Trauma and Guilt

    One of the main ways that the traumas of the Holocaust get passed from Vladek to Art is through guilt. Guilt is obviously present in many ways in the book. Vladek experienced extreme survivor’s guilt from the Holocaust, especially considering that most of his family and friends died. As Pavel, Art’s psychiatrist, suggest, he could have taken that guilt out on Art. The passing of this guilt is supported by Art admitting to Francoise that he feels guilty for having a better life than his parents. Art explains, “Somehow, I wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents so I could really know what they lived through! I guess it's some form of guilt about having had an easier life than they did.” Art cannot escape his sense of guilt, similar to how Vladek cannot escape his guilt nor the trauma from what he endured during the Holocaust.

     It is interesting to look at how both Art and Vladek are haunted by their pasts. While Vladek clearly has the burden of the Holocaust, after surviving that horrible experience, he had to suffer from the suicide of his wife as well. This is one trauma that Art also experienced first hand and evidently continues to be tortured by regularly. Aside from the guilt that Art “inherited” from his father, Art is burdened with the guilt of feeling responsible for his mothers death. This is presented in the comic “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” in Book 1, chapter 5 when Art writes, “I felt nauseous.... the guilt was overwhelming!” Art struggles with the idea that his mother killed herself because of the way he treated her; notably, when she asks if he still loves her, Art shortly replies, “Sure, ma!” It is also clear that Vladek still really struggles with Anja’s suicide. At the very end of the same chapter, Vladek breaks down at the bank and cries out his late wife’s name. Anja’s death is another thing from Vladek’s past that continues to haunt him.

Accessible Trauma

     For Art and Vladek, it seems as though the primary means of transferring trauma is through story-telling. Art asks Vladek to tell him about his experiences during the Holocaust in order to make them into a graphic novel, but in the process I think that Art is exposed to the raw horrors of what Vladek and other Jews went through. Art just wants to put it into a book, but listening to Vladek's stories, he's forced to recognize those traumas-- and since it involved his parents, kin, and other Jews, it seems like it would be hard for Art to be unaffected by all of that. It may not seem this way at first, but one could even attribute Art's tense relationship with Vladek as an indirect result of Vladek's experiences. Vladek is still in the survival mindset that he was during the Holocaust, and all of the knitpicky things he would do to survive are just unnecessary and annoying to those around him now. 

     For me, at least, the graphic novel format was FAR more effective at conveying the story of the Holocaust than any historical text that I've read. For one, it's a very personal account. Much like The Diary of A Young Girl (Anne Frank's diary), this is (for the most part) one person's account. What sets it apart further and makes it better in my opinion is that the drawings can convey much more than words alone can. The drawings create a world to relate to. They can depict horrible things like piles of dead bodies, children being swung into brick walls, and get the message across without being straight up gore. Characters are more easily identifiable by the type of animals that they're drawn as. All of these things make the story more accessible, more approachable, and more understandable. And that's not always easy to do when the audience is from a completely different time and maybe weren't direct witnesses or even alive during the time period of it's events. 

Keystone Pipeline XL Protest

            February 4th at 6:30 p.m. many people gathered in front of Tulane University to protest against the Keystone XL Pipeline. This tar sands filled pipeline would cut through America’s mainland. The Keystone Pipeline already exists. What is yet to come, Keystone XL Pipeline would be an expansion running from Canada into the United State’s Gulf coast. At its peak capacity this pipeline will deliver about 830,00 barrels of oil per day. The company TransCanada (The company that proposes this expansion) writes on their website that, “ Keystone XL Pipeline will be the safest and most advanced pipeline operation in North America. It will not only bring essential infrastructure to North America oil producers, but it will also provide jobs, long-term energy independence and an economic boost to Americans.” What they don’t tell you is that this project will make the U.S. completely dependent on dirty fuels. The U.S. market as well as all international markets associated with the U.S. will be prone to the unprocessed tar sands. These toxic fuels transferred through the pipeline will harm our environment and change our climate. The leader of the protesters, a woman decked out in a Captain Planet costume, said, “We cannot let Obama add to the pollution in our environment. If this thing gets approved our plans of helping our planet and reducing global warming will be more of a lost cause.” Electronic candles and signs saying, “Obama rejects keystone XL pipeline” were passed around as well as flags with the planet on it. Hopefully this protest along with many others around America will convince the government to avoid making yet another big mistake.

Slaughterhouse-Five v.s Maus

The only similarity Vonnegut and Speigelman share in their stories is the topic of WWII. While both novels center around WWII, they contain completely different story lines. Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is written as a science fiction novel from the perspective of an American soldier who survives the bombing of Dresden. Aliens and time travel are then inserted into the story, which causes the reader to become confused and question what to take from the novel. It is difficult to tell if the outrageous parts of the story should be taken seriously or symbolically.  

Speigelman’s Maus is drastically different from Slaughterhouse-Five. Maus is a graphic novel written from the perspective of a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. Speigelman uses animals to depict different races of humans. For example, Jews are mice, Non-Jewish Poles are pigs, and Nazis are cats. Compared to Slaughterhouse-Five, this novel is much clearer and more straightforward. The illustrations capture the reader and help explain the story so there is no confusion for the reader.  

