Much like Apocalypse Now, there is also a layer of mysticism involved in Spiegleman Sr.’s story. As the prisoner rabbi notes following Spiegleman Sr.’s parshas trauma story, “Now I see you a ‘Roh-eh Hanoled,’ one who sees what the future may bring.” Likewise, Kurtz assassinates South Vietnamese double agents after believing in his gift of seeing clearly where others do not. Kurtz also seems to view himself as a Rabbi, a spiritual leader who guides the lost Cambodians, Laotians, Vietnamese, and Vietcong.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Rabbi Walter E. Kurtz?
Unlike Tim O’Brien or Copolla, Spiegleman allows his audience to get a better sense of what the narrator is like in the present. Often there are intermittent bouts of playful and humorous commentary by he who shall henceforth be referred to as Speigleman Sr.. As other people have commented before, including such breaks makes the story seem more real, despite being told under the caricature of jewish mice. It also, I admit, makes the story a little less macabre and adds a bit of suspense to Spiegleman’s storytelling. Suspenseful indeed, the story of Maus seems in many ways to mimic Willard’s journey up the Nung River - a turbulent journey through an unknown place with little understanding of what lay ahead with the exception of the limited intelligence other people can provide.
Much like Apocalypse Now, there is also a layer of mysticism involved in Spiegleman Sr.’s story. As the prisoner rabbi notes following Spiegleman Sr.’s parshas trauma story, “Now I see you a ‘Roh-eh Hanoled,’ one who sees what the future may bring.” Likewise, Kurtz assassinates South Vietnamese double agents after believing in his gift of seeing clearly where others do not. Kurtz also seems to view himself as a Rabbi, a spiritual leader who guides the lost Cambodians, Laotians, Vietnamese, and Vietcong.
Much like Apocalypse Now, there is also a layer of mysticism involved in Spiegleman Sr.’s story. As the prisoner rabbi notes following Spiegleman Sr.’s parshas trauma story, “Now I see you a ‘Roh-eh Hanoled,’ one who sees what the future may bring.” Likewise, Kurtz assassinates South Vietnamese double agents after believing in his gift of seeing clearly where others do not. Kurtz also seems to view himself as a Rabbi, a spiritual leader who guides the lost Cambodians, Laotians, Vietnamese, and Vietcong.
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Interesting comparison between Kurtz and the Rabbi. Kurtz certainly seems to elevate his position and others follow him as though he were a religious leader or leader of some kind of cult.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that you get a stronger sense of the narrator's character when reading Maus - because Spiegleman Sr. is the central character and many different characters feature in O'Brien's stories - in addition to the bouts of commentary.