Maus Essay

Submitted By Angus-Allendorf
Words: 647
Pages: 3
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Losing Everything Imagine losing everything. Everything including family, a home, and all personal belongings. This very thing happened to many Jewish people during the Holocaust. The graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman, focuses on the character Vladek Spiegelman. Vladek loses everything but his life, which he nearly loses to starvation. Vladek is a dynamic character because he changes in three main ways. because of the Holocaust. The first way is he becomes a miser. Secondly, he becomes depressed. Third, The first way Vladek changes is he is much more of a miser. He starts off as a hopeful factory owner. Wealthy, rich, opulent; life is going well for Vladek and his wife Anja, until the Nazis come and take them. By the end of the Holocaust, he is a penny-pincher. This is demonstrated by his late-wife, Mala. “Pragmatic? Cheap! It causes him physical pain to part with even a nickel! (Spiegelman 131)”
The reason he is a miser is because he had to scrounge for food and save everything in the Holocaust.
Vladek, in one instance, is walking along the road with Artie when he finds telephone wire. He says that telephone wire is very useful because it has little strands inside that are good for tieing things together. When Artie says that to just buy it at the store, Vladek scoffs, telling Artie that buying costs money and this was free. This is a clear sign of someone having to have lived at some point through rough times, in which they needed to search for even the simplest of things. The second way Vladek changes is he becomes much more depressed throughout the Holocaust.
He sees many people die, some of which he knew very well. Penultimately, gives his little boy, Richieu, to Tosha, who was also hiding two other kids in her house. Tosha lives in Zowiercie. One day, the Nazis decide to clear out the rest of that ghetto. When Tosha finds out, she poisons herself and all three kids, including Richieu. Vladek found out much later that his child was poisoned by the very person he trusted to keep Richieu safe. Finally, when he arrives back from the Holocaust, his wife, Anja, commits suicide, leaving Vladek destitute. Artie stays with Vladek on the night of Anja's suicide and comforts him, while Vladek mumbles and moans the whole night through. That night, they sleep on the floor. At the funeral, Vladek jumps onto the casket and cries for Anja. It was very obvious
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