From Father to Son

As a graphic novel Maus is “genius” I say this because an event such as the Holocaust is hard to imagine. I mean you hear stories about it all the time but to actually visualize a small bit of what actually went on is hard to do, yet Spiegelman does a good job of portraying this story to the reader. The graphic novel seems to lessen the severity of the event and make it bearable to read (not that what happened was not severe…this book just makes it easier to stomach). The graphic novel gives the characters emotions and the imagery allows for you to place a feeling with an event like how people behaved toward each other. It also makes the story easy to follow.

Now it goes without saying that Vladek has some serious guilt issues…which I believe he has every right to his emotions. I mean as a human if you survive such a horrendous event and your family members including your son didn’t you would definitely feel guilty. It’s hard to imagine going back to living a “regular life” after that event. I can guess that your whole mindset is changed and you start thinking about life in a different way. Vladek becomes what some might consider “stingy” ,he’s depressed after his wife commits suicide…after all she survived Auschwitz too yet it’s almost as if she didn’t. I think that it’s reasonable that this guilt was transferred down to Art. Being honest everyone does it…when we go through traumatic events we tend to find a scapegoat to leave our problems on…and who better than his son.

I believe Art started feeling guilty probably when his mother died especially how he treated her when she seemed to need affirmation from him.  He probably feels guilty that he has had an easier life than his father, but then he also feels like his father killed his mother since he burned her diaries. It’s crazy how the son didn’t go through the experience of the father yet they both display similar characteristics.