What
makes "Maus" such an incredibly moving and powerful story is not only
the detailed descriptions of life in Nazi Europe during World War II,
but the complicated relationship between Vladek and Art. This father
and son dynamic can be seen over and over again in their meetings. It is
evident that Art's relationship with his father is the source of many
of his psychiatric struggles, to which he readily admits. Yet the less
obvious dynamic of the relationship is how
Vladek plays out his psychiatric struggles on his son. What evidence are
we given that Vladek has survivor's guilt? And how does this affect his
relationship with Art? Furthermore, it would seem that Art's
relationship with his mother is also an important one
to the novel. Her death contributes to his spiral into depression and
often looms overhead. In what ways can we see the effect Anja had on
Art?
There is also an interesting
amount of "breaking the fourth wall" that takes place in "Maus," almost
always exclusively by the character of Art. While in the car with his
wife, Francois, Art goes on a rant about his
insecurities towards writing "Maus." Yet by the end of it, he relates
that, "in real life you'd never have let me talk this long without
interrupting" (176, MAUS Complete). Art implies that the conversation
with Francois never really took place because it does
not echo the reality of their relationship. What other instances are
there of Art Spiegelman breaking the fourth wall?
We can see that Vladek has a bit of guilt when he starts taking about how he’d save Artie’s food until he at it. Artie has a lot of guilt because if he was possibly kinder to his mother the last time he saw her he could have saved her instead of acting like a dick. Thus results in a lot of “what if”s on his part. There are very few forth walls if any. I didn’t see any until then because they blend in blend in with the story or I’ve become so far into the story that I don’t see a disturbance if one happens.
ReplyDeleteThe evidence of Vladek's survivor's guilt is plentiful. Throughout the story, he does what he believes is necessary to survive. This, unfortunately, indirectly leads to the deaths of most of Anja's family as they are forced to separate. But the bigger piece of evidence is their first son, Richieu. Believing it was his best chance for survival, they gave their son to an aunt of Anja's. Vladek was sure it was the right thing to do and had been pushing Anja to do it for a year before they sent him away. But the aunt ended up poisoning them all in order to avoid the ovens in Aushwitz. Vladek had inadvertantly sent his son to death, but he felt it could have been avoided if he had pushed Anja hard earlier; the people he initially wanted to send Richieu away with all survived. Moreover, Vladek pushed so hard for the survival of Anja and for himself that a part of him died when she committed suicide, just as a part of him died when he finally accepted the truth that Richieu was dead. Because he had experienced so much loss already, it was very difficult for him to connect to others, even his own son, for fear of being hurt once more. His relationship with Art was always a tense one because he feared the pain of losing him.
ReplyDeleteArt's relationship with his mother is just as important to both the novel and to Art's character. He was a great deal closer to his mother, and much more like her mentally. He is shown as a man who is very intelligent, but very sensitive and emotional, much like his mother. Anja is shown as someone who often cannot control her emotional reactions, succumbing to fits of depression. Art has similar issues, but has a bit more control. The most interesting thing is that they both internalize so much of their pain and anguish. Vladek does this as well, but because he has compartmentalized his life the extreme, it doesn't eat away at him in the same it does Anja and Art. "Prisoner On The Hell Planet" was a fascinating glimpse into how Art was affected by both of his parents; the comic shows him as being nearly destroyed by his mother's death, but the way his father reacted to the comic was even more enlightening. Vladek's reaction showed both his guilt for surviving everything and the fact that he felt he had failed Art when he was needed most.
As for the fourth wall breakage, it is prevalent but, like Megan, I find that it is done in such an unintrusive way that you hardly notice. I haven't started Part II yet, but there are small moments in Part I that stick out, such as the beginning of Chapter Four, where we see Mala hanging up his coat. In the prior chapter, Vladek had berated Mala for using a cheap hanger instead of a wooden hanger for Art's coat and had later thrown out Art's old coat, giving him an old windbreaker of his. Here, we see Mala hanging Art's new trench coat on a wooden hanger. It's small, but the narrator is trying to show that Art is still rebelling against his father in every way he can.
There's this unaddressable tension between Art and Vladek. Both of them suffered immensely losing Anja, but they don't talk about it. Even when Vladek discovers Art's deeply personal and dark confession of incredible depression, even outright blaming Vladek for his pain (and his mother), they don't discuss it. In this comic, he calls his mother a murderer. Or maybe he means his father as well. The end of Maus I is an image of Art walking away, muttering "murderer" as he leaves his father. I think Art harbors some serious hatred toward his parents. We can see that Vladek is still mourning Anja and he can't move on with his life. But they don't talk about it, even though it is no secret to either of them. I think this may be a reference to how many victims and the family of the victims of the holocaust feel. There really is no healing from it. Their suffering is no secret. No one can really fix it.
