Summary
Maus is a graphic novel depicting the horrors of the Holocaust. The novel depicts the author, Art Spiegelman, as he interviews his father, Vladek, about his experience during the Holocaust. Vladek is elderly and has a troubled relationship with Mala, his second wife. He has an obsession with living frugally and to spend much time with him frustrates Art deeply. However, they have a bonding experience over the sharing of Vladek’s stories, which are at once gripping and tragically sorrowful.
The stories detail Vladek’s life as he moves from wealth to poverty, falls in love with his first wife, Anja, raises a son, Richieu, and survives Auschwitz. The author depicts Jews as mice, the Polish as pigs, and the Nazis as cats, which serves as a function of dehumanizing the events of the Holocaust. Vladek’s will to live is inspiring and allowed him to live through the horrors of concentration camps: being separated from his wife, nearly starving to death, watching his friends die, hearing about the deaths of family members, and other unimaginable trials. Vladek in present-day is a very particular man, meticulously counting out his pills and returning opened boxes of cereal to the grocery store expecting a refund. His son becomes very frustrated with these peculiar traits and they clash often, but it does appear that the very habits that would be considered strange might have been the habits that allowed Vladek to survive.
He survives a frigid train ride because he eats snow from the roof, he becomes friends with a Polish guard because he teaches him to speak English, and he teaches himself how to mend shoes and becomes the official cobbler of the camp. His mind never stops; he is always thinking about the next step toward survival. The author respects this quality in his father but is also critical of how it has shaped Vladek into a very compulsive person.
Present-day Vladek has many health problems that crop up throughout the novel. He insists on Art and his wife, Francoise, coming to stay with him in the cabin he rented for the summer. Art is incredibly resistant, even bitter, at the prospect of spending that much time with his father. The tension in their relationship plays out at these points especially: Art wants space from his dad, while his dad only wants to be closer to him.
The novel ends with Vladek telling Art the story of how he was reunited with Anja after the war. It is one of the lightest parts of the novel, and it is clear that Vladek has had one true love in his life.
The stories detail Vladek’s life as he moves from wealth to poverty, falls in love with his first wife, Anja, raises a son, Richieu, and survives Auschwitz. The author depicts Jews as mice, the Polish as pigs, and the Nazis as cats, which serves as a function of dehumanizing the events of the Holocaust. Vladek’s will to live is inspiring and allowed him to live through the horrors of concentration camps: being separated from his wife, nearly starving to death, watching his friends die, hearing about the deaths of family members, and other unimaginable trials. Vladek in present-day is a very particular man, meticulously counting out his pills and returning opened boxes of cereal to the grocery store expecting a refund. His son becomes very frustrated with these peculiar traits and they clash often, but it does appear that the very habits that would be considered strange might have been the habits that allowed Vladek to survive.
He survives a frigid train ride because he eats snow from the roof, he becomes friends with a Polish guard because he teaches him to speak English, and he teaches himself how to mend shoes and becomes the official cobbler of the camp. His mind never stops; he is always thinking about the next step toward survival. The author respects this quality in his father but is also critical of how it has shaped Vladek into a very compulsive person.
Present-day Vladek has many health problems that crop up throughout the novel. He insists on Art and his wife, Francoise, coming to stay with him in the cabin he rented for the summer. Art is incredibly resistant, even bitter, at the prospect of spending that much time with his father. The tension in their relationship plays out at these points especially: Art wants space from his dad, while his dad only wants to be closer to him.
The novel ends with Vladek telling Art the story of how he was reunited with Anja after the war. It is one of the lightest parts of the novel, and it is clear that Vladek has had one true love in his life.