Vladek Spiegelman Character Analysis

Vladek’s Personality Before and After the War The Graphic Novel Maus A survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman is about Art’s father Vladek Spiegelman’s real story as a survivor from Holocaust. Vladek Spiegelman is a complex character that faces many challenges and tragedies through life. His survival of Holocaust is a major event in his life. The Holocaust began when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. During holocaust, about 6 millions of Jews were killed, about two-third of Jews in Europe were killed (Rosenberg). Hitler put the Jewish people in concentration camp and extermination camps where the Jewish people lived in horrible condition. Many died from starving, horrible living conditions, extreme hard physical labor, and all …show more content…
He is a nice man, handsome, loving, and he gets along well with his wife and the family member. In the beginning of the story, Vladek recalls when he is young before the war, he is nice and popular. In the upper left and right panel, he says “I was, at that time, young and really a nice, handsome boy” and a lot of girls like him (15). Again, when the first time he meets Anja. In the upper left panel, Anja says “he is a handsome boy and seems very nice” (18). He is pretty generous, he takes his first girlfriend Lucia to dance (15). When Anja sends him a picture, he buys a very nice frame for the picture, and he brings flowers when he visits Anja. Later on, Anja have postnatal depression afar gives birth to their first child. He takes her to the sanitarium which is one of the most expensive and beautiful sanitarium in the world (34). He is a loving person at that time. He stays with Anja in the sanitarium, and he is very understandable. He takes Anja to theaters and dance, and he always tells her funny jokes and stories (37), so he help Anja recover from depression. By the time they leave the sanitarium, she has become a very happy person, and they have a happy marriage. Moreover, when he comes home from war against Germany, in the bottom panel on the right, he said “and I don’t need to tell you how big the joy was in our house” (68). In the next panel, he said “even though, everything was very tough-and it was …show more content…
However, he is not complete changed. Some of his traits remain the same before the Holocaust and after. He is always a practical person, he always knows what he wants and what benefit him. We know that that he has a girlfriend Lucia before he meets Anja, and they have the relationship for 3-4 years. In the panel 4, he said “her family are nice, but had no money, Even for a dowry” (17).Compare to Lucia, Anja is from a rich family. In the top panel on the left, Art asked his father “Mom wasn’t that attractive, huh?”, “ not so like Licia but if you talked a little to her, you started to loving her more and more” Vladek answers and he also says that the Anja’s family is millionaires(20). He can easily get rid of an attractive girl with 3-4 year relationship. Instead he chose a less attractive, but more intelligent and rich girl to be his wife. With the help of Anja’s family, Vladek has his own factory, and they live a wealthy life before the Holocaust. He is still a very practical person. In the middle panel, Art says that the reason he become an artist is a rebellion to his father, since he thinks it is unpractical and just waste time to be an artist (99). Moreover, in the bottom panel on the right, Art wants to write about his father’s story about Holocaust, he say “better you should spend your time to make drawings what will bring you some money…” (14). Another character he never change is that he like to be neat