Cat and Maus

There are both similarities and differences between Speigelman's and Vonnegut's stories. It was interesting to see how Speigelman, similarly to Vonnegut, went back and forth in time to tell the story. It was almost like he was more telling the story of when his father told him the story than just telling the stories that his father shared with him .Also, there are really three different main times that he is going between, the war, him going to his father, and finally him actually telling the story.  The difference is that since Maus is a graphic novel it is much easier to follow and understand when the time has changed since we have the illustrations to help as a visual guide to his story. Another similarity between the two is that they both use unconventional writing strategies to make a point. In Slaughter House Five, Vonnegut uses crude language to make his point that war is crude and anyone who has to go through the experience of war will be as crude as the war they lived through. Speigelman uses broken English in the novel and I think that he does this to give it more validity and a genuine feel to it so that you can really hear it in your mind how each of the different people that were affected by the war would speak if they were to speak English. This also gives more a definition between each race which gives you more of a feeling of disconnect between them. Though I actually enjoyed Slaughter House Five, I really like Maus because it is much easier to follow because the illustrations, though not necessary, really help bring the story to life, not only because they are pictures but because of the way that they chose different animals for each of the races, Germans being cats that prey on the Jewish mice. I really like how well thought out it is and it really flows though it brings you back and forth in time. 

Spiegelman vs. Vonnegut

Spiegelman wrote Maus as a graphic novel, which is the main difference in writing style between Spiegelman and Vonnegut. Additionally, the story line is different for both writers. In Maus, the story line is somewhat linear and can be followed easily, while Slaughterhouse Five is complex and contains stories within the main story, which at times makes it hard to follow. In both novels, I saw similarities between characters.  Vladek is similar to Billy Pilgrim in several ways. For example, both initially seem disinterested in women. Vladek when dating Lucia would try to distance himself from her. He went through the motions of dating, yet he seemed very uninterested. His interaction with women changed when he met Anja. Billy Pilgrim got married to his wife because he thought it was right. Billy Pilgrim also seemed uninterested in his wife. Throughout the book, Billy Pilgrim is seen in a way disconnected from his wife. Like Vladek, Billy Pilgrim would follow the motions a man in love would have followed, he does not complete the actions out of love. Another similarity between the two characters is the fact that they were both soldiers in World War II. Both men received little training and were sent to the battle front. When faced in a combat situation, Vladek did not start shooting instead he hid until another fellow soldier questioned as to why his gun remained unused. Billy Pilgrim’s response, when attacked by the enemy, was to remain in visible sight making him an easy target. It wasn’t until the other soldiers would pull him or yell at him to go towards safety that Billy Pilgrim would respond. So far, from what we have been assigned to read I prefer Spiegelman’s graphic novel. I prefer his novel due to his simplicity. While reading Maus, I did not have to re-read sections to understand the story. Slaughterhouse Five had so much going on that I constantly had to flip through the pages in order to follow along with the story line.

Spiegelman vs. Vonnegut

      There are more differences than similarities between Spiegelman and Vonnegut's styles. The only major similarity between Maus and Slaughterhouse-Five is that both books are related to the topic of war. While Slaughterhouse-Five is a formatted as a novel, Maus is a graphic novel. Although Maus appears to have less written content because it is a graphic novel, Spiegelman does a better job of providing the audience with useful and coherent information than Vonnegut; one of the ways he does this is through his narration. Vonnegut's narration was confusing because the reader never knows from what point of view he/she is reading, whether it is Billy, Vonnegut, or some other character, however, Spiegelman makes it clear who is narrating or talking in the cartoon strips.One major difference I noticed was the main character's background and characteristics. Billy is a very passive young man from America who rarely has a strong reaction to anything; Vladek Spiegelman is a Jewish man who is very active and reacts to even little things. While Billy believes all events are destined to happen no matter what; Vladek believes there is always a better option. When facing a difficult situation Billy does not take any type of action, like when he his being shot at in war and when he knows he is about to be killed by a hit man hired by Lazzaro. However, Vladek attempts to find solutions when he has a problem, such as, when Anja gets depressed and when he becomes a prisoner of war. Although both were drafted, Billy was a naive, young boy thrown into the war, and Vladek had voluntarily joined the Polish reserve, even though his father discouraged him greatly; he was he was too determined to be stopped from joining. One element in Maus that caught my attention was the interaction between the writer and his father, unlike Slaughterhouse-Five that had unrealistic events involving aliens and time travel, Maus appeared to be more truthful because of the casual conversation between father and son. Particually, when Vladek talks about how he met Anja and tells his son not to write about it; yet the son promises and writes about it anyways. This made it seem as if the author is not censoring his writing. Overall, I prefer Speiegelman over Vonnegut because it flows naturally because it is written by someone who is interviewing a person that has dealt with war first hand, but the writer can take the information and attempt to piece it together in order without getting distracted. I also think the representation of the different races of people is clever and lessens confusion; especially considering the quote by Hitler at the beginning of the book.