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Ambiguity In Survival In Auschwitz

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Primo Levi recounts the daily struggles he endured under German enslavement in his Holocaust memoir, Survival in Auschwitz. Levi fights not only to save his life, but most importantly save who he is, despite being surrounded by hate and ignorance. Levi witnesses his friends crumble under the weight of Nazi terror, which causes them to surrender to the bliss of and all-consuming apathy and disinterest of life. Because of this, Levi is mindful of maintaining his individuality and saving his soul. Years later, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus depicts the inherent ambiguity in the life of the child of a Holocaust survivor. Art explains how he is unable to relate to his parents, and is resentful for the guilt he feels over something he could …show more content…

However, is only able to see things and understand them from a second-hand perspective. Although Art is able to hear the horrific tales of the Holocaust, he has never personally experienced it, which makes him feel like an outsider. This is emphasized when Art says, “somehow I wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents…I guess it’s some kind of guilt about having had an easier life than they did” (Maus II, 16). This brings Art anger and frustration, for it is something that cannot be reversed or changed. Art lives in the shadow of his dead brother Richieu, who symbolized everything that should have and could have been. Because of this, Art is frustrated because he knows unable to change anything of his past. This reveals that his anger is a representation of his deep-seated shame, for all his life Art has kept in mind that he must act the exact opposite of who Richieu would have been. Hence, Artie experiences “sibling rivalry with a snapshot,” (Maus II, 15) Art’s troubles of forming and identity separate from the experiences of his parents in the Holocaust, and not being able to meet with his needs and those with his parents, has caused him to distance himself as much as possible from his mother and father. Art is troubled deeply by the travesty his parents had to experience. Despite his choice to distance himself, Art would not want anything more than to be part of their world. Art feels compelled to condemn someone for the Holocaust, which causes him to vacillate between frustration and culpability, and find that his reason for being is

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