After thirteen years of dedicated research and constant redrafting, Art Spiegelman created his two- volume masterpiece: _Maus_. As the child of a Holocaust survivor, Spiegelman1 sought to embody the Jewish experience in graphic novel form. Little did he know, the information he dug up would haunt him forever. Spiegelman subsequently incorporated the story of his research process with his father’s tale of survival, adding a mixture of objects to symbolize the past’s effect on the present.
Throughout _Maus_, Spiegelman uses objects – even those which are physically destroyed – to signify the permanence of a traumatic past that permeates into the present through physical and emotional haunting, depicted by Vladek’s deteriorating body and psyche as well as Artie’s involuntary transgenerational inheritance of the Holocaust experience. Medicine conveys the idea that physical haunting from past suffering continues into the present as the Holocaust has evidently taken a toll on Vladek’s body. From the beginning, Vladek shows signs of deteriorating health.
He counts out over 30 pills for his daily needs, mentioning heart problems, vitamin deficiencies, and diabetes. (Spiegelman I. 26). At first, this dependence on medicine could be dismissed as effects of old age, but the pills reappear later to affirm the idea that Vladek’s health stems from past trauma. In two different instances, Vladek spills his medicine when talking about the past. He first knocks over his pills after making a “Heil Hitler” motion while talking about Artie’s deformed arm as a baby. (I. 30).
By spilling his pills, Vladek’s physical health is temporarily threatened since he is hindered from treating his current illnesses. The fact that he’s talking about Hitler – the perpetrator of Jewish extermination policies – when he knocks over the pills creates a link with the traumatic past and suggests that the physical trauma from the Holocaust continues to threaten his health in the present. In addition, Artie is involuntarily dragged into the Jewish experience as his damaged arm is compared to a Nazi salute.
Artie’s physical defect is thus related to Vladek’s haunted past, symbolizing transgenerational physical suffering. The second instance of spilled pills occurs when Vladek begins telling his World War II experience. Vladek attributes the spill to his bad eyes, one taken out due to hemorrhage and glaucoma and the other limited by a cataract. (I. 39). Glaucoma, an ocular disease characterized by high-pressure fluid buildup in the eye and subsequent blindness, can be caused by emotional stress and health conditions such as heart problems and diabetes?.
Since Vladek has experienced the mentioned causes of glaucoma from surviving the Holocaust, Spiegelman implies that Vladek’s eyes were physically damaged from past trauma. The medicine is spilled because of Vladek’s poor eyes, suggesting that a physical haunting continues, perhaps symbolically, to hurt his present health since Vladek is forced to waste time recounting his pills. Transgenerational physical haunting is demonstrated by Spiegelman’s use of Artie’s cigarettes to symbolize Artie’s unknowing inheritance of Jewish history and the effects of a painful past on Vladek’s present health.
In one of the first interviews with his father, Artie drops cigarette ashes on the carpet, creating an immediate connection between Vladek’s past and Artie’s inherited present as the ashes are reminiscent of cremated Jews. (I. 52). This interpretation is bolstered by the image of a crematorium in Vladek’s story penetrating its frame and entering right under Artie’s cigarette. (Spiegelman II. 69). Ambiguity is created by the positioning of the smoke in the scene since it could be either from Artie’s cigarette or the crematorium or both.
The mingling of the two smokes suggests a link between the burning of Jews during the Holocaust and Artie’s inheritance of Jewish history as he burns his cigarette. Furthermore, the trails of smoke from Artie’s cigarette are almost identical to the smoke coming from “Gas chamber and crematorium II” on the back cover of the second novel. (II). Transgenerational haunting is thus depicted through Artie’s cigarettes, which are physically poisonous and carcinogenic and symbolically representative of a traumatic Jewish history.
The cigarettes physically harm both Vladek and Artie as Vladek states “Better you shouldn’t smoke: for you it’s terrible, and for me with my shortness of breath, it’s also no good to be near. ” (II. 20). Physical haunting thus occurs for both father and son; Artie inherits a past of Jewish suffering – represented by the cigarette – that damages his body whereas Vladek’s shortness of breath is exacerbated by the smoke. Repetition of smoke in Vladek’s face serves as a constant reminder of his physical haunting as a result of a painful past, especially as Artie forces him to retell the Holocaust experience.
(I. 84). The cigarette and its smoke collectively show the past’s damaging effects on Vladek’s health as well as the damage of an inherited Jewish history on Artie. In addition to lingering physical trauma from the Holocaust, Vladek suffers from residual psychological damage that undermines his ability to maintain family relationships, shown by the fragmentation of physical objects. Before the Holocaust reached its peak, Vladek and his extended family initially managed to remain together. At a family dinner, Richieu slams a plate into the background, yet the plate remains intact. (I. 75).
The unbroken plate signifies the cohesion and unity in Vladek’s family in a past before the mass extermination of Jews. In contrast, Vladek drops and breaks a plate while telling his story in the present. (II. 73). The broken plate may represent the fragmentation of Vladek’s family, but more specifically, the fracture of the relationship between Vladek and Artie. This emotional separation between father and son is especially prominent when Artie offers to do the dishes; Vladek declines Artie’s help, hypocritically putting him down by stating “You only would break me the rest of my plates.
