As I was
reading Maus I started reflecting on
how manipulated the information about our past and our family’s past is. Vladek
is such a severe father, and even though he has his reasons, he in a way harms
his son.
Since he
destroys Anja’s diaries, he is preventing Art from finding himself, he is
neglecting Art’s possibility of finding a meaning that goes maybe further or
deeper than just being a survivor’s child and I want to clarify that I do not
diminish the suffering of people who were in Holocaust, however, I think that
giving such a pressure to the children of that generation is just cruel. And
that’s why Vladek does not have any rights to destroy Anja’s diaries because
for me, whatever the reasons someone could have for hiding the real (an
subjective because everyone tells stories from his own point of view) History
it is not valid, because you are taking a piece of someone else’s life. After all,
what would you do if someone deliberately decides what you have to know?
While reading your post, what first came to mind was our dictatorship and how information was hidden from people. It is needed for dictator to have the country controlled, so the information on the papers, on the telly and on the radio was completely changed in order to make people feel it was everything ok, but everybody now knows it was not.
ResponderEliminarPeople can do much more than a single person leading a country, but we are still being controlled and to answer your question I reckon most of us barely do anything to change this situation, which is not good at all. Loads of information are still being hidden while we live our lives normally without being aware of it.