Flashbacks In The Pawnbroker

In Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker, the emotionless Sol Nazerman is undervaluing money-lender. He teaches Jesus Ortiz, a Puerto Rican, the tools of the trade, and launders a local gangster’s money. Before the war, he had a wife and two children, who he lost to during the Holocaust. Vladek, from Artie Spiegelman’s Maus, lost everyone but his wife, including his first-born son to the war. He later made his life by selling diamonds in the United States of America and had a second son: Artie. Unfortunately, he loses his wife, Anja, to suicide years after the war. Both characters were significantly scarred by the Holocaust as shown by their flashbacks, relationships and materialism. Throughout the movie, Sol has various flashbacks triggered by certain

Vladek was able to see the worth in things, such as cigarettes, bread, gold, and whatever else he could find, in order to organize things. Thanks to this, he managed to survive, and helped his wife through these terrible times. With all the bartering he did, he quickly found himself selling hosiery in Sweden, and later diamonds in America, becoming quite a successful salesman. However, this behavior also turned him into a miserly old man who would rather glue broken plates together instead of throwing them out. This tightfisted behavior is what pushed Mala away, and what makes Sol such a stingy pawnbroker. Every day, he gives his customers a low price for what they bring to the store. He sees everything for what it’s worth, and barters everything down to the smallest price he can get it to, and, since he’s working in East-Harlem, it isn’t hard for him to get the low price he’s offering to buy at. He’ll later explain to Jesus that he only believes in money, and that people, race, gods didn’t matter in this world. Both characters are good negotiators, often getting what they want, but after the war, this lead to avarice, and they were shunned for the behaviors they acquired to survive the Holocaust.