Relationship Between Art And Vladek

Spiegelman has presented his father’s memoirs in a creative way by portraying racial groups as animals and by making the story into a graphic novel. By presenting it in comic form, Art Spiegelman is able to better capture the emotions of those in the graphic novel. Not a dedication in the conventional sense, the book eternalizes the memoirs of Vladek and those around him.

Vladek uses skill in order to keep himself healthy. On page 53 is says “Where are you going? -To bathe in the river.” This means that Vladek is risking to get sick and getting hyperthermia even though the river is cold but he wants to remain clean. Another example in on page 53, it says “-you’ve gone crazy! - Brrr, I’ll be clean! And I’ll feel warm all day by comparison. MAny got frostbite wounds, in the wounds were puss, in the puss were lice”. This means that Vladek is willing to risk things including his life to

Vladek has a dream that he will be freed on Parshas Truma. The dream comes true and the day also commemorates his marraige to Anja an the birth of Artie.

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).

Art and Vladek have not been able to connect as much as they would like because of their contentious relationship. When discussing their relationship to Pavel, Art’s avuncular therapist, Art says, “Mainly I remember arguing with him... and being told I couldn’t do anything as well as he could” (II: 44). When Art was young, he never had a chance to truly consociate with Vladek. Vladek was too affected by the Holocaust to become close with Art, and this engendered Art and Vladek’s distant relationship. Since Art has a distant paternal relationship, it forces him to be more independent when Art could have learned a great deal from Vladek. Since they are not close, they are both losing an important part of their life, and this will have a negative effect on both of them. It also is evident that neither worked towards becoming close, as they still misunderstand each other and argue often. During an argument, Vladek says, “Always you’re so lazy! Every job we should do as to do it the right way.” Then, Art replies, “Lazy?! Damn it, you’re driving me nuts!” (II: 21). They continuously have arguments that eradicate any attempt to create a better relationship. Their irreparable differences seem to drive these arguments. When Vladek and Art approach their differences with arguments, it creates a significant burden on their relationship. This burden has caused them to become distant. Since Art is distant with Vladek, he has and is neglecting a great deal of wisdom which can be crucial for him, especially since Vladek survived an enormous genocide of the Jews. Vladek can teach Art to become resourceful, adaptive, and most of all, grateful. These traits can help Art to become a better person in a time where there is no holocaust for Art or anyone else to

To further exacerbate the situation, a typical father son relationship is all about bonding, trust and understanding each other. Seemingly he's not able to do so because of the distress overpowering his brain, he continues to be insensitive to Art. Art can't fathom Vladek and he starts to lose hope by saying to Francois his women, "I mean, I can't even make any sense out of my relationship with my father..how am I supposed to make sense out of Auschwitz?..the Holocaust?" (MAUS 2 14) Art later on start to get the sense of hope again and make better out of worse and asked Vladek questions of his mother Anja. Art finds out that her "diaries" (MAUS 1 159) we're destroyed purposely by Vladek. Not only does Art feel hopeless because his mother is gone but now he can't even share her voice with the world today. There was no way of expressing her

To begin with Vladek did not want to go to the war but he was forced to go to. Vladek was forced to shoot somebody and was forced to do things he didn’t want to do during the

Humans relationships are full of up and downs, and in this book we can clearly see the struggle between Artie and his father relationship. All around the book we can sense a tension between father and son .On his journey to try to tell his father’s story, Artie discovered much more of his father personality and what is related to his terrible experiences from the war. Through the book Spieglman is always showing the conflicts between them, exposing his father tough personality and how he was always trying to impose his will on Artie. Therefore, we could observe that Vladek had an authoritarian parent style. Authoritarian parents usually don’t express love and affection well but they are very high on discipline. Spieglman, could started

The main characters are people who want to survive but there is a long and difficult way in front of them which they will have to conquer. However, they have already adapted to this kind of life and they are survivors. This page is interesting and admirable because of the middle panel where the readers can see Anja and Vladek from behind going in the unknown direction. They are singled out because other survivors seem to know where they are going because one of the people says: “We’ll be hiding at this address. When you find a safe place, try to contact us, Vladek” (Spiegelman 125). The survivors care about the well-being of one another. Anja and Vladek are depicted from the upper angle which implies their vulnerability and the fact that they have no shelter. There is nowhere to go and the only path is through the road in the shape of the swastika. It is clear that they are the survivors of the Holocaust, but it does not mean that they have solved all of their problems. They are alive and they have to find new life now which is going to be difficult. It can be observed from the panel that they are elegant and brave people and they are Art’s parents. They are holding hands, because their intimacy is all they have and they are probably wearing all of the clothes they possess. It is obvious that they were people who were not poor, but the Holocaust happened and made them lose their

Both characters allow their pasts to run their lives. Unfortunately, how they act not only affects them but, affects their relationships with the people around them. Neither have any sort of charisma that inspire people to want to be around them. Instead they both wallow in their pasts. Both characters were very different people before their events and never really return to themselves. The events without a doubt altered the course of their lives and changed them for the worst. Fortunately for both the events happened when they were relatively young giving them plenty of time for redemption and making amends. Libby redeems herself by investigating her families’ murder and finally finding out the truth. Vladek tries to repair a broken relationship with his son Artie but, in the end falls short when his last word in book two is his dead son’s name.

(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 innovative and passionate presence in both Jackson Pollock’s and Wassily Kandinsky avant-garde paintings exemplifies the redefinition of boundaries throughout their art making practices. Both artists challenged traditions both materially and conceptually using innovative and diverse approaches to materials and techniques when painting. Wassily Kandinsky goes against traditions and academies to create vivid, sensual and symbolic large-scale semi abstract expressionist oil paintings in a heightened state of mind. Many artworks of his convey bright and cheerful spontaneous colours that make the audience fully consumed within his works due to hypnotic and distorted semi realist shapes. Consequently, Jackson Pollock also goes against

Art and Vladek’s atypical relationship showcase the division created by the holocaust various different ways. Art immediately paints a picture of a; weak, frail, old man, who had

Although Art can’t feel exactly the same guilt his father felt, Art still feels guilt for not having suffered as his parents did. Art never had to live through what his parents did; therefore he does not know what the Holocuast was like. Sitting at his desk, Art proclaims “At least fifteen foreign editions are coming out. I’ve gotten 4 serious offers to turn my book into a T.V. special or movie. In May 1968 my mother killed herself. (She left no note)” (5, p 41). The disjointed nature of Art’s statement portrays his guilt in the sense that no matter what he accomplishes, his life will be insignificant in comparison to his parents’. Because he cannot accept that he will never experience what his parents have, Art has difficulty ever feeling accomplished and instead just feels more guilt. Both Vladek and Art struggle to let go of their pasts as they both find themselves consumed with what has happened rather than what is yet to come.

Vladek too appears to feel guilty about having survived the Holocaust. As Spiegelman’s guilt continues he visits a man named Pavel and the two discuss the guilt and what it means to be a Holocaust "survivor." Pavel suggests that Vladek himself actually felt a sense of guilt for having survived the Holocaust whilst so many of his friends and family did not. And maybe Vladek took this guilt out on Art the "real survivor" as Pavel calls him.