Art Spiegelman's Relationship With His Father

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In the graphic novel “Maus" by Art Spiegelman, he is portraying his father’s life and experience during World War II. He has re-created his father’s life story through graphic novels and has the people portrayed as animals: the German’s are cats, the Jewish people are mice and the Polish people are pigs.The graphic novel follows the life of Vladek and Anja Spiegelman and the struggles, the loss and the consequences WWII had on their family and the strict ways of raising Art Spiegelman, and the effects it had on his childhood. In McCloud’s graphic novel, he had created his own unique illustration of “Understanding Comics”, by creating his comic with a minimalist look to itself. You can tell when McCloud would take his glasses off and there …show more content…
Mr. Spiegelman loved his wife dearly, but the war had affected her greatly and she could no longer live in this world. For Spiegelman, life with his parents has always been difficult. From deciding to become an artist to his mother’s suicide, each one had a great impact on his relationship with his father. When Art Spiegelman’s father- Vladek Spiegelman- was young, he lived relatively stable life, never working a day in his life and having an unusually high amount of money on him during his time in war; even marrying into a wealthy family. But when the war began, it changed everything for Spiegelman, to his childhood into adulthood. When growing up, Spiegelman was not very close to his father, Spiegelman not wanting to deal with his father’s insecurities and obsessions, and always having to compete for his father’s approval. Also, making Spiegelman feel guilty as a child for not being able to help his father. However, into adulthood, when Mr. Spiegelman asked for Spiegelman’s assistance, Art said (1993) “ I’d rather feel guilty” ( p. 97), showing that he does not approve of what his father is doing. But the guilt manages to get to Spiegelman and he asks his father if he would be able to assist him with some chores. Even with his mother, Art Spiegelman had a very strained relationship. When losing her first born, Anja became obsessed with caring for Art. Spiegelman noted he (1993) “ I turned away. Resentful for the way she tightened the umbilical cord” ( p. 103), did not enjoy the way Anja obsessed over him. While I personally have no experience or any of my family members been to war, my family has always been distance with each other. Half of my family lives in Montreal and the other half lives here, in Toronto. Now, it would be assumed that we are always in contact with our family in Toronto but at times, we would not

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