* I must preface this with an apology for the lateness. The last few days have been hectic.*
1. In Chapter Two (Auschwitz (time flies)), Spiegelman shifts from the representations of people as animals to people wearing animal masks to represent their race/nationality. Why do you think he chooses to change his representation? Does this shift change the way that you view the characters? Does his reversion to a child-like state make an effective metaphor for the situation he feels placed in?
2. Vladek makes many mentions throughout Maus to his ability to learn quickly, or his many talents. Why do you think that he focuses on these talents? How do you feel that this effects his relationship with Art, and the other people that he comes into contact with? Do you feel that its inclusion in the story helps to create empathy for Vladek?
3. Toward the end of the chapter, Vladek makes mention of a crematory worker who provides him with information regarding the deaths of those sent to the gas chambers. What does Vladek's reaction to this say about him as a person? He attempts to explain to Art why most of the prisoners didn't attempt to fight back. Do you feel he is correct in his assertions?
1) I think the switch is one of my favorite parts of the entirety of Maus. It again establishes that this is more than just a Holocaust tale, and it's more than just a story of anthropomorphic mice and cats. It's about how surviving affects us, and I think the switch to people wearing the masks represents how art affects us. Especially when that art deals with something so traumatic and powerful. It represents how people began to associate themselves with the icons that Art had chosen to represent his characters. Something as simple as a graphic novel has the power to completely alter the way people perceive themselves.
ReplyDelete2) I think Vladek's (over)confidence is one of the things that helped him survive what he did. He may not have been the best at the things that he did, but he was amazing at convincing people that he was the best, and often that's good enough. I don't know if that helps create empathy for Vladek, but it definitely adds an interesting dynamic to him.
The change to masks wasn’t that large of a transition. The masks were intended to represent the questionable representation of these people as these animals. The scene in question revolves around Art figuring out if his wife should be shown as a mouse because she just transitioned into the Jewish religion. In this scene there is a really nice back and fourth between this couple and it delves into his entire creative process which is important in the way in which this type of story is presented. I strongly believe that his reversion into childhood was something we all go through. Being overwhelmed pulls away our personal control, and Art presented this feeling very well.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Vladek chooses to focus on his many talents to show to his son what it takes to survive/succeed. You need to have connections and broad interests. If it weren’t for these things, Vladek would not have made it as far as he did. Vladek seems like the kind of father who sees himself as the dominant factor in their relationship. His vast knowledge and experience seems to reflect on the personal relationships he has with others such as his second wife who had such issue in how he treated her. I feel that the way he acts and describes his history adds a lot of empathy for the character. He is the type of person to look to the past to help himself and others in the present. His history seems to be the driving force in his understanding of the world even if it’s slightly outdated.
So far in Maus 2, I felt as if the scenes in which he talks about the crematorium were the most emotional. The whole journey of a person moving to their deaths was heart wrenching and devastating. I couldn’t imagine the horror these poor people went through. His reaction to this shows the respect that he has for the people lost.
Addressing question two:
ReplyDeleteI’ve touched a little bit on the Vladek/Art relationship and I think the fact that Vladek is this sort of proud Renaissance man is something that further alienates the pair. Vladek owes his survival to the fact that he’s always been (maybe in excess) prudently resourceful, scouting out new opportunities to secure useful skills under his belt for future reference. And it’s interesting to think that he almost negotiated his freedom as an almost business-like transaction—luck was involved, sure, but also hardcore strategy and gambling. This fact (and probably just Vladek’s character in general) makes him equate survival and more so /competency/ with being skilled in so many fields. This is central to Vladek’s worldview, but it’s probably not very relevant past his generation. Art doesn’t really have this trait as far as we know, and in the last volume he was bewildered when his father asks him to fix a roof when this is clearly something that he (like us) would hire someone to do. I think this is partially an explanation to this dynamic of Art feeling inadequate as a son (and thus a contributing factor for the friction in their relationship) because his father has a different idea of what makes someone competent/useful and is uncompromisingly rigid in his mindset. This is applicable to Vladek and Mala's failing relationship, too (amongst many other things).
