After having finished reading the book, a lot of
things went through my mind as the graphic novel is so full of information, but
what I could not understand right away was the relationship Art Spiegelman, the
author, and his father Vladek had, so I investigated.
Vladek’s behaviour was of a tense man, maybe even
compulsive, with the pills’ counting and keeping everything neat. But this he
cannot control, as I believe these behaviours are a consequence of the Holocaust.
The clearest example of it are his savings, he lived with little, but he always
had something saved for the future, the same way he did when he was in the
camps.
This was exactly what bothered Art, this presence over his
life, Auschwitz. “My father and I could hardly get together without fighting…if
I was going to tell the story, I knew I’d have to start visiting my father
again.”[i]
After I read this I thought that he went to his father only so he could write
his book, but then he said “from the book a reader might get the impression that
the conversations in the narrative were just one small part, a facet of my
relationship with my father. In fact, however, they were my relationship with
my father. I was doing them to have a relationship with my father”[ii]
and I realized that it was not out of interest he was doing it, he was looking for
the explanation why his father was like this.
I believe that this relationship was complicated because of
this Auschwitz’s shadow, which created an unhealthy family environment filled
with secrets and taboos. This can be understood as I think most people who
survived such horrible experience do not want to relive them, but pretending
that everything is fine is not healthy and we can see that in this relationship,
filled with guilt and regrets.
Do you think that this is a recurrent story as Vladek’s
father was not very present in his life either?
Who do you think were the fatherly figures for Vladek in the
book? And for Art?
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