Maus - Generational Trauma

    For the first time in the comic, Art Spiegelman illustrates his characters as themselves: human. Unlike his usual use of anthropomorphism, he portrays his life as a human, a form to which the audience can more emotionally relate to. Emphasized several times throughout the literary comic, generational trauma speaks even further on the issue on pages 100-103. The small narrative depicts the death of Artie's beloved mother, Anja. When first entering the scene, we notice that the pages are significantly different in both perspective and look. Inconsistent with the usual first-hand perspective given to us by Vladek, we are instead presented with the mind and past of Artie. This rapidly shifts our own perspective of the story from the Holocaust's direct impact on its victims to the ignored generation that follows. 

    The comic starts with Artie as a prisoner, a symbol of the trapped life he experiences in his family. The stripes on his uniform emphasize his imprisonment, however, as the story progresses, the stripes darken, highlighting the significance of this event on him. While both Vladek and Artie experience the death of Anja, Vladek is depicted as the child while Artie is instead given the comforting role of a father figure. Ironically, Vladek weeps out "mother... mother..." when they are the words that should be spoken by Artie (101). This signifies the disparity of the roles played in the family. Vladek's role as a father is undermined by his pain and trauma leading to Artie's expectation "...to comfort him" (101). He is surrounded by a shroud of darkness - the broken relationship with his father - which he can never escape. We see the disarray and brokenness of Vladek's relationship with his son and how his trauma led to Artie's "imprisonment."

    In the end, he blames his trauma on his mother, or his family in general, screaming out "You put me here... you murdered me... and you left me here" (103). By drawing the block of scenes in a black box in contrast to the usual white, he reinforces the inescapable trauma he has been passed down through the lives of his own family.