ReplyDeleteVladek clearly has survivor's guilt. It is visible in both how he interacts directly with Art, and how he seems to hold himself. The death of Richieu seems to be a particularly strong cornerstone in how Vladek takes measure of himself. Obviously, he only had the best of intentions in mind when he sent his son away, but the fact of the matter remains that Vladek survived the Holocaust, and Richeau did not. And time and time again, this proves to be the case. It's something that seems to weight heavily on him, and Vladek doesn't quite appear to know how to handle it. When recounting his stories of the Holocaust, he sometimes seems to get lost in the moment of the memory, while at other times appears deeply ashamed of the fact that he is even recounting the tales at all.
ReplyDeleteAs others have mentioned, the use of the breaking of the fourth wall is handled extremely well in Maus. And it's not just done in a direct, speaking-to-the-reader way, either. Maus constantly reminds you that you are reading a comic, be it through the pacing of the page, dynamic shape of the panels, or by presenting visual information that exists outside of the realm of the linear narrative (Mala hanging the coat, for example - which has already been mentioned above). It's a constant thread throughout the book, and in a way, feels like a means for Spiegelman to keep his grasp firmly on the reader's wrist, and pull them along with the sometimes painful content of the story. Our awareness that we are reading a comic that is written by a human, and not a mouse, and understanding that the medium is vital to properly telling the story forms a greater connection between creator and reader.
It’s curious to me how the most explicit portrayal of Artie’s relationship with his parents came in the form of ‘Prisoner on the Hell Planet’, a reprint a strip he drew much earlier in his career. During all of the framing device scenes, I really feel like Spiegelman is doing a lot of ‘beating around the bush’ when it comes to actually making any kind of statement about his relationship with his father (though the scene where Vladek calls him at 7:30 in the morning was actually pretty good in that regard). But then , close to where you would expect a climax to be for Vol 1, you get this other comic strip where you kind of say ‘Ohhh. I get it now.’ So again, it’s just kind of strange to me that Spiegelman was able to convey so much more strongly in four pages what he seems to have been trying to convey over 100, especially if you’re in the camp where you think Maus is more about Artie/Vladek than the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest, who wouldn't have survivor's guilt after what Vladek has been through? After seeing his family members and friends die and hearing stories from others, I think he is actually more sane that I could ever be. I think one of the biggest hints about the "survivor's guilt" Vladek has is his constant talk about Anja and Richiev; Vladek kind of seems to compare his life with Anja and Richiev to his life with Artie and Anja, and then of course his life with Mala. He also lives his life as if he is still in a Holocaust-like situation: hiding possessions, being stingy with money, achieving his goals by himself, etc. He lives in a creatively cheap way.
ReplyDeleteVladek's survivor's guilt is definitely pushed onto Artie because he is alive while Richiev and Anja are dead. Anja is still a secret to the reader, other than her life during the Holocaust (at least her involvement in Vladek's life during this time), she had a journal, and she was the mother of Vladek's two children. I think there will be more information on the journal though; there seems to be a lot of suspicion still surrounding that.
There has been a massive load of psychological drama being portrayed in this book. It is almost impossible not to see a dramatic scene between Vladek and Art. Vladek is constantly struggling with survivor's guilt because he feels like he could have done more for Anja. There is a section in the book where he talks about how ate her rations when he should have saved them for her. He chose himself before her and that's what caused his guilt. Art on the other hand struggles with the death of his mother. At the end of the first book, Vladek reveals to Art that he burned Anja's diaries. This causes Art to become angry at his father and at the very last panel he calls him a murderer. This will obviously create some tension between the two. As for the forth wall, like Megan and Dean, I haven't noticed the breaking of it until it was brought up. The story is so moving and dramatic that I didn't even find a place where the forth wall was broken.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else has said, there is bountiful evidence of Vladek's survivor's guilt. He lives in a way such that it almost seems he's mentally trapped there, refusing to spend money and living so frugally. There is definitely a huge sense of Vladek keeping people at a distance, most likely in an attempt to keep himself from having the pain of losing someone again, and (I haven't started volume II yet) I feel like we might see some repercussions as, in a way, at the end of this one, he lost his son.
ReplyDeleteAt surface level, I thought Art was interested in his mother's story simply for the sake of his book; but as you read further on, there definitely becomes some more emotional motivations therein after we read the comic he wrote after she killed herself. There is also a really interesting dynamic between the two as Art tries to learn more of his mother's life while Vladek seems to really want to keep her and her memory to himself.
