Morality In Art Spiegelman's Comic Book Maus

With historical events as large and dehumanizing as the Holocaust was for so many people, representation and retelling of the event becomes a difficult subject. How can someone accurately convey the pain and suffering so many millions of people felt especially when there is the potential for someone to profit? Art Spiegelman's comic book Maus was subjected to the same criticism and more surrounding the ethics from publishing his comic and the issues raised by the tale of his father's survival. The means that Vladek Spiegelman and other Jews used to try and remain alive were considered barbaric by the outside world and brings into question the ethics of survival and the fragility of morality. Art Spiegelman portrays this complex issue on page one hundred and fourteen with the interaction between Vladek and his cousins Haskel and Jakov. Although this event happened early on in the Holocaust, the fear within the Jewish community was still evident. Vladek and his wife Anja and her family had been rounded up by the Germans in Sosnowiec and put into a building

Before events such as deportation to Auschwitz, German and Polish morals had already begun to weaken. The Nazi's used propaganda to ensure that the image of the Jewish community was a negative one. By making people like Vladek wear the Star of David, the party was able to completely dehumanize the Jews. Their association with evil allowed for the swaying and comprised Polish and German morals. This complete dismissal of ethical behavior demonstrates the truth of the current fragility of morals in these communities. The evident decaying of morals may add to why Vladek is so comfortable with Jakov's behavior. Since Vladek has already been discriminated against for many years, it is possible that he sees Jakov's actions as normal and in line with how others have treated