Maus | Maus

The book "Maus" is just like what I've heard and learned in the past if not I would say it is exactly the same. The author Art Spiegelman really is a good explainer and puts a lot of good details in this book. Art Spiegelman puts so much detail in each little character (witch are mice) and he also put a lot of detail into each little drawing.

Basically the book "Maus" is about these mice,who are Jews, live in this town called Czestochowa witch was in Germany. Artie started going out with this mouse named Vladek. They were going out for about 3 to 4 years and then Artie found another mouse named Anja. When Vladek first got married to Anja, they both lived a very luxurious life in Sosnowiec altogether with his in-laws. Of course, when the war came, they suffered a 180º spin in their lives as all the comforts they were used to where taken away from them and they had to manage with what little was available. Throughout these hostile situations, Vladek acted like a very strong and clever man, and he even established important relations that helped him in his way to salvation. His survival skills and his instinct were at their utmost, as he was one of the few who made it till the end.

In order to make a thorough analysis of Vladek's personality, it is important to take a look at how he got along with people before the Holocaust. As a young man, or so he says, he was pretty popular, especially when it came to women; no problem there. When he eventually married Anja, all his in-laws liked him and he had a good relationship with all of them not to mention Anja's father, who absolutely adored him and helped him out in many ways. In fact, when problems started he managed to get in touch with very important people who could be useful to him, and this he did so effortlessly. In present days, in the book, it is no mystery that he has a bad relationship with his son, with his wife and apparently with everybody who is around him; this cannot be entirely blamed on Hitler's Holocaust.

But of course, the book does not make any reference about Vladek's life between the war and the present, so there is really no way of telling what kind of father, husband or neighbor he was in that long period of time. Art makes some comments about life when he was a kid, like when he would not eat his food or he becoming an artist so his father would not make him feel useless, but these attitudes are not really abnormal, there are the ones that many strict, not traumatized parents have with their children. One factor that most certainly is crucial in understanding his personality is Anja's suicide; it is completely understandable that he was disturbed by this incident, anyone would be. Another important fact is that Vladek is now living through a very tough age, in which most people get very irritable and sensitive, which has nothing to do with the Holocaust. Anyway, it could also be the guilt mentioned above the one that makes Vladek act the way he does, after all, all the people he loved perished before his eyes and there was nothing he could have done to save them.