When Spiegelman shifts to drawing people wearing animal masks instead of them being animals I find the metaphor to be much sadder and deeper. When they are the animals it seems lighter and makes more sense and when they wear the masks it's almost as if they are wearing their race like an accessory and it really isn't personal to them. And to this point I can't really say which is more appropriate, I think for some people a certain racial stereotype might not be personal to them so the mask would be more representative. In the scenes from the past, it certainly makes more sense to show the people as actual animals, because race is such a big part of the holocaust that a person's feelings of what their race is to them is not as important. I think this is somewhat addressed by the scene of the mouse that tried to tell the cats we was a German like them and not a Jew. Speigelman made him a real mouse, not a cat wearing a mouse (like he had done before to show Vladek pretending to be a Pole with a pig mask), so in that depiction, the man really was a Jew.
ReplyDeleteI think Vladek (and Art) focuses so much on the talents and abilities he used to help him out during the holocaust for a few reasons. One, as the psychiatrist mentioned, that maybe he had to justify his survival with these talents so he can justify his guilt. If he survived it was because he could do so many different things, not because he was simply luckier or more special than someone else who didn't survive. Another aspect is that Art has resentment toward Vladek for always pointing out all the things Art CANT do. As if he doesn't have the survival gene, and had he been alive during the holocaust wouldn't have survived as Vladek had. I don't think this creates empathy for Vladek, but more so sympathy for Art. I've already said that Art seems like a brat, but of course it would be hard to live up to the expectations of having the survival skills to survive the holocaust and not actually need them.
I agree with Vladek's reasons for saying most prisoners didn't fight back. I understand how Artie would ask that question, as it has been asked about most oppressive situations throughout history and the answer is generally the same. If one Jew faught back with his fists, the Nazi's would have shot them all down with guns before they could even start an uprising. Guns.
The change was a powerful kind of imagery to, in my opinion, show how Art is feeling in real life at that time. The story had changed him, and his opinions of his father. This change showed as a respect for his father and what made him the way he is, though he still blames Vladek for all this stuff Art went through. The talents of Vladek shows his tenacity to survivor, and his hope that his son would be a fighter too. Vladek's behavior around this time also shows how he doesn't want to be alone or distant from Art. It does create empathy as it shows Vladek's soft side. Vladek's reactions to the stories of those who didn't survive showed how he had to harden himself to the reality of his situation to survive. The most powerful part is how he reacted to the prisoner who kept pointing out the chimney as they were being processed. This breakdown showed how frayed Vladek was. Separated from Anja he was finally ready to give up until the other prisoner showed him hope. This breakdown allowed for us to understand why people just gave up, they were trying to survive until the war was over, but they were also beat down to the point that they couldn't fight back.
ReplyDeleteMasks and Children
ReplyDeleteFor me, the start of chapter two has always stood out from the rest of the book. It’s one of the few times where Art addresses the audience directly, setting aside the frame story and recognizing the real-life nature of his work. I think his use of masks in this scene is a good way of drawing the audience out of the mindset of his established story, and provide a contrast from his representation and reality. The vividness and discomfort of the scene only serve to drive this point home harder. I think the choice of showing the masks, rather than simply having a realistic representation of Speigelman himself, may act as a kind of commentary on his own work. Perhaps he thinks of the use of animals as a gimmick, too shallow for him to take seriously. However he feels about his approach, he certainly wants to take his subject matter seriously. The sense of desperation and helplessness imparted by his regression into childhood help provide color to his feelings at the time of his father’s death, as well as his relationship with Vladek in general. In addition to this, I think that the infantile regression fits well with his relationship with creativity. That uncertainty with where to go in a piece, being in the liminal position of finishing a work, there are numerous parallels between the woes of the creative process and feeling like a kid.
Talented Vladek, Self-Conscious Art
Vladek was a full grown man by the time the Holocaust was happening. But even so, going through the ghettos and concentration camps had a profound impact on his sense of identity. Having such a large shift in lifestyle and priorities for so long forced him to take on a different set of values, and perceive things differently. With his own textile factory, and having married into a rich family with Anja, his need for flexibility in skills could’ve been much smaller. I think his exposure to adversity is what not only allowed him to pick up skills so easily, but made him prize such abilities and keep them attached to his identity. It was a mindset born from his circumstances, and it would be a part of him for his whole life. This probably ended up having an impact on Vladek’s parenting, which meant high expectations for Art. Given that Art didn’t grow up in the same environment as his father, I think this led to the inevitable wedge between the two of them. But I can’t blame Vladek for his sense of priorities. With what he was dealing with, the fact that he could somehow grow from it feels admirable, in a way.
