Exhilarating title for Assignment #4
Power; the single word that describes how the world operates. Divided into two generalized groups, the ‘powerful’ make decisions that influence the ‘powerless’ and your relationship between either of the groups helps in determining how much you are effected by the decision. Throughout this year in the encounters program various texts have exposed us to different viewpoints of how power can be displayed and interacted with. Although a cartoon, Maus I & II graphically depict the holocaust from a unique yet universal point of view. Nietzsche in his confusing and extremely dense essay ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’ show the role of power in relations with others and also with the self. Borges collection …show more content…
As this paper continues to unfold itself on this topic I will write in search of the answer to my question.
Maus I & II are the most informative, easy to understand texts covered this semester highlighting the holocaust and its terrors. What I enjoyed most about the comic was that despite the simplicity of how it was presented, there is more complexity in the smaller details of the book that allow us to engage deeper with the intertwining layers of the onion that is Maus. Throughout the text Spiegelman outlines the division of power between races and people. His story acknowledges the persecution of the Jews from an insider and an outsider’s perspective, displaying not only the challenges of enduring the event but of living life after it. Although the story describes one individuals struggle through the holocaust, because of the extreme generalizations made upon races this one story also adds to the huge chunk of history known as the holocaust becoming unique but also one of many. Maus also displays a strong family theme; the family connection, or lack of connection, is pointed out regularly through the interactions with Vladek. Together the themes of family and power are spread across the book giving explanations as well as making questions for some of the details in the …show more content…
The basis of his argument lies in the will to power, the drive to reach an optimum at where the ideal person maximizes their feeling of power through their own means. For Nietzsche power is the feeling that resistance has been overcome, breaking free of the limits of morality. “For an ascetic life is a contradiction in terms: a particular kind of ressentiment rules there, that of an unsatisfied instinct and will to power which seeks not to master some isolated aspect of life but rather life itself, its deepest, strongest, most fundamental conditions…” (97, Nietzsche). As Nietzsche’s main claims continue to be illustrated throughout the book the ascetic ideal assumes its position at the top of the food chain, and from there we see power in its relation to this ‘Sovereign Individual’. This individual becomes the ‘master’, and a prerogative of this higher status to inflict punishment on the people he has power over. This divides people into groups of the punisher and punished, power in this case is the right to deliver punishment and in this deliverance the punisher also raises themselves above others having broken through morality’s limits. This relationship can be interpreted in fairly harsh and negative way, supporting the thinking that there is a hierarchy in rights and ways to treat people based on your rank. The ascetic ideal
Power; the single word that describes how the world operates. Divided into two generalized groups, the ‘powerful’ make decisions that influence the ‘powerless’ and your relationship between either of the groups helps in determining how much you are effected by the decision. Throughout this year in the encounters program various texts have exposed us to different viewpoints of how power can be displayed and interacted with. Although a cartoon, Maus I & II graphically depict the holocaust from a unique yet universal point of view. Nietzsche in his confusing and extremely dense essay ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’ show the role of power in relations with others and also with the self. Borges collection …show more content…
As this paper continues to unfold itself on this topic I will write in search of the answer to my question.
Maus I & II are the most informative, easy to understand texts covered this semester highlighting the holocaust and its terrors. What I enjoyed most about the comic was that despite the simplicity of how it was presented, there is more complexity in the smaller details of the book that allow us to engage deeper with the intertwining layers of the onion that is Maus. Throughout the text Spiegelman outlines the division of power between races and people. His story acknowledges the persecution of the Jews from an insider and an outsider’s perspective, displaying not only the challenges of enduring the event but of living life after it. Although the story describes one individuals struggle through the holocaust, because of the extreme generalizations made upon races this one story also adds to the huge chunk of history known as the holocaust becoming unique but also one of many. Maus also displays a strong family theme; the family connection, or lack of connection, is pointed out regularly through the interactions with Vladek. Together the themes of family and power are spread across the book giving explanations as well as making questions for some of the details in the …show more content…
The basis of his argument lies in the will to power, the drive to reach an optimum at where the ideal person maximizes their feeling of power through their own means. For Nietzsche power is the feeling that resistance has been overcome, breaking free of the limits of morality. “For an ascetic life is a contradiction in terms: a particular kind of ressentiment rules there, that of an unsatisfied instinct and will to power which seeks not to master some isolated aspect of life but rather life itself, its deepest, strongest, most fundamental conditions…” (97, Nietzsche). As Nietzsche’s main claims continue to be illustrated throughout the book the ascetic ideal assumes its position at the top of the food chain, and from there we see power in its relation to this ‘Sovereign Individual’. This individual becomes the ‘master’, and a prerogative of this higher status to inflict punishment on the people he has power over. This divides people into groups of the punisher and punished, power in this case is the right to deliver punishment and in this deliverance the punisher also raises themselves above others having broken through morality’s limits. This relationship can be interpreted in fairly harsh and negative way, supporting the thinking that there is a hierarchy in rights and ways to treat people based on your rank. The ascetic ideal