I think that Anja had a greater effect on Art than is let on. In comic written by Art he is led to believe that he may be one of reasons for his mother's suicide. I think that perhaps Art sees talking with his father about his past more than just a way to tell his story but as therapy too. I feel that Anja's suicide was a mystery to Art and to know more about her past would give him the insight he needs to understand her choice of killing herself.
ReplyDeleteVladek has survivor’s guilt in numerous ways. In most of his accounts of the past, Vladek almost always says something along the lines, “And if we stayed, they would have survived.” He was always pushing to find a better place, better food, and etc. Some of his decisions paid off and some didn’t. The main reason Vladek and Anja were captured and sent to Auschwitz was because he thought it was a good idea to go to Hungry. Obviously, none of it was his fault. He was a person who had to make impossible decisions without knowing the outcome beforehand. This could be why Vladek doesn’t trust anyone, even his wife Mala, and always expects the worst from everyone.
ReplyDeleteVladek seems to have been easier on Richieu than he was on Artie. This could be a result of Vladek’s belief that if he pushed harder for Richieu to be sent away sooner he would have survived. It’s understandable that after everything he’s been through that Vladek hates to waste anything, especially food because he went through a time when even the smallest commodities were hard to come by.
In a lot of ways, Art is way more like his mother than his father. She was an avid and wonderful writer just like him. Her suicide had a clear effect on him as seen by “Prisoner of the Hell Planet” comic. Art blamed himself, Hitler, and his dad. Ultimately, her suicide could have led to his making this comic book.
Well... I just wrote an entire post and it wasn't added because I wasn't signed in so I will try again and hopefully I can remember everything I said... Lol.
ReplyDeleteThe evidence of Vladek's survivor's guilt is evident throughout the book. On almost every page there is another story about someone he knew who did not survive the war. For example, when talking about the Rabbi he knew from the train ride who said he would write to him, Vladek says, "But I never heard again from him. It came such a misery in Warsaw. Almost none survived." Anyone who watched friends, neighbors, and family members die such a brutal death is bound to suffer from guilt and wonder why THEY survived. The fact that Anya killed herself after surviving through the entire war and the concentration camp is so perplexing. Was her survivor's guilt so much that she couldn't live with it anymore? Also, even after the war and Anya's suicide, Vladek stays alive so I think that the survivor's guilt he suffered after the war was enhanced even more when Anya killed herself because he was still a survivor even after her death. In other words, he could have joined her and also committed suicide, but even though he loved her so much, he still wanted to live, which could make his guilt even greater. This may be why he still mourns her death so acutely years later.
The relationship between Artie, Vladek, and Anya has some very interesting dynamics to it. What I find most interesting is that, as others have pointed out, Vladek is so frugal... always saving everything and very proud of it too... yet he threw away Anya's diary after she killed herself??? Was his guilt over being unable to save her too much to bare so he had to rid himself of the proof of her unhappiness? Another point along the same lines, but not nearly as severe as his mother's diary, is when Vladek throws out Artie's coat for no reason. Why does Vladek seem so insensitive when it comes to items that may have some meaning for Artie? Mala even complains at one point that Vladek has saved all of Anya's clothes, yet he throws away his son's coat? He's very perplexing. There are so many layers to this book.
I found the "Prisoner of the Hell Planet" to be the most stand-out feature of "Maus." Here, Spiegelman eschews the anthropomorphic mice and instead opts to draw with much more realism - albeit heightened realism. I think there's a lot at work here. Anja's suicide is Art's greatest tragedy and he addresses this in a style hat completely differentiates with the rest of "Maus." I do realize that this section was reprinted from an earlier work, but this does not diminish the effect. Vladek's story is drawn out and evolving. Anja's is short and sudden. I believe Art's use of different artistic styles is open to interpretation, but I believe because he was affected first-hand by his mother's suicide, he was unable to address it in the same style as the rest of the graphic novel.
ReplyDeleteAs for breaking the Fourth Wall ... perhaps I have a unique view on this. I acted professionally for over a decade and had to directly address the audience countless times (usually in Shakespeare, but not always). Most directors ask the actor who they are specifically speaking to when breaking he Fourth Wall. For instance, when playing the title role in Richard III, I had a soliloquy where I directly addressed the audience, only I imagined I was instead delivering the speech to the corpse of a character I just had killed. I have a tendency to read other forms of literature the same way. I wouldn't be surprised if Art is addressing his mother (or at least the memory of her). This would certainly give more weight to his line, "In life you'd never have let me talk this long without interrupting." I don't believe it's too far fetched to believe this, after all Part I ends with Art calling his father a murderer for destroying Anja's diary. As much as I see this a story of father and son, I just as easily view this as a testament to his mother.