I think Art feels like he's been putting up a facade after his father's death and feels pretty helpless about all the reactions he's been getting about his book. I think the mask he wears and the child reversion reflects how he feels. You can tell how long he took per page here too which also points to this by him stating that his son will be born in a few months on an early page, then a few short pages later his son is born.
ReplyDeleteVladek's talents are what helped save him from a number of awful situations and allowed him to survive, like knowing English and knowing a number of handyman trades that set him apart from the crowd. In terms of his relationship with Art, I know Art wishes that he could better understand what his family went through, and Vladek's personality does get in the way of the story, but the story is partially what has created this personality in Vladek to begin with.
I think Vladek's explanation fine. Nothing weird about it to me. I think people would be scared out of their minds and starved as well which would cause them to keep from revolting. I do however really like the end of that chapter as Art references the Jews with how he just kills the flies willie nilly. I think it shows how the flies/Jews would make no attempt to resist since they've accepted their fate.
ReplyDeleteI think he chose to show people as what they were seen as at the time, who was the weaker target, who was the prey and predator, and when he changed it from animals to humans wearing animal masks, he still showed although they are humans, they are still judged as if they were animals, as if they were different, and at the time of the holocaust, being punished for what your race was, made things all the more hard and worse. No, it didn’t shift the way I viewed the characters because I already associated each character with the first image I saw of them, it was weird at first, but later on it seemed normal that they were just the animals not humans wearing masks. I believe it does make an effective metaphor for the situation he is placed in.
I think when Vladek mentions his talents and his ability to learn quickly, he is reminding himself he survived a traumatic experience and without those skills, talents and his ability to learn quickly, he wouldn’t be alive. I think in general, when someone who is close to you constantly reminds you how talented he or she is, and how quickly they can learn and adapt, you may admire it at first, and then get tired of hearing it, or even feel insignificant as if you will never measure up to his expectations, maybe Art felt his father expected more of him than what he was, and maybe he admired his father for being able to survive such difficult times because of these skills. Yes, I feel it does help to create empathy towards Vladek, because he is a survivor, and he had to be very smart and talented to survive what he did.
I think the reason he changes the perception of the characters is to show how blatant we judge people's ethnicity in our culture. I think that he wanted to mock our ignorance because many people are so blinded by the race of another person they cannot take into account what that person's character is like.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't see the characters in any different light because of what has already been presented in the story. Someone unfamiliar with the story maybe pushed away due to the blatant signs of race in this piece. I do understand why this is done, especially at a time when ethnicity sparked so much hate and death.
I do think the "child-like" state is a great metaphor because it shows how ignorant the hate was for these people. Hitler was a child because he hated so many people due to them not being what he saw as right. That type of thinking should never be tolerated in a modern world unless it is for a 3-year-old. When one learns that we all come from the same fabric of life then understanding can truly happen.
So, I don't think that this is as big and noticeable as you have seen it. The characters are trying to continue the metaphor and keep continuity with the story. It would look pretty weird if all of a sudden people weren't animals anymore. Also, Vladek and Anja have to disguise themselves so that they don't get captured by the SS.
ReplyDeleteI think Vladek's ability to learn quickly was what kept him alive. Being resourceful and learning quickly on your feet makes you a valuable asset in any situation, not just trying to survive. He did anything he could to survive.
It was a very frightening time. People died just for thinking of revolting.
In relation to question number one, as its my favorite question of the bunch, I interpreted the masks a bit differently than everyone else. I saw them as people tieing themselves to something not in their blood inherently. They've chosen to put on the mask and be seen in that regard. Where as the other characters of the story have their identity in their blood.I've said it before and I'll say it again, the moment this story becomes about the characters it starts to flourish. In the beginning of Maus it seems like a retelling that is cliché. Over time it becomes more full and relatable to a timeless audience. Those of us who live in the post holocaust era disconnected and trying to understand something we can not. Arts personal struggle is not unfamiliar to the audience.
ReplyDeleteThe switch was a little confusing at first, and I had to read it over a few times before it made any sense to me, if I’m being honest. But it hit me that he was reminding the audience that this wasn’t a story drawn with animals, but animals drawn to represent humans. The whole tale is a true story, told from a holocaust survivor. The shift shocked me once I realized this and made me feel more that a little uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteWell, he keeps mentioning his talents because a) a lot of those talents kept him alive longer and b) in a way, to prove to Art that, even feeble as he was, he was still capable of so much. He almost did it in a way that attempted to show Art that we was once capable of this and still is. I feel that the relationships in this story are very dynamic when it comes to how different they are. Art’s relationship with Mala isn’t one of extreme closeness, but they connect through Vladek’s ridiculous antics. Mala complains, Art sympathizes. However, after the first book, the relationship between father and son becomes strained.
