Anja Spiegelman shared all these experiences with her husband, but added conspiracies, a presumed eating disorder, postpartum depression, and periodic anxiety attacks. As one may correctly presume with all these extra complications, the war took a much greater toll on her. Even before it began, her depression sent her and Vladek to a sanitarium for 3 months. (“Maus”) Her next breakdown came after the loss of her grandparents, parents, son, and nephew: “Oh God. Let me die too.” (Spiegelman 122) To be fair, for comparisons sake, Vladek too lost many relatives including his own father, sister, cousins, and same nephew. (“Maus”) What would have been more interesting had there been the account of Auschwitz would be how Anja managed to survive the death camp.
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Though starting in stark emotional contrast, one ends up dead while the other is unable to cope with the resounding grief. Ultimately, all people who endure years under a terror regime are left scarred. They are left alone to struggle with their unbearable burden with the scattered few who shared their experiences. Some of these are able to fight the uphill battle back to a life mimicking the life they had before the war. Many more, I fear, found the reminiscence too much to bear; leading to PTSD or worse, suicide. By the time anyone in WW2 got an inkling of the full intentions of the Nazi party, it was much too late. “This was 1944…we knew everything. And here we were.” (Spiegelman 157) My theory about adaptation by rebellion is validated in this line. The Jewish people were led to genocide in incremental stages of restriction and segregation; adapting as best they could with frequent (albeit futile for the most part) resistance. They had no say in the matter, and, by the time the regime had climaxed, millions had died in irreversible
Though starting in stark emotional contrast, one ends up dead while the other is unable to cope with the resounding grief. Ultimately, all people who endure years under a terror regime are left scarred. They are left alone to struggle with their unbearable burden with the scattered few who shared their experiences. Some of these are able to fight the uphill battle back to a life mimicking the life they had before the war. Many more, I fear, found the reminiscence too much to bear; leading to PTSD or worse, suicide. By the time anyone in WW2 got an inkling of the full intentions of the Nazi party, it was much too late. “This was 1944…we knew everything. And here we were.” (Spiegelman 157) My theory about adaptation by rebellion is validated in this line. The Jewish people were led to genocide in incremental stages of restriction and segregation; adapting as best they could with frequent (albeit futile for the most part) resistance. They had no say in the matter, and, by the time the regime had climaxed, millions had died in irreversible