Maus

I had tried to read Maus once before this class. I just couldn’t get through it at all. I saw no appeal in reading about WW2 and the Holocaust; much less seeing them portrayed as animals. Maybe subconsciously I was revolted by the idea of humans being slaughtered like animals, and I just had no desire to see it portrayed at all. Let’s just say it isn’t my favorite subject matter to read on. And what really frustrated me with the story was how “common” (as in popularly told, not common as in many people have escape Auschwitz and survived to tell about it). It was a Jewish man’s story. Jew’s weren’t the only ones slaughtered by the Nazi Party under the control of Hitler, yet the most common stories about the Holocaust are all about Jews. No one seems to care for all the other minorities Hitler had killed, neither before nor after the Holocaust. And that in and of its self really bugs me.

That aside, I believe the comic did a good job at presenting the story. I found myself more drawn to Vladeck’s story than to what was happening at the time, much like Artie. But I didn’t really care for the Artie character at all. I know it’s supposed to be the author, but he seems so ignorant of his father (both his emotional and physical pains). Vladeck had lost his immediate family, so many friends, his first son, and then his wife. No one really wants to remember the painful times of life, and it just seems like Artie doesn’t really understand the possible effects it could have had on his father. And then at his therapy sessions, he doesn’t seem to understand whatever he happens to be feeling about it how it must be so much worse for his father who actually had to live through it and then relive it again through relaying the story.

But it’s a shame Anja’s diaries were burned. They would have lead to a beautiful insight on her story and I understand Artie’s bewilderment when he hears what Vladeck had done. It would have been completely different from Vladeck’s story entirely and a very unique story for Artie to write. But I can’t help but wonder, is Vladeck really to blame for burning his wife’s diaries? He only burned them after she died, as a way of trying to purge her from his memory. Its normal to want to forget someone once they’re gone and you would rather have them there. And Artie’s frustration with Vladeck probably makes him miss Anja even more than before. Just think, you and the love of your life survived a terrible ordeal and managed to make it out alive, yet once you escape harms way and establish a good life your love commits suicide. That would be so heart breaking. No one would ever want to live through that. But Vladeck is forced to live through it twice. That would be extremely painful in ways so many of us would no be able to live through much less relate to.

But then maybe it was best that the diaries were burned. Anja’s mental state was not the best even before the war started. She was taking medication for anxiety and taking many pills. And that was when she was living with her wealthy family, being well taken care of. Who knows what was going through her head when the Nazis started rounding up people, or how many more pills she had to take to keep up the semblance of normality while her world fell apart. When standard food was being rationed, pills would be ridiculously hard to find. And then how would she react? Everyone reacts differently when taken off medication. Maybe her outburst when Vladeck mentioned sending Richelieue away the first time. It must have been infinitively worse for her as times went on and got harder seeing how it would have been longer and longer without her meds. It becomes evident that the decline has hit her hard when her and Vladeck are hiding under the floorboards of the woman’s house. She screams over the brush of a rat on her leg. Seeing how she’s depicted as a mouse, a rat shouldn’t really bother her. Plus, there are plenty of potential enemies within the house, a rodent should have been the least of her worries. Auschwitz must have been very interesting through her eyes, her writing would have given much insight on how she was coping. Her mental state though could have warped the world in such a way that she was barely aware of what could happen to her. It’s a pity from a psychological study standpoint, but her son would have been heavily affected by it in a negative way, for more extreme than what happened from hearing Vladeck’s story.