Karma

One of the most intriguing aspects of Maus is that Spiegelman does not go out of his way to portray the character of his father in any way that could be considered sympathetic. From the very first chapter we see the emotional distance between the father and son, the reasons why become apparent very quickly.  Vladek is not a particularly nice person. He is unpleasant to his new wife and overbearing to his son. He embodies the stereotypical frugal, money obsessed Jew, which is problematic for the author who does not wish to turn his father into a caricature, but is forced to do so. We see the negative aspects of his character early on, in his relationship with Lucia, whom he spurned, mostly due to her lack of money, instead choosing the plainer, shier Anja, who was extremely well to do.  This is depicted early on in the novel, and conveys a great deal about Vladek, and serves to make him extremely dislikeable as a person. Over the course of the story there are further anecdotes and instances that make him seem unpleasant.

The depiction of Vladek’s character is not a flattering one. Yet as objectionable as he is, he does not deserve the treatment all Jew’s faced during this period. The oppression, cruelties and eventual incarceration, torture and murder at the hands of the Nazis. Vladek, for all his many faults is a person that did not deserve those atrocities, and I think that is the point Spiegelman is attempting to convey in this graphic novel. In spite of the illustrations depicting the characters as animals, they are all very much human.

Debunking Black and White Morality

                In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the character of Vladek is treated in a manner such that the reader is highly aware of the flaws that make him a well-rounded human, as opposed to a saint-like victim of the Holocaust which Jews are often depicted as in modern World War Two literature. The fact that Spiegelman takes this route with the anthropomorphised avatar of his father has been praised by many critics for its realism: it is not uncommon for children of wartime victims to become exasperated by the traits their parents accumulated as a method of survival years after the fact. As such, it can be argued that the strained relationship which Art and Vladek are shown as having is an incredibly raw, honest reflection of these familial situations.

                Despite Vladek’s anal-retentiveness and impassably high expectations, however, it is shown that the apple does not fall far from the tree. This is to say that while Art does not explicitly share his father’s flaws, he has more than enough of his own. Perhaps the most evident of these faults thus far is his dishonesty, as shown when Vladek asks that his son not record the portion of his story that involved his relationship with Lucia Greenburg, and Art does not honour this wish. It can be theorised that Art does this due to his desire to record the entirety of his father’s story in its purest, truest form – and while this may seem an honourable pursuit, whether it is more honourable than keeping a promise to one’s father is entirely up for debate. Thus far, neither of the narrators of Maus – those being Art and Vladek – have managed to preserve a perfect image of themselves for the reader’s consumption, and I feel that this is incredibly telling of the picture of humanity which the graphic novel’s writer wishes to impart: there is no such thing as someone who is truly evil or truly good, and humanity must instead be viewed in shades of grey. 

Speigelman Vs O' Brien

The one of the main differences int he way these two authors choose to write their stories is the tone they give. Often Speigelman gives a more lighthearted tone, shown not only through panels in his graphic novel but also through the way he tells his stories. Spiegelman often chooses to keep light hearted events along with negative events to give his world a more human feel to his fathers holocaust story. In contrast, O' Brien often latches onto the negative events more than the positive ones, giving a more negative feel overall of war. This could be evidence of PTSD bleeding into his writing but it could also just be an anti-war tone he is trying to get across to the audience.

War Stories

There are a lot of differences between Speigelman and O’Brien’s story telling.  This is because both authors choose an unalike style to present their writing.   Spiegelman writes a story about Jewish struggles during the holocaust in the form of a comic strip book.  Because of this, he is uses more of a direct dialect between his characters throughout the book.  He does not have to describe the situation and background as much as O’Brien because the pictures tell those details.  Another difference is that Speigelman uses animals such as pigs, cats and mice to depict each race in his story. One similarity is both writers have characters that actually tell the story through their own point of view.  In Maus, it is the father, and in O’Brien’s stories, it is usually one of the soldiers. I prefer O'Brien's as an author because of the way he is able to describe his stories so meticulously. 

De-humanization in Maus

In my studies of the Holocaust, class discussion often centered on the Nazi tactics for eradicating the Jewish population. Nazi dehumanization of Jews occurred in order that the rest of the world would view Jews as nothing more than swine or a plague. Never did it occur to me that the Nazis themselves should be de-humanized because they lacked altruistic traits. It is an interesting concept to make all the humans, animals. I have only encountered this type of storytelling before in Animal Farm. In both cases the writing soften the blows of violence that occur throughout the novel. In a way the portrayal of humans as animals can make the story more bearable.

Art's art

Art Spiegelman's Maus is beautiful. It is interesting that he chose to tell this story in the form of a graphic novel. At the time that Spiegelman wrote this book, the majority of book written in this way were comic books. The way he decided to format a story as intense as the holocaust and as personal as his father's story certainly a questionable. However is allows his story to standout. Perhaps he wanted to reader to approach the book in a different light than they would usually take when reading a biography about the holocaust. a thought kept coming into my mind is whether or not this book enjoyed by children. The way that Spiegelman made the characters of the book into different animals and the similarities this book has with a comic makes it almost childlike. I believe that he intended for the reader of this book to be a mature reader, but it is attractive to children. This is interesting to me in that it seems that he wants the reader to read the book innocently as a child. To see the Vladek, a victim of the holocaust, as human.

Emotion and Power

O’Brien uses a very distinct and powerful method of story telling. His narrative is able to draw the reader into the protagonists mind and describe the horrors of the Vietnam War. Each short story captures an aspect of the war and only after reading the total sum of his work is the reader able to understand the full story. O’Brien attempts to tell a story about war that emulates at least a portion of the experiences him and his fellow veterans went through. The disjointed nature of the short stories leaves the reader off guard and makes it difficult for his audience to condense a single meaning or message out of his work.

Speigelman’s method of story telling on the other hand follows a more proper method of story telling. However, I believe the authors have two very different objectives. O’Brien isn’t trying to write about an event. He is trying to describe a feeling. A feeling that is unexplainable by its very nature. Speigelman is trying to recreate an event in time. He uses pictures and an orderly timeline to recreate that event. Both methods of story telling are powerful in their own way. However, I prefer O’Brien’s method of story telling. I feel like in contains more raw and genuine emotion. Because of this it makes it easier for me to get taken in by his stories