When I started reading this book, I realized there was
a strong theme in which Vladek and Art were immersed, the relationship between
both of them. I am sure that Vladek and Art loved each other, but there was a
sense of hatred at the same time from son to father, because all the privacy
events that Vladek passed through during the Holocaust, and also because Art’s
father did not share anything with his son until he asked him this story in
order to write this book. 
There are two good examples in which I want to focus
my attention; the first one is when Art asked his father about his mother’s diaries,
he cannot forgive that he burnt them all, consequently Art called his father a
murderer, because he thought he killed his mother for a second time, he wanted
this diaries while he was depressed because all the pain he suffered from the
past, from the holocaust, from his lost.
The other example that I want to highlight is when
Vladek wakes his son very early in the morning because he wanted him to help
fixing gutter on the roof, but for the reason that of the relationship between
them all, he refuses to help his father and wants to feel guilty about it. Time
after that, when he grew up, he decided to go to his father’s house in order to
remedy the past event, he asked his father for any help, because he felt that
the guilty had grown. Till now, Art thinks that he could never forget this
sense of pain, despite the fact that his father is dead, he regrets about it.
All things considered, I found blissfully interesting, the fact that Art
goes to his father, and asks him about his stories, his experiences in order to
create this autobiographical book, Maus.
The way Spielgeman adds such a lot of elements, for instance the Holocaust,
suicide, anger let me think how great his work is, and in addition to that how
he through commix, developed this book, let us know about his father’s experiences
being a survivor of the Holocaust, and about his own life.
What if Vladek had not burnt his wife's diaries? Do you believe that their relationship would have been the same?
What if Vladek had not burnt his wife's diaries? Do you believe that their relationship would have been the same?
Paulina, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post.
ResponderEliminarFirst of all, I must confess that I entirely agree with your analysis since the relation that Vladek and his son is strongly influenced by the past events they went through.
Answering your question, from my point of view, there are two possibilities:
1. If Vladek had not burnt his wife's diary, Art would have not treated his father as a murderer, but Vladek's help with the stories would have no longer been necessary. Thus, their relation would have been broken.
2. Thanks to the loss of the diaries, the relation between Vladek and Art became stronger because they spent a lot of time together working on the stories.
Furthermore, as you mentioned, Art's sense of doing little for his father is present even after he passes away, which can be seen as the resulting product of spending time with him.
Finally, I agree with you when you say "Vladek and Art loved each other" because even though they never showed this love, it is known that a father loves his son no matter what.
I really liked you answered the questions from two different points of view, because those answers let us think about Vladek's and Art's relationship through the book, if the events had been different, additionally your answer was the one I was expecting, and I thank you for that.
ResponderEliminarFurthermore, I agree with you, when you say that a father loves his son no matter what, because it is a feeling that cannot be described and it does not matter what happens, is a part of your life and your soul.
Hi Paulina, well their relationship also called my attention and I also believe that they love each other, but as human nature, the fact that they are men and that supposed that they couldn’t show their emotions that much makes understand a little bit why they were quite distant. Moreover Vladek is an old war survivor, so is almost impossible asking him to be more sensitive, but I think that his character hides a lot of emotions that were forced to be kept in his heart considering all the suffering that he lived.
ResponderEliminarBut according to my interpretation when Art was about to touch his deeper feeling, his father stopped the narration, and that shows how his father was trying to evade any possibility of being week, which at the end is for me clearly exposed, (and I asked for somebody’s opinion in mi post) in the moment in which he called him Richieu.
hi my dear friend. I personally believe that your topic is very catchy as you show a human view on the relationshio between a father and his son. Also I think that Vladek did not tell his personally story to Art not because he did not love his son,I reckon that the main issue are the feelings that the story calls back to the present and that for Vladek are very sad.
ResponderEliminar