MAUS- Maddy Stutt 809

'Maus' by Art Spiegelman-

In the book club we are currently reading the first of the two Maus books, this one is called "My Father Bleeds History" by Art Spiegelman. They are the true story of Spiegelmans father, Vladek, and his time through Auschwitz and the Ghetto's. The book is all done as a comic where the officers are pigs, Nazi's are cats, and the Jew's and civilians are mice. Although it is a comic, the book is still an intense, very real, true story of a Holocaust survivor. The pictures are done witout color and to me are never very happy or lighthearted. It is done through clips times of Vladek telling Art his story in the 1970's or so and clips from during the war. The book gives you a much more real retell of the war and makes you feel as though you are very close to Vladek and could have been with him the whole way. While reading I began noticing a connection between how Vladek becomes... almost like a hoarder and saves everything and is a little crazy and during the war the sense of desperation he and everyone else around him had.

During the book I realized the characters did so many impulsive, crazy things that were horrible an at first i was confused at why they would act like that. Towards the beginning- middle of the book I began to realize that it was because they were so desperate that sometimes, they really had no other choice. On page 109 Tosha kills three children that she loves and then takes her own life to avoid being gassed. She felt as though she had no other way out and had no control over anything, and her only option was to kill them all. People keep having to do crazy things, all because in a world turned so upside down there was just nothing else to do. Also, on page 114 Vladek has to pay his own cousin to save their lives. That war changed the way people though and how relationships worked. Today, saving a loved one is something you just do it's not something done as a job. I think that anyone going through and who lived in a world like this can never be left untouched. I know Spiegelman also encountered horrors, but I believe even if he hadn't just living around people in that state of mind would leave you with affects. For Spiegelman I began noticing that he was incredibly stingy and could never get rid of or buy anything. For example, Mala says that he put her on a $50 a month budget, and thats his own WIFE! Also, Mala says that in restaurants he would bring home toilet paper just so he didn't have to buy it. I think this comes from how life was in the war.

 In the war everyone was so desperate just to have essential things such as food or toilet paper. Because Vladek witnessed and went through all this, it has left him with the fear that maybe it could happen again or just the state of mind that he still must act the same way. I began to think that maybe he is  thinking about how desperate people were for anything and everything and how impulsively they acted and because he still hasn't and never really will be able to move on, he is still living in that mindset.