation when representing the Holocaust in gaining deeper understanding of how their past shapes their identity.

Spiegelman’s book presents us with a unique way of showcasing a person’s personal experience of a historical occurrence, that being the Holocaust. According to Hatfield, Spiegelman’s manner of sharing this tale is not exactly the best. Hatfield states his disagreements over Spiegelman’s book.

Vladek clearly possessed many resourceful qualities that aided him in surviving the holocaust. Spiegelman helped portray Vladek’s experience with diagrams of the camps, crematorium plans, an actual photo of Vladek and a manual for repairing shoes. By using these visual aids in the novel, it helped the reader to have a better historical understanding of the context. It also assisted the reader in imagining a setting of where this all took place. For example in chapter two, page 60 we see the diagram of Vladek explaining to the readers how he fixed boots and considered himself a shoemaker. Here we can see the quick thinking that he used to get himself out a situation that could have turned sour for the most part. He used his judgement and resourcefulness

Can you imagine what the life likes during the Holocaust? After the Jews through this experience, almost died, just a few Jews survived, and the people who are the survivors, how would their life look like? In Maus, Vladek is a Jew who was through the process of the Holocaust. After the end of WWII, he was one of the rare survivors from the Holocaust. Through the Maus, it is easy to see what did he change from the past to the present and his life after the Holocaust. “Like an atom bomb that disperses its radioactive fallout in distant places, often a long time after the actual explosion, the Holocaust continues to contaminate everyone who was exposed to it in one way or another”( Kellermann). It is not a temporary

“Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky ” (Wiesel 34). History is all about the preservation the of past and never forgetting the memories of those who were lost. For years, Hitler persecuted large numbers of Jews by putting them into concentration camps and slaughtering them by the thousands. In the end, more than five million Jews were killed. Nonetheless there were those who were able to subsist the terrors that Hitler inflicted. Art Spiegelman’s father Vladek and Elie Wiesel are two individuals who were fortunate to live through this period of mass murder. Art Spiegelman, who is responsible for narrating the story of his father, concentrates on the concept that it was not the

Miller, like Glowacka, understands that literature, even fiction, transmits ideas and emotions to the reader which are central to comprehending and learning from traumatic experiences. Miller references Susan Suleiman’s argument that the Holocaust is “only available through representation”. Suleiman made this argument in response to Holocaust deniers who claim that fictitious memoirs confirm the inexistence of the Holocaust. However, the point supports the idea that art, including literature, allows the public to experience something like the Holocaust that otherwise would be not be available to experience.

The Holocaust was a really tragic event that took place in the period from January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945, during the Holocaust about 11 million Jews were killed (Wikipedia) by a german group that saw the Jewish people as an inferior race, the Nazis, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, mercilessly killed all of those unfortunate to be caught. To this day, there are still survivors that witnessed this horrifying event, there are also journals and articles that explain in great detail how the Holocaust survivors were affected physically and psychologically. In the article “The Holocaust and Its Effects on Survivors: An Overview” Paul Chodoff describes how the survivors of the Holocaust were psychologically affected by their horrific experience during the Holocaust. The article “Disorganized Reasoning in Holocaust Survivors” by Abraham Sagi, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Tirtsa Joels, and Miri Scharf compared Holocaust survivors with people who did not experience the Holocaust to see how they were different when it came to psychological health, this was to conclude how the Holocaust survivors were psychologically affected by the Holocaust. “Sense of Coherence Moderates Late Effects of Early Childhood Holocaust Exposure” by Elisheva A.M. von der Hal-van Raalte, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn and Marian J. Bakermans - Kranenburg describes what the children that had survived the Holocaust had to go through to survive and the psychological trauma that scarred them for the rest of their

Leaving 6 million Jews murdered in its wake, the Holocaust is one of the most devastating events to ever occur in history. This horrific work of evil is a moment never to be forgotten, especially by those who lived through the nightmare. With hundreds of stories that have been published about the Holocaust by survivors and their relatives, this time in history is also a learning experience for modern day people. By reading the sorrowful and melancholy tales of Holocaust victims, the people of today grow wiser and more knowledgeable as to prevent something so heinous from reoccurring in the future. However, what shocks many readers is one author’s decision to depict his father’s Holocaust story in the form of a comic book. The comic book format used in both Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman is a new and innovative way to present the atrocities of the Holocaust because it makes the dark concepts of the story easier to understand and opens opportunities for not only displaying, but inspiring new insights among readers.

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, says Spanish philosopher George Satayana. Remembering the past is important, as it affects all present and future outcomes. The first step to remembering the past is acknowledging the facts and what is true. This is seen in the graphic memoir, Maus and Maus II, written by Art Spiegelman. In this book, Spiegelman writes using his and father’s dialogue, in which his father, Vladek, recounts his experiences of the Holocaust. With the importance of these events in mind, in order to accurately depict these experiences Spiegelman tries his best to gather any documentations, such as his mother’s diaries, sketches and diagrams of the camps back then, and a real life photo of Vladek to

Art Spiegelman’s “Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History” is a story within a story. It tells the life of the author’s father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew before, during, and after World War II. As the story of Vladek is told, the tale of a rift is revealed. A rift between Art and Vladek, created by clashing personalities, absence, and the impact of the suicide of Art’s mother and Vladek’s wife. Maus is not just about the Holocaust; it is also about the ramifications afterwards on the already fragmented relationship between a father and son.

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.

Between 1933 and 1945, 11 million people were murdered in the Holocaust, of this six million were Jews and of this, 1.1 million were children. Of the nine million Jews who lived in Europe before the Holocaust, an estimated 2/3 were murdered. Despite all these odds and statistics, Vladek Spiegelman managed to survive, and then share his story with his son, so he could share their story with the world. Another reason that Vladek Spiegelman is a good subject to write a biography on is, his personality. He seems to have to sides to him, Vladek Spiegelman before war and Vladek Spiegelman post - war. We get to see the impact and affect the Holocaust had on it’s victims, with our own eyes. Moreover, Vladek Spiegelman is an inspiration and a reminder of the potential dark side to human nature. Thus, writing a biography on Mr. Spiegelman is informative, moving and above all, inspirational.

The book Maus depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. It, however, do not use the ancient presentation techniques but chooses to use post-modernist features and approaches to discuss and raise the different themes that make the objective of the book efficiently applicable in the society it is placed in. The Jews, as mentioned, are represented as mice while the German and other people in the community served as cats and pigs. Each of these animals has a repressively applicable attribute that relates to the people it represents. The discussion on the animal characterization and this representation of the people will be the focus of this paper. Each animal and its symbolic attributes on how it