Maus: A Survivor's Tale: An Analysis

During the period of 1933 to 1945, an unforgiving tyrant by the name of Adolf Hitler destroyed the lives of any soul who opposed the Aryan race. While many grieve for the lives lost to Hitler’s conquest, a pain that may even be worse than death itself is to live when one’s loved ones are deceased. The unjustified rules of the holocaust made surviving even more of a struggle by tearing families apart in the forms of separation or even death. A primary example of families suffering is shown by cartoonist Art Spiegelman in 1986, when he released a graphic novel detailing for readers the life of his father Vladek during the Holocaust. In Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale”, readers see through the Holocaust survivor Vladek’s …show more content…
Page 115 offers a grueling illustration depicting Vladek reluctantly leaving Anja’s parents to die as Anja’s father lets out a shrilling cry of desperation. This illustration is showing the kinds of emotional distress victims of the Holocaust endured. The only options for Vladek in this case was to leave his in-laws to die, or die with them. Vladek and Anja lived with rats in sewers, and had little to eat, but the stress of seeing one’s family ripped away from you for no specific reason is the ultimate loss. While Vladek’s personality while recalling the story to Art can be seen as grouchy, according to my psychological interpretation, his actions in present day are the result of the psychological stress Vladek endured in the holocaust. “To your father you yell in this way?...Even to your friends you should never yell this way”. (161) This quote by Vladek shows readers the values Vladek has that he is trying to instill in his son: that family is sacred and should be respected. I believe that the Holocaust scarred Vladek so fiercely that his biggest fear in his present life is losing his son Art. Art is the last family member Vladek has that he didn’t lose to the