Portraying of Holocaust in Literature - Book Report/Review Example

Portraying Of Holocaust In Literature Maus is a world renowned graphic novel completed by Art Spiegelman in 1991. This novel became a worldwide phenomenon after it was published because it had accomplished the seemingly impossible, depiction of such a serious issue as Holocaust in comic form. This novel has so much to offer to the world that much has been written about it in over the years. It is based on Art’s troublesome state of mind because he is entrapped in the memories of Holocaust. He never experienced living at Auschwitz himself and did not witness the grand massacre himself. But, his obsession of building a structure over a pile of ashes from the burnt past does not let him rest. This report aims to illustrate some important lessons advocated by Maus and their relevance in the 21st century. The lessons covered in this discussion are based on racism, family, guilt, and memory. Racism is a strong theme throughout the story and there is much to learn about it in this novel. It is interesting that Jews are depicted by Art as mice and Germans as cats. The old cat and mouse chase is used to represent the Nazi practice of exterminating Jews. Every Jewish character is represented as a mouse. Nazi Germans were of the idea that Jews are less than humans. Jews are vermin who should be wiped out from the face of earth. This racist idea underpins the tragedy of Holocaust which is why Jews are shown as mice to potentiate this idea that Germans equated Jews to vermin. Racism is still pretty much alive in our society despite the fact that we are living in the 21set century. Racial slurs are very common in the US which is a tragedy. This novel, Maus, helps to realize that racial stereotypes still permeate the society. This brings up the question of whether we have learned anything valuable from the past and do we still continue to drag it into our present by being racist in some way in life. Racism can be a very complex subject to discuss in a graphic novel, but Art deals with its complexities in a very creative way. It is demonstrated by Art that racism did not end with Holocaust and is not confined to Auschwitz. Rather, some of it penetrated the Jewish survivors also and made home there. This is because Art’s father Vladek is also shown to have racist tendencies. Vladek is a Holocaust survivor. He was a victim of racism in Poland and has become a perpetrator of racism after coming to the US. The novel also dwells significantly on the subject of family. There is much to learn about family from Maus. It is told that traumatic experiences can cast a very negative influence on normal family life. It becomes impossible to bring family life back on track sometimes after experiencing highly tragic events directly or indirectly. Vladek has experienced Holocaust personally, but Art has not because he was born after that. Yet, the terrible memories of the past haunt them both just the same. This is because the experiences of Vladek are passed on to Art as painful memories. Though Art does not have first-hand experience of Holocaust, in real life he is just as much uncomfortable about the subject as Vladek is. Art’s mother, Anja, committed suicide in his childhood overcome by trauma of her son dying amidst Nazi chaos. Art’s older brother lost his life during the war which is a tragedy from which no family member has been able to escape. Anja took her own life, Vladek keeps blaming himself in the novel for outliving his older son, and Art is insecure about not being able to live up to his dead older brother. The entire family is in a mess and relations between living members are strained by memories of the past. A valuable lesson offered by Maus about family is that Holocaust tested family bonds in very severe ways and these bonds could not stand the test of time. Maus is also seen exploring the theme of guilt and advocates this lesson that guilt is a highly toxic passion which holds the potential to devour a person’s soul bit by bit. We see Vladek and Art being eaten alive by guilt throughout the novel. This incessant guilt reduces them to constant depression. It fills them up with an ocean of self-pity. The lesson is that guilt should not be given the freedom to overcome everything else in life. This is because guilt paralyzes a person rendering him/her almost non-functional. Vladek is seen constantly torturing himself for outliving his son who met his tragic demise in the Holocaust. He feels guilt for not dying himself and witnessing his son die instead. He also feels guilt for continuing to live and witnessing his wife commit suicide. Art, on the other hand, suffers from guilt because he fully believes that his father loves his dead brother more than him. He is always anguished over not being able to be exactly like his brother. This inability to live up to his dead brother haunts and torments him due to which his character often appears in the novel as tremendously guilt-ridden. The guilt encountered by the Holocaust survivors over surviving those who perished is of such momentum that they are not able to come at peaceful terms with it. There is much to learn about memory, its relation with the past, and its influence on the present from Maus. It is told that memories, depending on their nature, can have serious consequences. They are passed on from one generation to the next and heavily impact the children’s development. Though a generational distance separates them from such memories, they are still connected to them in every sense of the word due to sharing a close personal relationship with the parents. We learn from Maus how Anja occasionally used to narrate her experiences of the Holocaust to Art before committing suicide.This sharing of memories brought Art dangerously close to the event of Holocaust and after growing up, he developed an impossible urge to relive the past which he does not quite comprehend. It is learned from Maus that not being able to properly deal with memories can have drastic consequences in life. This inability can often twist a person’s whole life. Having to grow up with unbelievably agonizing memories of parents despite not having to live their experiences makes for a very sad issue which is explored in Maus. Children of the holocaust survivors are the victims of awful memories from which they have not been able to detach themselves like Art. This suggests that the role played by memory in early development of a child is of prodigious importance. Concluding, there is much to learn from Maus for readers from all backgrounds. It is a very good source of expanding knowledge. There is something for everyone in this novel because it touches on a wide variety of sensitive subjects from race to guilt to blame to family to trauma.Mausalso tells the story of memories that are not really owned by Art, but are so powerful that they eventually become his own memories. The story tells the nature of impact produced on the children of Holocaust’s survivors. This impact is of lethal nature because despite the fact that these children did not live their parents’ painful experiences, they are still unable to enjoy peace because they grow up with their parents’ guilt and memories. Read More