” (II. 73). Vladek also says that he can glue the plate together, though it is obvious that glue cannot completely fix the plate. There will always be a visible crack where the plate was shattered, symbolizing Vladek’s emotional scar from the Holocaust. This scar also creates a transgenerational emotional haunting as Artie is reciprocally unable to connect – like the two halves of the broke plate – with his father. Photographs depict a scattered family that similarly continues to haunt Vladek through painful memories.
When Vladek shows Artie photographs of the family members, the pictures are oriented such that they cut into word bubbles, enter multiple frames, and scatter all over the page. (II. 114-116). The lack of separate frames for these pictures and the fact that they enter panels of the present suggest an emotional haunting by the ineffable memories of those who died in the Holocaust. The pile of family photographs in a background of fire alludes to the fact that Vladek’s family was first scattered by the Holocaust and then perhaps as ashes in ovens or crematoria. (II. 115).
Vladek is clearly haunted by these photos as he sits with his head down and shoulders drooped. His body is broken into separate panels, a visual fragmentation that represents not only the scattering of his family members, but also a possible mental breakdown. (II. 116). Vladek’s melancholy expression is the embodiment of emotional haunting as he stoops over a chaotic pile of family portraits that are juxtaposed in a way that is suggestive of dead bodies. Even though these family members are long dead, Vladek is still dramatically shaken by the persistence of his traumatic past.
Destroyed objects create a transgenerational emotional haunting for Artie, showing that ultimately, the effects of the traumatic past transcend the physical existence of material objects. Anja’s burned diaries provide a source of transgenerational haunting for Artie as he is forced to cope with the mystery of his mother’s thoughts. He is outraged by his father who burned the diaries, calling him “murderer” and yelling “God damn you! ” (I. 159). This rare, emotional outbreak of rage creates a poignant contrast to Vladek’s nonchalant statement ‘Only I know she said “I wish my son, when he grows up, he will be interested by this.
‘” (I. 159). Vladek’s indifference in his crucial statement amplifies Artie’s transgenerational emotional haunting as Artie is left with unfulfilled curiosity about his mother’s past. Thus, emotional haunting cannot be overcome by the destruction of past physical objects as the lack of material keepsakes can lead to equally traumatizing experiences. Similarly, Artie is haunted by the burned letters Vladek exchanged with a French prisoner. The memories are able to transcend the physical and continue haunting both father and son.
Even by destroying the letters Vladek is still unable to escape the emotional haunting of his past as seen by his look of resignation. (II. 99). Artie is haunted in the same way by the letters as with Anja’s diaries – through painfully unsatisfied curiosity. Though unable to vicariously experience the Jewish suffering of the Frenchman and his mother, Artie remains haunted by the physically destroyed memories that aren’t his own. In conclusion, physical objects in Maus create both literal and symbolic hauntings of a traumatic past that persist into the present.
Both physically and emotionally, Holocaust survivor Vladek suffers from past agonies as depicted by pills, smoke, and photographs. Even with objects that are physically destroyed, haunting continues through unfulfilled curiosity. Artie suffers from inheriting Vladek’s tormented past and being unable to inherit his mother’s story, as symbolized by cigarettes and Anja’s burned diaries, indicating the existence of transgenerational haunting. Through the passing down of a traumatic Jewish history via material possessions, the children of Holocaust survivors continue to be affected by a haunting that transcends time.
Notes Just as Professor Wong does, I use Spiegelman to reference the author of the comics whereas I use Artie to signify the autobibliographic narrator within the story. I chose to focus on five particular objects (pills, cigarettes, dishes, photographs, and burned writing) because they could be heavily analyzed and best supported my thesis on transgenerational physical and emotion haunting. There were other objects I wanted to talk about, but there simply wasn’t enough space or cohesion. One of the objects is table salt, which could symbolize the incompatibility of Vladek and Mala due to Vladek’s emotional trauma.
(II. 19). Table salt, chemically NaCl, is created by a bond between Na (sodium) and Cl (chloride) ions. Since Vladek states that sodium cannot be in his diet, he may be suggesting his inability to bond with Mala, and in a broader sense, most other people. Another object I didn’t mention was Artie’s microphone, which at times held Vladek at bay. The microphone seems to represent the emotional disconnect between father and son, as in one panel Vladek is talking solely to a microphone in Artie’s hand, with the rest of Artie’s body cut off from the frame. (II. 37).
The microphone, along with the salt, can be seen as objects that convey the damaging effects of emotional haunting on family relationships. Finally, I didn’t mention the scene in which Vladek throws out Artie’s coat and gives Artie a hand-me-down. (I. 68-69). Vladek’s coat is used to represent the transgenerational passing down of the Jewish Holocaust experience to Artie (and the unwilling but unavoidable acceptance of such an inheritance). Along with the inheritance, of course, comes physical and emotional haunting. In all, these are just three objects I didn’t fit into my essay but thought were important to mention.
Works Cited Spiegelman, Art. _Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History_. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986. Print. Spiegelman, Art _Maus: A Survivor’s Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began_. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. Print. Vass C, Hirn C, Sycha T, Findl O, Bauer P, Schmetterer L. Medical interventions for primary open angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. _Cochrane Database Syst Rev_. 2007 Oct 17;(4):CD003167. ? Vass C, Hirn C, Sycha T, Findl O, Bauer P, Schmetterer L. Medical interventions for primary open angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Oct 17;(4):CD003167.