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Father Child Relationship in the Novels Maus and Atticus Relationships are often predicated on the historical context of human interaction. The Atticus and Maus are stories about the way in which generational conflict is associated with the past. They also deal with the idea that exploration of cultural history introduces feelings of shame, guilt and blame. Artie of Maus is constantly in friction with the life he might have lived as a Jew in an anti-Semitic world and the one he lives as the converse of his Holocaust survivor father. Although the novels illustrate that victims and perpetrators are on antithetic sides of oppression, they provide reason to believe that children of victims and perpetrators live similarly. Each operates in a world of guilt and nostalgia for the history that they did not have the opportunity to define.
Maus is the autobiography of an artist living in America born to survivors of the Jewish Holocaust. In it the author, Arthur Spiegelman, explores what role the Jewish Holocaust has played in his life and how it has affected his self-image and his feelings of guilt. He does through his explanation of the books writing process and a narration of his fathers story. Artie, Mauss main character, is forced by his father to respect the Jews who escaped the Holocaust more than he respects himself. His father makes him feel guilty for spending money rather than living the way it was in the Holocaust. After he finds a wire on the street he asks Artie, Why you always want to buy when you can find? (Spiegelman 116) Artie in other sections of the novel speaks of how his father would not buy school supplies for him (Spiegelman 130) and how his father makes him feel bad for spending money.
Thus, Artie feels guilty for doing what is normal or considered good in his generation. This is a situation where the reasons for their, Artie and his Fathers, generational conflict begin to surface. When Artie's father tells him to do something, Artie responds with his view on the situation. If the two perspectives are different, Artie gives his reasoning as to why he is correct. His fathers reasoning always lies in how he acted during the Holocaust and how he survived. Artie believes he cannot fight with this argument even in situations where he knows he is correct.
This makes Artie feel guilty for acting and reacting the way he does. Thus their communication leads to conflict and leaves Artie riddled with guilt. In one scene he says, I cannot forget integer since Hitler I dont like to throw out even a crumb. Another example is when Artie and his father, Vladek, go to the grocery store; Vladek wants to return having eaten food to the grocery store. Artie says, Im not going to return a load of open boxes and partially eaten food. (Spiegelman 89) He doesnt want to return the groceries because he knows they will not be reused and they can afford to let the bad groceries go. Vladek nonetheless walks into the grocery store to return the used foods.
In the grocery store it appears as if the manager and Vladek are arguing still Vladek comes to the car with the money. Artie tells him he was sure hed get kicked out of the store. Then Vladek says, he (the manager) helped me as soon as I explained to him my health, how Mala left me, and how it was in the camps. (Spiegelman 90) Vladek's ultimate reason for anything he does is how it was in the camps. This passing of guilt leads to obvious conflict because the guilty party is always at fault. Artie is so guilty that he sometimes wishes he could have been with his father in Auschwitz and he didnt survive. This is the most interesting effect of the guilt and conflict.
If Artie had gone through the pain of the Holocaust, he would not be guilty. His arguments and reasoning would be just as powerful. He tells his wife, I know this is insane, but I somehow wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents so I could really know what they lived through. (Spiegelman 16) This leads to the question why would he what to live through a reality he says was worse than my darkest dreams. (Spiegelman 16) The answer to this is I guess its some kind of guilt about having had an easier life than they did. Artie feels guilty about being the person he is. He feels guilty about not being what his father wanted him to be. This makes him very defensive about what his is and makes him defensive towards what his father says and does and creates conflict that permeates through his relationships with the previous generation.
This is why Artie reacts so fearful towards Vladek neighbors who bring him into their house and why he draws himself as a kid when he visits the psychiatrist. Artie is therefore extremely sensitive towards his guilt and perceptive to the actions of his father. On the other hand in Atticus, a deeply affecting novel by Ron Hansen, we also see clear representation of father-child relationships that coincide with those presented in Maus story. Misunderstanding, dissolute, prodigal, wayward, wastrel, alias, and bribery are only a few words that tell the powerful story of Atticus. The case was labeled as a suicide. The body was identified as forty-year-old Scott William Cody, a blue-eyed white male.
