Is Vladek Justified In Killing Greek

At the end of the novel, Artie calls his father a murderer due to the fact that his father had burned Anja’s diaries—the ones which had offered the recounting of her life and experiences throughout the Holocaust and WWII. While accusing his own father of being a murder, Artie’s claims are certainly justified to a certain extent. This is due to the fact that, in a sense, by burning her memoirs and the only accurate account of her life, Vladek essentially “murdered” Anja by destroying the only objects that served as a representation of her existence. According to Vladek, Anja once stated, “I wish my son, when he grows up, he will be interested by this” (Spiegelman 159), and since Anja had unfortunately passed away, the diaries were all that were left to be passed on to Artie. However, Vladek decided to burn them despite Anja’s wishes, thus “murdering” her by erasing the only remnants that were able to convey her story.

Quite obviously, Vladek was emotionally and perhaps even psychologically impacted by Anja’s suicide, as seen when Artie states, “My father had completely fallen apart!” (Spiegelman 101) in the “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” comic strip based on his mother’s death. Taking this into consideration, Vladek’s choice to burn some of the memories of his wife could have been a sort of coping mechanism to him come to terms with and move on from his wife’s death. Much like how ex-lovers tend to throw out memories associated with their relationship, Vladek’s burning of Anja’s diaries could have helped him heal both emotionally and psychologically by getting rid of the physical objects associated with his wife, leaving him only with the memories that would fade over