Stereotypes In The Complete Maus

The Complete Maus, the graphic memoir finalized by Art Spiegelman in 1991, explores an individual’s experience of the Holocaust—that of the author’s father, Vladek. The horrors he experienced forced him to overcome numerous obstacles learning more along his path. The events illustrated in the story were recorded by Art in conversations with his father, likely in an attempt to either preserve his memory or, more probably, patch his relationship with him. Throughout the book, in addition to dissecting Vladek’s recount of the Holocaust, his relationships and overall character are widely developed through his conversations and interactions with other characters. Most notable of these traits is the contrast between how the Holocaust affected his

One of Maus’s distinctive features is how Art differentiated between races and nations using different animals meant to reflect those races' stereotypical behavior and known behavior during that period. Art juxtaposes and explores the complexity of racial stereotypes present in Vladek versus other Holocaust survivors regarding the effect the Holocaust had on those views. Maus does this through Vladek's pragmatic tendencies, his prejudice against members of certain racial classes, and through discussing its societal implications and how his manner contrasts with the manner of others in similar situations.

Vladek displays early on his conservative attitude towards all things physical, as present in chapter three of the memoir, highlighting how his frugal disposition came to affect his family. While Jewish stereotypes in terms of being ‘cheap’ and ‘stingy’ have been around for ages, Vladek seems unfazed by the influence propaganda has, even after experiencing their effects firsthand in the Holocaust. During a dinner Art had at his father’s house, on page 45, he records how particular Vladek is when concerning the excess from the meal. His father angrily demands he finishes “at least what's on [his] plate,” suggesting that Art would have wasted his food otherwise. The extent to which Vladek goes to be frugal goes beyond a mere reflection of his circumstances and a need for frugality during

Dissociated with the concept of benevolence, Vladek rebukes Francoise as she stops for a hitchhiker on page 259. The reason for his harsh criticism—the hitchhiker’s skin color. During the short ride from the grocery store, Vladek judges and curses Vladek’s wife, for her kind gesture, and the hitchhiker, for what he looks like, calling Franscionse “crazy,” and referring to the passenger as a “shvartser,” a derogatory Yiddish term for black people. Following the ride, Vladek vocalizes his bigotry, explicitly stating he had to watch the “shvartser” the whole time in the back seat to make sure he did not “steal…the groceries”. Franciose, in defense of the man and critically of Vladek, pondered how it is that “[him] of all people…be such as racist”. Faced with irony, Franciose did not hold back her opinion of Vladek and her analysis of his behavior, as she, like all people, struggled with the fact that he talks of other cultures and races “the way the Nazis talked about the Jews.” Deep-founded prejudices are not rational ones but are instinctual ones. Vladek appears wire-coded to be a certain way, in this specific case, to be racist. This reality, that he cannot see how similar his beliefs are to those of the Nazis, teaches that his beliefs are genuine and were established long before the Nazis spread similar propaganda about the Jews. Again he condones his