Storytelling and tradition a comparison of Maus and The Woman Warrior

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 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)

6. What is the significance of Vladek’s dream about his grandfather? What recurring meaning does “Parshas Truma” have in his life?

After the Holocaust on May 8th, 1945, a book called Maus was released which is revolved around survival. The author, Art Spiegelman intended the story was to reflect upon his past and express his feelings world how he had to deal life was at the time.The book is a story of Art’s father named Vladek, he tells his point-of-view to the world to show multiple struggles he had to withstand. The theme of Art Spiegelman’s book Maus is survival; Art Spiegelman shows the theme of survival by using tone, mood, and point-of-view throughout the graphic novel. Vladek is the main character of Maus and shares his point of view. Vladek tells a true story about how he survived the Holocaust and the things he had to accomplish to make it through alive. This book is based on a true story of what had happened during the Holocaust.

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.

It's obviously showed that with Vladek actions towards people we can understand why they feel so low. Vladek throughout the story, he stresses the importance of his heart (comparing himself of how heroic and very strong he use to be). "It's good for my heart..the pedaling.." (1 12) All the sweat, blood and tears (energy) it took to survive the Holocaust seems to build up and haunt Vladek as present (life now). He needs to know that everyone ages and he has to accept the fact that he's getting old and he cannot be what he once was and that's young again doing all the skillful things he use to do.

Vladek went through the various Nazi genocide stages as brought out by Raul Hilberg. According to Hilberg, the four distinct phases of the Holocaust were identification, economic discrimination, and separation, concentration, and extermination. Although Vladek was not eventually exterminated, his close relatives and friends did not survive the lethal last stage through the various sugar-coated tactics employed by the Germans. The essay will scrutinize these Holocaust stages and relate them to the life events of the Vladek, the main character in Maus 1 and 2 written by Art Spiegelman. The works of other scholars in predicting the impacts of the Holocaust will also be looked at.

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

The books Maus I and Maus II are biographical comic books written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. In these books Spiegelman tells his father’s story of survival through the horrors of the Holocaust. Spiegelman simultaneously presents an inner story of the conflict between him and his father, Vladek Spiegelman as both he and his father try to come to terms with the past, and work to have a normal life. This feelings of tension and conflict suffered by Vladek and Art in Maus I and II is caused by a transitional and rebounding feeling of survivor’s guilt caused by Vladek’s passing down of his own guilt, Art’s guilt of neglect, and Art’s attempts to come to terms with his own guilt of survival.

A powerful and provocative graphic novel, Maus, generates a Jewish individual’s life of grotesque and horror. With its ability of perception and interpretation, it tackles the main points of the ominous Holocaust and delivers a spooky aura to the absorbed audience. In comparison to Schindler’s List, the graphic novel shines brightly than the pale movie due to its realism and humor that is constantly present throughout the storyline. The novel has the ability to connect to the audience; thus, it gives an in-depth look and overall comprehension of the massacre that Spiegelman is trying to communicate. The graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman, brings an honest account of the Holocaust to a wide audience because of its historical truth and intriguing viewpoints and characters that shows the effect and process of the genocide.

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.

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

When one cannot deal with guilt within oneself, the feeling of guilt can be transferred to affect another. Art struggles throughout his life to understand why he never had a great relationship with his father. After trying to write with no luck, Art heads to his regular appointment with Pavel, another Holocaust survivor. Pavel suggests that maybe “(Vladek) took his guilt out on YOU, where it was safe… on the REAL survivor.” (7, p 44) Vladek felt guilty about surviving the Holocaust, but instead of accepting it,

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.

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.