Review of Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman 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)

The tone in Maus is depression; this is shown when Vladek tells the story in his perspective and reveals what kind of events occurred during the Holocaust. This relates to survival because even though Vladek had a feeling of discouragement through his experiences, he still managed to survive. Vladek explains when he was captured as a war prisoner and what they gave them to eat. “The other prisoners get two meals a day. We Jews get only a crust of bread and a little soup.”(Spiegelman, 55) This shows how hard it was for the Jews and how hopeless Vladek’s story was. Another heartbreaking part of the story was when Vladek had to work hard and act as slaves to the

The measures Rama takes in defeating Vali in The Ramayana demonstrate his imperfections and negligence towards his own ethics and alter the way he is portrayed as a “perfect man”. After Vali finished ruminating about who could possibly be at fault for his defeat, he sees Rama’s name engraved on the arrow that had pierced him and proclaims, “Rama, the Lord of culture, breeding, discrimination, and justice. How could you do this? You have destroyed the firm basis of your own virtues” (Narayan 100-101). Vali distinctly demonstrates the anger and confusion he feels towards Rama. He knew that Rama was widely considered to be a perfect man who possessed the clearest of minds, and the greatest morality, justice, and integrity. However, when Rama cowardly hid behind a tree and killed Vali,

“When he went home with too much cash, he had always to take care to hide it in an envelope and shove it under a rood tile. Otherwise she asked too many questions and made herself miserable. She liked to believe that he was reformed and earned the cash he showed her as commission: she never bothered to ask what the commissions were for; a commission seemed to her something absolute.” (Narayan 221). He never wants to allow her to know fully of his actions. The wife knows he must support the family, but originally didn’t agree with the way he used to go about doing this. She remains blissfully ignorant. The irony in the exchanges between his wife is quite evident. His profession isn’t a very honorable one, and he seeks to protect her by hiding what he really does, and at the same time, she probably assumes what he is really doing, and chooses to ignore this.

For instance, the Nazis treat the Jews like animals, no respect is given to them, they are constantly mocked and they are punished for no reason. In particular when Elie loses his name and becomes a digit he feels extremely dehumanized, " I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name." (49). Once he lost his name he feels worthless and non-existent, he is nothing but a number to the Nazis. Furthermore, all of the Jews are tattooed with their new identity, from that point they became inferior to the Nazis, something so simple as a name forced the Jews into feeling less than human. Next, the Jews experience massive changes to their bodies due to starvation when Elie is released he is hospitalized " One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." (115). Elie's self-esteem is so impacted that it changed him mentally, he feels as if the old Elie is dead and he is a whole new person. The struggle he faces in Auschwitz change him so much he no longer recognizes himself, when he looks at himself in the mirror he sees a corpse, not just physically but also dead inside. To sum up, Elie is traumatized by the horrendous things the Nazis make him go through, his self-esteem is so impacted that he transforms into a totally different

One of the most sorrow thing that human would ever have been through is to be treated inhumanity and brutally abused. Like the quote clearly stated, “Band-Aids don’t fix bullet hole”, Holocaust had given the Jews a deep scar that would follow them until they buried down under the ground. The nightmare began when Hitler took over the control and targeted to assassinate 6 millions of alive Jews who were living in Germany. They were all murdered in different ways, it could be starving till death, forced to do overwork or got whipped as a punishment for not working hard. Overall life was tough for them, they were forced to work long hours and lived in a poor conditions. Jews were born to be the target for Hitler and the Nazis to discriminate

The Holocaust. This book is a must-read for many English classrooms as it is a very deep book that shows many examples of paradigm shifts, and it also shows how characteristics of people change over time. It shows the Jewish side of the holocaust and the treatment that they received from the Germans, who were less than hospitable. The story focuses on Elie Wiesel, his father, and the Jews of the camp. There were many times that they were dehumanized in the story, and they affected Elie’s mindset in ways that stayed with him long past his time in the camps.

