I've noticed repeatedly throughout the second half of Art Spiegelman's "Maus" that Vladek, Art's Holocaust surviving father, exhibits rather odd behaviors as a result of his experiences. For instance, on page 112 Vladek draws a diagram of the bunker in which he and Anja had hidden in one of the ghettos, saying "such things it's good to know exactly how was it - just in case." I interpreted this to mean that Vladek desired that his son have an idea how to create a bunker in case of some type of desperate situation, such as a war. Vladek probably realized that what had happened to him could happen again.
On page 118, Vladek and Art are walking along as Vladek shares part of his story and picks up telephone wire, telling his son that "it's good for tying things," to which Art replies "you always pick up trash! Can't you just buy wire?" Vladek says in reply "Why always you want to buy when you can find?" This exchange reveals Vladek's desire to save money by picking up discarded objects instead of buying things new, and also we learn from this discussion that this is not an isolated incident because Art's comment tells us Vladek has done this before. On page 134 Art's stepmother Mala says that Vladek has quite a bit of money in the bank and yet is very cheap. On page 133 she says that when they married and she needed some new clothes he tried to give her his first wife's clothes. Mala feels that his stinginess is not a result of being a Holocaust survivor because "all our friends went through the camps. Nobody is like him!" I think that Vladek's desire to spend as little money as possible resulted from a fear that perhaps there would be another war and he had discovered in WWII in hiding and in the ghetto that having savings meant the difference between life and death - money meant food and sometimes a hiding place. I think he picks up things off the street because he learned to get by with very little during the war and desires also to save as much money as he is able.
I agree. Those were great observations and it does feel like the edginess of Art's father was at least in part his desire to stay ready incase something like his past would happen again. I think he meant well and tried so hard to pass on his painfully learned wisdom.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading a memoir of a Holocaust survivor and I couldn't help but think of the book as I read your post. There are similarities of course as in both cling to material things or they as much as they can. In the memoir, the character had major problems. I don't know what they would be called medically but for example she lives in a house by herself with a little dog that she picked up off of the street. But the dog ends up dying in the oven and she doesn't both to help him. It sounds crazy but she was so numb that she didn't feel any emotion hence why she didn't save her dog. It's so sad to see how bad some people were affected by the Holocaust. Especially in Art's case, Vladek was also emotionally numb but it could have been worse.
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