All About My Mother And Art Spiegelman - 1352 Words

Pedro Almodà ³var’s film, All About my Mother and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus, both attempt to make sense of the ways in which trauma shapes families. Both texts portray trauma as a divisive force between parents and children, however the expression of that division is variable. While Maus portrays trauma as purely divisive, All About my Mother demonstrates that trauma can create as well as destroy familial relationships. The two texts reconvene on the idea that the passage of trauma from parents to children serves as a means of recovery from trauma and pain. In both narratives, distance between parents and children is created because of a traumatic experience unique to the parent. In All About my Mother, this distance is manifested†¦show more content†¦Manuela’s withdraw into a vague response and her unwillingness to discuss the trauma and events which are so significant to her and Estebà ¡n’s lives highlights the distance created between parent and child through this suffering. Trauma still behaves as an alienating force in Maus. However, the distance between Artie and Vladek is expressed in the form of Artie’s guilt, rather than insensitivity, about Vladek’s trauma. While discussing his struggle to retell Vladek’s story with his wife Franà §oise, Artie states, â€Å"I can’t even make any sense out of my relationship with my father...How am I supposed to make any sense out of Auschwitz? †¦ of the Holocaust?... When I was a kid I used to think about which of my parents I’d let the Nazis take to the ovens if I could only save one of them†¦ I usually saved my mother. Do you think that’s normal?† (14). The fact that Artie can’t comprehend his relationship to Vladek indicates his lack of understanding, and therefore distance from his father. Spiegelman s subsequent questioning of how he is to understand the Holocaust and Auschwitz, and his use of the same sentence structure in voicing those quest ions demonstrates the parallels between these two ignorances and underscores the causal relationship between misunderstanding his father and his ignorance ofShow MoreRelatedTransferal of Guilt in Maus1428 Words   |  6 Pagesare biographical comic books written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. In these books Spiegelman tells his father’s story of survival through the horrors of the Holocaust. Spiegelman simultaneously presents an inner story of the conflict between him and his father, Vladek Spiegelman as both he and his father try to come to terms with the past, and work to have a normal life. This feelings of tension and conflict suffered by Vladek and Art in Maus I and II is caused by a transitional and reboundingRead MoreAnalysis Of Maus : A Survivors Tale By Art Spiegelman1071 Words   |  5 PagesThe graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (1994) is about Spiegelman’s interpretation of his father’s stories about surviving the Ho locaust. The story starts with the Spiegelman’s family current life in New York. The father Vladek, a Polish-Jewish man is unhappy with his marriage to his second wife Mala after his first wife Anja committed suicide. Vladek starts the story in Nazi-occupied Poland in the year of 1939, speaking about his experience of being a solider that was capturedRead MoreMaus, By Spiegelman, And How They Survived The Holocaust1180 Words   |  5 Pagesrenowned American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, on his best-selling graphic novel, Maus, published by Pantheon Books in 1986. 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The story alternates between the parents’ struggles and the present day strained relationship between Vladek Speigelman and his son, including the suicide of Art’s mother when heRead MoreSummary Of Maus By Art Spiegelman Essay1593 Words   |  7 PagesMaus by Art Spiegelman is a graphic novel about a man s story of surviving the holocaust and the son was asking his father to tell this story. By itself this is a great story a man trying to survive the Holocaust against the odds and reunite with his lost love. Outside the simple exterior there is a dark theme of guilt that enhances the text from cover to cover. This theme of guilt is something that can be seen throughout the story, in a surprising number of times and an even more surprising numberRead MoreTheme Of Guilt In Maus1301 Words   |  6 PagesGuilt is a great consumer of lives, but exactly what do people know about guilt? People only know what theyve learned from experience, both theirs and others. 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Based on the alienation of the Jewish â€Å"race† albeit â€Å"not human† and the superiority that the rest of the populationsRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Maus 1257 Words   |  6 PagesMaus is a tale about a young man who is in search for answers about his own life and his father’s life. Vladek Spiegelman is a survivor of the holocaust who reconnects with his son A rt Spiegelman by telling him stories of his past. Art creates a well-written comic tale about the Holocaust and the relationship he has with his father. This survivor’s tale takes you back to the Second World War to tell us a story of a Jew who hardly survived life. The story opens with Art visiting his father to getRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Maus 759 Words   |  4 PagesEtherington Dec. 3, 2014 Maus: Response Paper 1 In chapter one of Maus by Art Spiegelman, Artie sets out to visit his father, Vladek, in Rego Park after being away for nearly two years. Vladek has remarried to Mala after Artie s mother s suicide. Artie convinces his father to tell him his story so that he may write a book about his life in Poland and the war. Vladek begins his story by explaining how he met Artie s mother, Anja. In the beginning of chapter two, the honeymoon, Artie visits VladekRead MoreLife Is A Game Of Chance1198 Words   |  5 PagesVladek’s experiences in the camp show how many Jews must have felt at that time that they were abandoned by their God. Art Spiegelman is suggesting that life is a game of chance, or rather a series of events that are fated or at least influenced by a divine power. Life is governed solely by chance and why, during the Holocaust, some people survived while others did not. When Spiegelman is looking for answers, and talks to his therapist it reinforces this idea â€Å"Yes, li fe always takes the side of life