maus blog post 1/5

Art Spiegelman

Maus

296 pages

Note:  The book I am reading is a graphic novel about a Polish Jew’s perspective of the Holocaust of World War II.  In this book all the characters are depicted as animals:  the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Poles are pigs, the Americans are dogs etc. It is therefore sometimes difficult to ascertain the physical features of the main characters. 

Vladek Spiegelman

Vladek Spiegleman is the main character of this book.  He was a handsome Jewish businessman who looked like Rudolph Valentino when he was young.  Vladek was a very handy man; he made hidden bunkers that he used to hide up to twenty Jews when the Nazis were eliminating the Jews from the ghettos. (page 112, 114) He was good at fixing things and was a quick study.  For example, in Auschwitz he learned to mend shoes and work with tin like a craftsman even though he’d had no experience whatsoever (page 220).  He was very resourceful and took advantage of opportunities no one else saw.  When a Polish kapo in Auschwitz asked if anyone knew German and English Vladek said yes and got a job as a tutor.  Consequently, he got a feast each time he gave a lesson and also got better fitting clothes for himself and his friend (page 192).   Vladek was very close to his wife; and even managed to take care of her in Auschwitz- sending her food and arranging better living quarters for her.  He was a neat and tidy man who put everything in its spot.  (page 95) He didn’t like people to touch or move his things: “It’s so claustrophobic being around Vladek,” his daughter-in-law said.  “He straightens everything you touch.  He’s so anxious”.  Vladek was a thrifty man before the war but after the war he became a miser, a hoarder who wouldn’t waste anything:  he kept old restaurant menus and picked up pieces of telephone wire from the street (page 118).  Vladek is also manipulative because when he wanted to see his son he lied to him and said that he had had a heart attack when he hadn’t – he just wanted to see his son (page 173).  Although he was a kind, loving husband to Anja, his first wife, he was critical and disrespectful to Mala, his second wife (page 132). 

Art (Artie) Spiegelman

Art is the author of this graphic novel.  He is the son of Vladek and Anja, two Holocaust survivors. He wants to write a book about his dad’s story and “tell it the way it really happened.”  As a young man he spent time at a psychiatric hospital (page 102)  As an adult he suffers from depression because his mother committed suicide and because he feels guilty he did not live through the Holocaust (page 176, page 202).  He is a good person who feels things deeply. 

Anja Zylberberg:

Anja was a friend of Vladek’s cousin and she became Vladek’s wife.  She was born to a rich family.  She was a slim, shy and sensitive woman (page 32).  Even though Anja wasn’t that pretty she was kind, smart, and had a certain charm to her.  When Vladek first met Anja she was taking pills for nerves. (page 21) She suffered from postpartum depression (page 33) when their first child was born and later in life she committed suicide (page 102).