Maus Discrimination Quotes

Drawing Parallels Discrimination, racism, and prejudice are unfortunely not new concepts that have recently sparked attention and trouble throughout society; Discrimination can happen and has happened in various societal groups which include race, religion, sexual orientation, and the list goes on. It is a significant part of our world’s history as well. One of the most prevalent and infamous acts of discrimination is the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman’s novel, Maus, is a memoir dedicated to the life of his father Vladek, a Holocaust survivor. Throughout the novel, we are able to hear about the horrific experiences of the Holocaust that Vladek had gone through. Many of these wrongdoings were extremely discriminatory, not just towards Vladek himself,

Vladek is walking down the street when some kids recognize that he is a Jew. Although the Jews have done nothing wrong to these kids, they shout in fear and anger “Help! Mom! A Jew!!”, a child screams in fear after coming across Vladek. Their mother responds with “…Be careful! A Jew will catch you to a bag and eat you!... So they taught their children” (Spiegelman 149). They have been so brainwashed by their parents, friends, and country about how they should hate Jews. One could claim that the same thing is still happening today. “Prejudice in adults and children is a crucial issue in this process. The dynamics of prejudice formation and expression in adults was investigated quite in depth in the field of social psychology and social sciences in general. While the presence of ethnic prejudice is manifest in children as young as 3 years old in terms of ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination, the identification of the environmental sources of ethnic prejudice in children still needs to be studied” (Pirchio,). I find that often in recent times that children are being taught today by parents, family members and school that certain groups of people should be looked at differently. It spans from race and religion to social status and financial stability. Kids are not just born racist and/or discriminatory; it

There are evident similarities of the experiences that the Jewish people during the Holocaust had compared to modern-day experiences of several different races, religions, and ethnicities. This goes to show that our society today has a very long way to go until we reach true equality between one another. Through analyzing these different examples, we can gain a deeper understanding of the effects discrimination can have on someone, or even communities. On the brighter side, we can also become inspired by the people who had remained strong and resilient through times like this. By us being able to simply recognize these ongoing issues, we can take time to educate ourselves, become a more accepting and understanding society, and hope to create a world with less discrimination, racism, and