Yikes. Ok, now having read Maus II these questions make much more sense. I thought this just pertained to Part I. For the life of me I could not find where Art said, "In life you'd never have let me talk this long ..." Since I'm using a different edition I assumed (incorrectly) my copy was missing some passages that other editions contained. Pardon my confusion.
DeleteI'm sort of confused about Art's relationship with his parents, but I've chalked that up to Art being confused about it as well.
ReplyDeleteThe most that I can infer about the families relationship is they never directly talk about feelings, etc. A few details that indirectly tell us about Art's relationship with his parents: Art has never heard his mother's account of the holocaust, and this is his first time hearing his dad's; Art was more comfortable putting feelings about his parents on paper in Prisoner on the Hell Planet than discussing anything with them; and also when Vladek sees Prisoner on the Hell Planet he doesn't tell Art that he saw it/ it upset him, Mala does.
It's hard to discern what bits of Vladek's behavior can be contributed to being a survivor, and what's just his innate personality. Mala, when talking to Art, mentions something about the other survivors not being like Vladek. It doesn't help that the flashbacks are told from Vladek's point of view, and we don't get a clear image of Vladek's personality before or during the holocaust.
So far, my take has been that this book focuses on the events of the holocaust more than the father/son relationship, as I don't really see much of a relationship there yet. It's very possible in Part 2 their relationship could evolve, or some more memories of Art's childhood will be revealed. Off of the top of my head, I can only remember one of Art's childhood memories. In it, Art's friends leave him behind and his father implies that he doesn't know the meaning of "friends".
Vladek’s survivor’s guilt seems to show most prominently in his caution with money and his tendency to hoard things. Despite having enough money to take care of himself, to buy things that he needs, or to live in better conditions he rarely uses. He takes things from the trash, from restaurants, and keeps objects from hospital visits all in a bid to never spend more than absolutely necessary. While many would interpret this as mere greed it seems to me that it’s more a sign of guilt. Vladek got to live while his closest family members did not. They did not live to gain any kind of prosperity after the war while he did. Vladek doesn’t believe he deserves the prosperity granted to him and doesn’t deserve to live better than he already does. Surviving, to him, should be enough.
ReplyDeleteThis puts strain on Art’s relationship with his dad because he doesn’t understand why he has to be, in his eyes, so stingy and unreasonable like with the gutters on his dad’s house. Since he should survived shouldn’t his dad be living to the best of his ability especially when he has so much money to pay for what he needs? Since he does not understand his father’s survival guilt and it would be difficult for him to fully comprehend it there is always a strain between them.
From the beginning of the comic we are told that Anja always suffered from depression and that she could be easily triggered. She likely felt the impact of survivor’s guilt far more deeply than Vladek did especially in light of their first son being poisoned. She along with Vladek always drew comparisons between Art and his long deceased brother so that he grew to resent her. It also appears that she needed constant reassurance from Art that he loved her as shown from Prisoner on the Hell Planet. Art probably saw this as her needing validity for her problem rather than given any kind of acknowledgement for his own mental health after being released from the mental hospital. Over the years the comparisons, depression, and even blame for her suicide boiled down to resentment even after her death.
I think the entire Prisoner on the Hell Planet in itself is a major breaking of the fourth wall as rather than simply being told about the comic we are actually given it on page. The character within the comic are not alerted to match the characters of the comic and it’s more of a personal moment for Art than it is for the comic itself. We see a much deeper look into the real world and Art as a person rather than just a simply addition to the comic.
The most poignant moment that expressed both the breaking of the fourth wall as well as Vladek's survivors guilt was found when going to the safe. When Art wrote Vladek saying "I'll keep a copy [of the key] in my desk, because only you would lose it!" screamed out some fourth wall breaking. It might have been what his father said, but it seemed more like a moment of personal reflection also. Giving the viewer a little tidbit as to how Art viewed himself.
ReplyDeleteLater, on the next page Vladek starts crying "Anja, Anja" after looking at her old things and verbalizing his regret of remarrying. I think this really shows not only his guilt of surviving but him being upset about how he has handled things afterward.
This definitely affects Artie because it also projects similar guilt on him after his mother's suicide. Along with having him deal with the frustrating relationship between Vladek and Mala.
Spiegelmen’s breaking the “Fourth Wall” or Meta Fiction is an amazing tool. He seems to use irony to remind the reader of reality vs fantasy or elaboration. It blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction while reminding the reader that the Holocaust did happen, but it happened to real people, not cute little mice. This happens blatantly on page 176 with Francois, but really it happens more subtly anytime the story shifts to an interaction Art has rather than the experiences of his father. The story is mainly about Vladek so anytime the panels shift away from Vladek and towards Art, the author, the reader is reminded that they are reading a novel.
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