Greek's Relationship In Maus

The act of talking to someone through testimony is the best way to overcome trauma that has haunted someone’s life. By talking to someone rather than talking in monologue, the burden is shared with the listener and therefore becomes less for the teller. Another way someone can share a burden with a listener is through storytelling. By writing stories and sharing it with an audience, the writer is able to share his experience in the world. In other novels, however, the novelist may create a character to stand in for the audience as the character communicates his traumatic story. In Maus by Art Spiegelman, the traumatic experience is being told by Spiegelman’s father and Spiegelman creates himself as a character in the book to be a stand-in for
Richieu is Anja and Vladek’s first born son who did not make it out the Holocaust. The first reference to Richieu is when Vladek retells the story of Anja’s post birth depression. After Richieu’s death, Anja and Vladek put a photograph of their child on the wall which leads Art to feel as though he has some sort of sibling rivalry with his dead brother. He likened the photograph to an ideal child because it “never threw tantrums or got into any kind of trouble. It was an ideal kid, and [Art] was a pain the ass. [He] couldn’t compete” (II pg. 15). Art’s rivalry with his snapshot sibling arises from the potential his brother could have had if he were alive. His brother could have “become a doctor, and married a wealthy Jewish girl” (II pg. 15) or possibly been able to deal with Vladek better than Art could. Throughout the beginning of the narrative, Art’s relationship with a ghost of his brother is as strained as the one that he has with his father. However, throughout the rest of the narrative, Art begins to accept his brother back into his life by drawing his brother as an actual cartoon, dedicating the volume two to him, and including a picture of him in the forward. His relationship with his brother heals so much that by the end of the narrative, Vladek mistakenly refers to Art as Richieu, showing a complete acceptance of the importance of his brother in his life and the relief that comes with letting go the burden of jealousy against his