Maus Iop Essay

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INTRODUCTION Death inevitably affected the living; this can be seen in the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. Maus is a biography of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek Spiegelman who is also the father of the author. So, what is the Holocaust? Well, it is a systemic murder where 11 million people across Europe died. However, Spiegelman only focused on a few deaths to let the reader have an insight on how death of loved ones affected Holocaust survivors. In my IOP, I will talk about two significant death events in Maus; they will be Anja’s death and Richieu’s unfortunate death. Furthermore, I will link the effect of these two to Vladek and Art. Firstly, I will explain the effect of Anja’s death on Vladek. Anja is the mother of Art and the Wife of Vladek. Being a fragile character right from the beginning, when Anja was in the Holocaust, she became increasingly ill, both physically and emotionally. Hence, even if Anja survived through all the insanity in the concentration camps, the depressions and breakdowns might have made her commit suicide. In Maus I, Spiegelman showed the reader that Vladek and Anja already developed a strong bond and this was evident throughout their time together in World War II. The couple hid in a cellar house where there was no food, Vladek said “Here Anja, chew on this. It’s only wood but chewing on it feels like eating food.” (pg. 125) Love has been clearly shown when through all the hardship, Vladek still support his wife emotionally. As the reader is now aware of the link between Vladek and Anja, we then have a clearer idea as to why there was always conflict between Vladek and Mala because Vladek still undoubtedly cares for his diseased wife, his love will forever be attached to Anja. Spiegelman demonstrated conflict when Vladek said “and she screamed, “ I want the money! The money, the money!”. (pg. 129) He conveys how Vladek

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