Guilt doesn’t play a minor role in the graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman. It’s a profoundly important part of his family story. Countless Holocaust survivors experience “survivor’s guilt” at some point of their lives, some live with it for the rest of their existence. The Holocaust was such a tremendous part of somber history, that influenced lives of children whose parents survived it. Like many other children, Art was affected by his parents’ daunting past. There is a deep level of thought provoking accountability for not experiencing what his parents went through. Maus is a skillfully written story about an Auschwitz survivor and the semblance of guilt.

The Holocaust was a traumatizing and depressing time period in history due to the Nazis in the leadership of their dictator Adolf Hitler. The Nazis were a Political Party during World War ΙΙ from 1941 through 1945. Many Jews during this time were discriminated, murdered, and humiliated in front of many other Jews and Germans. “Six million Jews died in a merciless way at the hands of the Nazis” (Sherbok 1). The Holocaust is an unforgettable period in history that left a scar on many Jews including Vladek. Vladek was a Jew and a survivor of the Holocaust that experienced and witnessed several tragedies during this time. The war was

10 seconds on the clock. Mog scoops the ball into his stick and sprints to the goal faster than a cheetah. 9, 8, he dodges right, leaving the defender clueless and confused of what just happened. 7, 6, 5, Mog finds himself in a predicament facing a wall of defenders, yet his toe drag eliminated this as if it was a knife cutting through warm butter. He winds up for a shot aiming for the top, right corner of the goal. 3, 2…wait a minute. You didn’t hear this story already? You must be seriously confused! Let me take you back to the beginning where this all started.

Even though he is the leader his most evil and fatal flaw within him is greed. Greed will be the cause of his downfall. An example of greed portrayed by Thorin can be found on page 330. The text says “Your own we will give back in return for our own” “How came you by it!” shouted Thorin. You can tell by the tone of Thorin that he seems very upset; about the fact that he needs to pay to get the Arkenstone back. But Thorin also displays greed when he sees the Elvenking holding the stone, because he thinks that the Arkenstone must belong to him and no one else can have it; because his great grandfather owns it. Another example of greed displayed by Thorin can be seen on page 335. The text say’s “Long will I tarry, ere I begin this war of gold” said The Elvenking. The Elvenking had a very serious tone when he said this. So you can tell that the atmosphere and the mood at the time were very serious and probably frightening. A war was about to happen because of the greed that Thorin displayed to Bard; when he had to give the gold to him, Thorin then refused. Lastly one more example of greed demonstrated by Thorin can be seen on page 332. The text say’s “And already, so strong was the bewilderment of the treasure upon him, he was pondering whether by the help of Dain he might not recapture the Arkenstone and withhold the share of the reward”. You can tell by the tone of the narrator, that Thorin is already so

Why are comics not appreciated as much as the dry narratives of novels in the literary world? A comic is composed of symbols to express concepts shared by all people in their own social environment, and provide more tools than conventional art to truly show artistic intention.

Since its initial distribution, The Wounded Storyteller by Arthur W. Frank, has utilized an exclusive place within the body of work on the disease. This book has reached an outsized and diverse audience or readers, including the sick, health professionals and scholars of literary theories of sickness. Both the collective portrait which was known as the “remission society” of those who experience some type of disease or disability and a compelling analysis of their stories within a larger framework of the narrative theory. This book presents sick people as wounded storytellers.

With Valli being born in India, it makes it very hard and almost impossible to become a successful and rich person. Also not to become a poor and homeless person picking up and carrying around coal for the rest of her life. In TBDOMY Valli narrates “if you’re a man you work in the mines or the pits, hacking at coal with your pickaxes and shovels.” Valli also narrates “If you’re a woman, you walk up the narrow steep trails with large heavy baskets of

It was almost the feast day, Mako was looking forward to his prize from the king. Every hour he waited he was getting even more curious. Eventually, he laid back and fell fast asleep going deep down into one of his dreams.