The plot of the book takes three sharp turns. It begins as a conventional novel about the relationship between a father and his troubled adult son. After one character dies, it zigs into a murder mystery, and by the end has zagreb into something entirely different, a parable, let's say, in which characters find redemption. Atticus Cody, Colorado cattle rancher turned oilman, appears at first to be a remote and judgmental dad, but as we observe the gentle, persistent concern he shows for his wayward son Scott, we discover nothing less than the ideal dad. Scott's testing of his fathers love goes way beyond normal bounds: his alcoholism and general irresponsibility actually cause the deaths of several other characters. Scotts peregrinations take Atticus from his home in Colorado to the slums and bohemian underworld of a Mexican town.
There, Atticus confronts a seamy and labyrinthine corruption that tries to separate him from the love of his son. Atticus, the Father, won't let go, and that's the point. In my humble opinion, the message of the book is that an ultimately moving meditation on the ineffable, unmatchable love between a parent and a child should always be a close bond, because you might not have a second chance for reconciliation. Atticus Cody receives a surprise Christmas visit from Scott, his estranged son who has been leading the life of a wastrel expatriate in Mexico.
The friction between them is electric, and despite Atticus profound love for his son he is unable to overcome the differences between them, and Scott returns to Mexico with their conflicts unresolved. Any hopes for reconciliation end when Scott supposedly commits suicide a few weeks later. Atticus journeys to Mexico to recover the body and he uncovers the story of his sons death, fitting together the pieces of mosaic that was Scott's life in Mexico- and encountering a group of disturbing characters along the way. Upon learning the circumstances surrounding his sons death, Atticus begins to suspect Scott was murdered. Unsatisfied with the police investigation, the sixty-seven year old father begins his own, struggling to comprehend the enigma of Scotts life and final days.
It is an investigation that leads Atticus to an unexpected, but emotionally satisfying conclusion. Scott alias Reinhardt Schmidt, finally stopped the charade and disclosed his true identity and reunited with his father, bringing them closer than ever before. Scott Cody was in a lot of turmoil. He felt as if he was nothing, and couldnt do anything productive with his life. He was suicidal and was treated for it, where he also madly fell in love with Renata, his on-and-off girlfriend.
He felt devastated when he lost her to another man. Scott was in even greater trouble when he was involved in a hit-and-run accident, where he killed a seventeen-year-old girl. The girls boyfriend went after Scott, and accidentally murdered Reinhardt Schmidt instead of Scott. Scott realizes that will be a dead man if he doesnt take on Schmidt's identity. But soon enough, Scott realizes all the devastation that he brought to his family and to his friends, and so then he decides to unfold the truth behind his identity. I think I speak for everyone when I say this; we usually take people for granted.
We dont talk the way we should, or express ourselves to the fullest. We later regret our behaviors when its too late. Each day is a new day, and no one can really predict the contents, whether its good or bad. We should all treat each other with respect and love for one another, and treasure every moment you have with one another, because you never know what life will have in store for you. The author braids his plot so intricately that things are never quite what they seem.
Though Atticus is a book one wants to race through to find out whats happened - and the news is indeed shocking - it demands pauses to admire the prose. Here is the sound of a Mexican jitney: "The pandemonium in the engines was like iron pans being clapped together. Here, the look of a gin mill after a shooting: Tatters and silks of gun smoke still hung by the ceiling. And in Colorado, the snow strayed over the geography as though recalling how it was to be water. In the splendid Atticus, Ron Hansen displays both an unblinking eye and a forgiving heart. Similar to Ron Hansen, Spiegelman is telling the story of his father, Vladek, and how his life was affected during the Holocaust.
Artie, as his father calls him, gets his father to tell him the story over many visits, and includes in the plot his own feelings about the visits. The drawings follow the plot from the present setting in which his father is actually relating the story to him with lengthy flashbacks to the time during which the events actually took place. Spiegelman's drawings give readers a new way to realize the events that happened during this historical stain. One way in which the drawings aid in creating a memorable understanding of the Holocaust is the metaphoric way in which the characters of both books are drawn. Jewish people are drawn as mice; hence the title Maus, while the members of the Nazi Regime are drawn as cats. This automatically creates that timeless image of cats hunting mice in the mind of the reader.
