Traumas of the War

In The Complete Maus, Vladek’s trauma from the Holocaust is passed on to his son, Art. Throughout the book Vladek tells many stories about the horrors of the war and his struggle to survive. The stories that he tells give the reader an insight to why Vladek acts the way he does. The war has conditioned him to hoard things because they might come in handy later. For example, when Vladek is walking in the streets with Art, he picks up the wire and says that he can use it for tying things. Art responds by telling Vladek, “You always pick up trash! Can’t you just buy wire?” Throughout the novel, the audience sees how aggravated he gets with his father. The story suggests that Art and Vladek didn’t have a good relationship possibly due to the fact that Vladek has psychological damage due to the war, which affects how he interacts with Art. This graphic novel is an effective way to tell a war story because it’s a war story not told by a survivor but by a survivor’s son. This novel shows how the traumas of war can be passed on from father to son. Even though Art didn’t experience the war, he feels the affect of it because of the stuff his father has to deal with after the war. The guilt that Vladek feels is something that even Art has to deal with. The struggle Vladek has is due to the fact that he lost his wife and son and basically the rest of his family. I really enjoyed this book because it was an interesting way of writing a war story with a twist.