Vladek 's Double Personality : What The Jewish People Endured After The Concentration Camps?

Maus, by Art Spiegelman, shows the trials and tribulations that the main character, Vladek, and his companions suffered during the Holocaust. No matter the situation, Vladek rises up to the challenge, and does the only thing he can do: live. For the Jewish people during that time surviving was a challenge and for those that actually survived was pure luck. Throughout Maus we find this survival in the portrayal of Vladek Spiegelman; father of the author. Vladek resourcefulness helps him survive because of his knowledge of different languages, skills to work on anything, and initiative to make trades with others allows him to survive the years that he was trap in the Holocaust.

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)

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.

There are many ways the Holocaust affected Vladek’s personality traits and behavior. A huge catastrophic event like the Holocaust can cause one to have emotional damage that could cause them to act a certain way after being mistreated for so long. Trauma is a result of going through a terrible experience at a certain point in your life. It is almost inevitable that there will be some type of mental issue after experiencing such a horrible event. There is no doubt that some of Vladek’s personality traits were gained from experiencing the horrible things that took place during the Holocaust and also being treated very unfairly. There is evidence that show that it can be very difficult in trying to keep a clear mind and trying to stay calm at times. Vladek seems to have some very negative personality traits.

Vladek a survivor for the Holocaust managed to fight for his life just like a wild animal would do. Vladek never gave up his will or strength during the Holocaust like like any animal or human being would do. The very few survivors of the Holocaust including Vladek are the only ones who can share their story with the world and tell others how it all started. The Holocaust was a terrible event that took place for a couple years, that many people didn’t survive. Even under difficult circumstances during the Holocaust Vladek will to live and survive was strengthened.

History is like a huge puzzle. People can keep find missing pieces to the story as they learn more about it. The Holocaust was one of those moments in history that has lead our minds to curiosity about why such a thing would occur at some point in time. For example, concentration camps. Concentration camps are one of those moments in history that make people’s jaws drop because of how flabbergasted they are to even hear of such a thing. Once you hear about one fact about the Holocaust and concentration camps you want to know every little detail about it to try and analyze what was happening and how it happened. Concentration camps in the Holocaust were a turning point in history because it lead to the deaths of millions of people.

Vladek is willing to lie to get to where he needs to and is not scared about most of the consequences. When Vladek escapes the prison camp and dresses like a pig which shows he is Polish he is allowed to get home to his family in order to save them. Lying is normally looked as a weakness but in this case it was a strength. Another strength that can also be a weakness that Vladek posses is that he does not show his emotions very much. During the Holocaust you don’t see a lot emotions besides being scared and that is shown through Vladek. Vladek is a character who is not really worried about what others think of him but Artie does care what other people think of him and of his

Throughout time, Jewish communities have been treated with immense hate and exclusion from other cultures because no one accepted their religion. Coming to the time before WWII, events like Kristallnacht demonstrated the despise for Jews that dwelled inside the general population of Germany when the Germans went to Jewish houses and stores to burn and destroy them. In the course of WWII, they were harassed, abused, tortured and ruined, as all of their business stocks and assets were taken away. During the expanse of this horrific battle, Jews were forced to live in designated areas known as concentration camps where they had to overcome obstacles such as hunger, freezing temperatures, and the loss of precious family members. These camps were used to fulfill Hitler’s intent to annihilate the Jewish population from the face of the planet and this dangerous idea was called “purify the country”. In total, there were about 25 of these camps built where 6 million Jews died, including 1.5 million children. Auschwitz was a camp which was responsible for 1 million deaths alone, and this is the camp where Elie Wiesel was first sent to endure the hatred of the Nazis. This camp changed the way Elie Wiesel viewed the world because he saw and experienced things that will stayed with him forever. He was transformed into a new person who neglected his religion, failed to protect the one he held dear to him, and put his

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

The Holocaust is widely considered one of the darkest hours in world history. People of Jewish descent were imprisoned and confined to brutal conditions in concentration camps. Author Elie Wisel captures many of the atrocities of these detainments in his literary work, Night. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs describes the needs and motivation of people (Boeree). In Night, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs has a direct impact on the lives of the Jews and their relationships with each other.

Vladek Speigelman fought to survive in the Holocaust but also in his marriage; his relationship with Anja was different from his marriage with Mala. Mala and Anja are similar people who would experience Auschwitz, but Vladek was never able to treat Mala the same way as Anja. His marriage with Anja was compassionate as he would risk his career and life trying to provide for her while never providing more than fifty dollar allowance to his second wife, Mala. Vladek’s relationships with his wives would change as the Holocaust would change him. Vladek

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

Questions to Consider 1. Describe life in Auschwitz. What was life like for Vladek, and others, as they struggled to survive? Life in Auschwitz is the equivalent of a never-ending nightmare with little of hope of escaping.

“Spiegelman reinterprets and expands both the comic form and traditional mediums of telling history to express and relate the history of his survivor-father” (Kohli 1). What do you think about Vladek? Central to Maus is Vladek’s relationship with his loved ones and the effects of his experience on those relationships and his character in general. Do you think Vladek is a good father example to Art? Do you think the reason Vladek is the way he was due to the Holocaust or his life experience?

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.