Well, the fact that he doesn’t want to hear much about the crematory pits says volumes about his feelings toward it. But it’s kind of like a bruise, the way he treats it. Don’t press on it so it doesn’t hurt. He seems like the kind person who chooses his battle wisely, and I don’t mean the physical kind. With all that happened at Auschwitz, protecting yourself mentally, even years down the road, seems normal. I feel like he is correct in his understanding. People didn’t fight back because they were afraid. It’s not logical to Art as to why they don’t fight back, because he probably hadn’t ever been in a situation where he’d been too afraid to do anything about it. But yes, he was correct.
1. Both the shift to wearing the mouse mask and to becoming a child make sense to further contextualize Art's experience as a writer and indirect observer. Art is beginning to question whether he should have found the success and validation that he did with the first part of his book. He isn't sure whether it was good of him to expose his father to ridicule. Art is a new father and he sees a broadening perspective of life and nature's (G-d's) power with it. This makes Art feel as a child and it is only after connecting with his therapist the sadness that he and his father felt that he sees his sadness is still a part of him. The mask is appropriate as it shows Art considering whether he is a full-fledged Holocaust survivor or even Jew. This identity crisis is necessary for the development of Art's observations and perspective for the rest of the story. The mask of the mouse also further brings into questions what the animal metaphors mean and whether or not they are even relevant to post-Holocaust people or events. The mask he wears is of a 'Jewish-American Holocaust legacy survivor and storyteller". It is a confusing mask and needs to be revealed for the reader to better understand Art's perspective.
ReplyDelete2. Vladek is a survivor and he had so many near death experiences that relied as much on luck as his ability to make more out of nothing that that is most of what he prides himself on being. Vladek is labelled miserly in a running commentary by Art, but the inclusion of his more miserly traits, like returning a half eaten box of cereal to the supermarket, are as strange as they are endearing when coupled with Vladek's memories of the Holocaust.
3. A special dignity is found within Vladek that makes him appreciate the delicate nature of life even when death is everywhere. Vladek sees that it would be better for more people to live longer and perhaps a few of them outlive the horror, than if they all died at once, since they were all going to die anyway. Vladek's survival depends on not making brash or bold choices but instead finding gradual ways to prolong his life as much as possible. I think this could appear as a resignation but he was a prisoner, not a soldier, and he knew enough about what happened to the people who fought back against the Nazis to remain surviving the way he was.
1. Both the shift to wearing the mouse mask and to becoming a child make sense to further contextualize Art's experience as a writer and indirect observer. Art is beginning to question whether he should have found the success and validation that he did with the first part of his book. He isn't sure whether it was good of him to expose his father to ridicule. Art is a new father and he sees a broadening perspective of life and nature's (G-d's) power with it. This makes Art feel as a child and it is only after connecting with his therapist the sadness that he and his father felt that he sees his sadness is still a part of him. The mask is appropriate as it shows Art considering whether he is a full-fledged Holocaust survivor or even Jew. This identity crisis is necessary for the development of Art's observations and perspective for the rest of the story. The mask of the mouse also further brings into questions what the animal metaphors mean and whether or not they are even relevant to post-Holocaust people or events. The mask he wears is of a 'Jewish-American Holocaust legacy survivor and storyteller". It is a confusing mask and needs to be revealed for the reader to better understand Art's perspective.
ReplyDelete2. Vladek is a survivor and he had so many near death experiences that relied as much on luck as his ability to make more out of nothing that that is most of what he prides himself on being. Vladek is labelled miserly in a running commentary by Art, but the inclusion of his more miserly traits, like returning a half eaten box of cereal to the supermarket, are as strange as they are endearing when coupled with Vladek's memories of the Holocaust.
3. A special dignity is found within Vladek that makes him appreciate the delicate nature of life even when death is everywhere. Vladek sees that it would be better for more people to live longer and perhaps a few of them outlive the horror, than if they all died at once, since they were all going to die anyway. Vladek's survival depends on not making brash or bold choices but instead finding gradual ways to prolong his life as much as possible. I think this could appear as a resignation but he was a prisoner, not a soldier, and he knew enough about what happened to the people who fought back against the Nazis to remain surviving the way he was.