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Adversity In Art Spiegelman's Maus

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In Art Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II -- a graphic novel biography of his father -- he depicts Vladek in a manner that both supports as well as challenges Horace's belief that adversity brings out hidden talents that would have otherwise lain dormant. While adversity helps him grow as a person, it later goes on to hurt him in the end. In the beginning of Maus I, Spiegelman portrays a young and curious version of his father, Vladek. As time progresses, life around him begins to crumble. The first major adversity he faces has to do with the true love of his life, Anjia. After giving birth Anjia spirals into a deep dark depression. In order to comfort and help her Vladek has to discover a more sensitive, loving aspect of his personality. Vladek’s character develops to accommodate his wife’s need for vast amounts of love and support, rendering him a better person in the long run. Later in the comic, all the Jews are rounded up and placed into ghettos. As written by Spiegelman “the noose tightens”. In the ghettos the Jews are given a finite amount of coupons which they can use to by the bare necessities, such as food. …show more content…

Through numerous concentration camps, his first son’s death, and Anja’s suicide Vladek is left a shell of his former self. Vladek becomes stingy, fidgety, anxious, and slightly depressed, Due to him losing all he once held dear to him, Vladek towards the end of his life is just going through the motions. The love which kept him strong and optimistic got tragically taken away from him. His new “broken” mentality is demonstrated through his interactions with Spiegelman and Mala. Vladek no longer seems capable of being the loving father and husband he once was. Overall, I think Vladek needed adversity to unlock the parts of himself which allowed him to survive, but was hindered by the trauma of having to go through what he did towards the end of his

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Another factor is that Vladkek’s meaningful relationships were affected by the Holocaust is that Vladkek knows that there is no such thing as friends. He doesn’t have a strong and meaningful relationship with Artie because he never had a stable relationship with him. Int the flashback on the beginning of the book Vladkek say “Friends? There’s no such thing as Friends”,This means that Vladkek will never have meaningful relationships because he doesn’t believe in friends which is the most important factor of creating meaningful

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Vladek pretended to work to protect himself from getting killed. He was smart enough to know that if he pretended to work when a guard walked by, he will have a higher chance at survival. The three traits helped Valdek survive during the Holocaust when he enters

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As a young man during WW2, Vladek proves that he is a quick thinker with ethical ideas. During the Holocaust, it was a tough time for everyone, especially the Jews. Vladek had to move from place to place just to keep himself and his family safe. This was very difficult because the Polish and Gestapos were everywhere. Vladek had ideas that were enough to save his life and keep him safe.

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Vladek is living in the time frame of 1935-1945 when the Holocaust took place and Germans were killing Jews. The first panel, the image is depicting a sign that says “This town is Jew Free.” Now, the Jews who visit or live here are seeing this sign and building up in fear, planning what to do next. This is later going to lead into the Holocaust where many Jews including some of his friends and relatives get killed. This is an example of a conflict later to occur, the Jews will be kicked out and who ever doesn 't obey, the Nazis killed.

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Critics argue that this is not the main focus of the book although they are right this is still an important focus of the story. Vladeck and his family are put in very hard situations that they have to find some type of safety to save themselves and others this happens when Vladek and his wife have to figure out what to do with their son. “I have a good friend, a pole, who’s willing to hide my son until the situation gets better. ... I think he’d take you boy too.” (Spiegelman, 81).

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Through these happenings he was able to become a morally sound and dynamic character. He had to go through depression, euphoria, a short period of misery and finally he reached a point where he was able to hope even through all of his difficulties. He was able to find that even though life might be tough, tight and a sometimes miserable that it’s doesn’t always have to be that. He was able to become a round dynamic character all his own. Nobody forced him to change, he might been pushed in the right direction but all of the adjustments were his to make through reflection and taking

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The first way that his connections would help him because when some Jewish officials came to register some of the war prisoners so that they could be free, Vladek would tell the officials that Orbach was a friend that he knew that lived in Lublin. In the novel in page 62 to the top panels of page 63, it would start showing that he would get freed to local Jews and thanks to his connection with Orbach, this would later help him be with Anja and Richieu back in Sosnowiec. This demonstrates that his luck with being freed and knowing a local Jew that would later led him to be with his family again after being imprisoned by war. Another example of his connections making up his luck is his encounter with a Nazi soldier that was going to kill him but when the officer found out that he was a relative of Illustrious Spiegelman, he would let him go. In the novel in page 118 in the bottom panels, a Nazi officer would say, “Give me your ID papers or i 'm gonna blow your brains out.”

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