This metaphor also helps the reader to keep this representation in his or her mind throughout the sections of the books which are taking place in the present. The pictures also help to solidify mental images of what happened during the Holocaust. Detailed drawings of piled up dead at Auschwitz are images that strongly affect the reader and remain in his or her mind long after the book has been taken back to the library or put up on a shelf. Because the books are comic-book style, there is also much use of speech bubble for onomatopoeic sounds, which are also very effective in making the situation easily created in the readers mind. For example, in a frame when a Nazi is shooting his gun in the background of what is happening to Vladek is a large bubble with the word BANG in it (II Spiegelman 83). Along these same lines, important words or loud noises can be emphasized for the reader by making the letters bold, italic, or larger than the other letters in the frame.
Having the drawings along with the story give readers an interesting way to remember the Holocaust while fostering mental images of how events could have occurred. Because Maus and Maus II are written mainly as a dialogue between father and son, the reader is witnessing a first-hand account of Vladek's story. This is especially beneficial to the reader because very few people have the opportunity to listen to a survivors story directly from the mouth of the survivor, as there were very few of them in the first place, and now they are quickly passing away. Another reason why having the story told in a first-hand dialogue is advantageous to the reader is that it pulls the reader into the story. The reader feels as if he or she is there with Vladek, and feels a thread of the emotional and physical pain that he goes through. Being able to do this helps the reader to gain a better understanding of the atrocities that happened during the Holocaust; they feel the hunger, smell the stench resulting from the overcrowded train cars, and experience the loss of family members and loved ones through Vladek's story.
Going through these ghost emotions brings awareness to the reader, spreading the sentiment that the world must learn from this experience so that nothing like it will ever happen again. On the other hand, the reader is also able to experience the hardships that Artie experiences as the son of two survivors (his mother was also a survivor). First of all, Artie mentions that he feels he is always competing with his older brother Richieu, who died in hiding at the age of five or six, The photo [of Richieu] never threw tantrums or got in any kind of trouble It was an ideal kid, and I was a pain in the ass. I couldnt compete (II Spiegelman 15).
Here, Artie is affected by the Holocaust in his daily life even though he had not yet been born at the time of the actual event. Another way that Artie is affected by the Holocaust is though his mothers suicide. Anja, Vladek's first wife, committed suicide in 1968 when Artie was in his twenties. She did not leave a note (Spiegelman 100 - 103). Presumably, living through the Holocaust is the main cause of Anjas suicide, but no one will ever know that for a fact as, much to Artie's dismay, Vladek burned her memoirs. The pain Artie experienced after his mothers death is expressed throughout the two books.
Thirdly, Artie has to deal with the Holocaust through his father. Vladek becomes a miser as a result of his experiences of shortage during the Holocaust, which becomes a problem for Artie, Whenever I needed school supplies or new clothes mom would have to plead and argue for weeks before hed cough up any dough! claims Artie (II Spiegelman 130). It seems as though Artie is even more affected by his fathers experience during the Holocaust because he cannot identify with it, and because it played such a large role in his fathers life, not being able to understand this experience makes it difficult to understand his father, I cant visualize it clearly, and I cant BEGIN to imagine what it felt like, comments Artie to his psychiatrist (II Spiegelman 46). Artie is proof that children of survivors are also affected by the Holocaust; its effects reach down through the generations. On top of the benefits that the drawings and dialogue style of the story possess, as graphic novels, the Maus books have the power to draw a varied audience.
People who generally shy away from dry history books about the Holocaust may be more attracted to these books because it is a more personal account of how the persecution of Jewish people affected one family. Others may enjoy reading them because they are not strenuous reading, meaning one does not need to have a dictionary to understand the books, but there are still a lot of deep issues explored within less pages. Academic institutions may be interested in these books because they provide a new way for learning about the Holocaust and what people had to endure in order to survive. Being a fresh approach to Holocaust literature, Spiegelman's graphic novels can attract anyone interested in seeing the topic in a new light. Maus and Maus II clearly capture the life altering experiences of one man during the Holocaust and effectively portray these experiences through detailed illustrations and dialogue, which bring the reader into the past with Vladek. The books also present ways in which second generation survivors can be affected by the Holocaust through their parents.
Hopefully, these books will attract a wide audience who will appreciate and learn from the experiences of Vladek and Artie. Bibliography: Spiegelman, Art. Maus. Pantheon Books: New York, 1986. Spiegelman, Art.
Maus II. Pantheon Books: New York, 1991. Hansen, Ron. Atticus. HarperCollins Publishers, Reprint, 1997.
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