Historical Reconciliation In Art Spiegelman's 'Maus'

Maus and historical reconciliation

History always deals with things that are in the past. In this time and age, people usually have the tendency to consider history, simply as something that does not exist in reality anymore, things that have already passed. In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the novel illustrates readers not only the change in the world after the war, but that it also has significant meaning for us in our day. He throws out a variety of subjects in his book, the generation before and after the war, namely the lack of understanding caused by a generation gap, also the relationship that history has to one person, how that person changes through such a relationship and also history and the way to reconciliation. Simply, Maus is a story
about the author’s father, one character named Vladek’s life.
Specifically, through his father’s appearance and his story, the readers can see what he thought about history and the past, how he understood and accepted it. This is not simply a short story showing his father’s life born to parent’s, who were Auschwitz holocaust survivors, the story is not only his father’s life but people can also say that it is the author’s family history. The author juxtaposes Vladek’s historical life and damaged current life through looking back to time in his past. In the beginning, Vladek says, “It would take many books, my life, and no one wants anyway to hear such stories” (Maus I 12). At first, it seemed like he was going to avoid telling the story, however as he finally started to unfold it, people see that he no longer wanted to avoid his family’s terrible past and that he wanted to accept it as a part of his life. Vladek in the present is a character that overly saves and conserves everything, and overdoes many other things like vigorously taking care of his health. The reason he became this way was due to his exhausting effort to stay alive during World War II as a Jew. This tenacity was made even more strong though his experience at the Aushwitz death camp. “At
that time it wasn’t anymore families. It was everybody to take care for himself!” (Maus I 114). Through these scars of the past he has nightmares every night. Also, his illness-like obsession has a great affect on people around, especially in his relationship with his wife, Mala, and his son. Vladek seems to be struggling over little things. Furthermore, Art and Vladek seem to be having a row over trifles. For example, in the novel, Vladek was dissatisfied at Art’s counting pills and roaring at trifles, “No!
You don’t know counting pills. I’ll do it after…I am an expert for this” (Maus I 32). Even though many people try to counsel him, his newly formed habits start to create many problems in his relationships with other people. “You should know it’s impossible to argue with your father” (Maus I 45). Another interesting point is that Vladek kept a picture of what he looked like after the war. In the novel, Vladek says, “I passed once a photo place what had a camp uniform – a new and clean one – to make souvenir photos” (Maus II 124). Spiegelman put the actual picture of his father in the novel. The readers can just see this as something he did to make the novel seem more real to other people, but it is also a way to show the pains of history and use it as a means for reconciliation. In short, as the author used a two-fold approach to draw upon the past and present of the war, the readers can figure out how Vladek has accepted his painful past, how he has adjusted after the experience and how he has changed. I really enjoyed this novel because it is choice to portray the character’s as animals was very effective and clever and that it allowed the reader to think about the differences of each ethnic group and also to think about and
understand the relationships of the characters.
Worked Cited

Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivor 's Tale : My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon, 1986. Print.

Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: A Survivor 's Tale : And Here My Troubles Began. New York: Pantheon, 1991. Print.