Thursday, February 12, 2015

Motivation vs. Empathy

One of the most gripping points that I found in Maus is how flawed Art Spiegelman portrays himself. He is not shy about beating around the bush during scenes where he gets pretty fed up, or even aggravated, with his father, Vladek. Vladek is presented as someone who tends to be anal retentive, yet his son is extremely disconnected with his father. I find it interesting because are usually extremely empathetic towards Holocaust victims but for reasons that better explained in the second volume *spoilers* (his mother committing suicide at an early age for Art), we see that Art was never really close his father. Art is easily irritated, and we get that whole my-father-can’t-relate-with-me vibe. Yet Art is still very driven to share his father’s story with the world. It’s not necessarily explained, but it almost feels like Art is driven by personal gain trying to publish his graphic novel.

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