Situations

When reading Maus there are many different circumstances that make you wonder if you would do the same thing in those certain situations. I’ll say that depending on the situation is a spur of the moment decision. I have found what I believe are some pretty good moments that brings this question to mind. Most of us wonder about these things and sometimes don’t like to talk about it. I don’t know maybe we are afraid that we might say the wrong things and hurt feelings. Lying, would you do it to save your life? Dying, would you do it for love? Betraying someone for money? Many of these questions I believe are the key for your sanity and a little hope.

Lying is one reason to stay alive. In volume one on pages 47-49 brings me to the first question asked. Would I lie to save my life? First I’ll explain the situation. Vladek is in the Polish Army. He is in combat and an officer asks him why his gun is cold and why aren’t you shooting. His reply is that he did not know what to shoot at. On the next page he actually shoots someone and his weapon becomes hot. After hours of fighting the Germans, they come over and raid their side. Vladek is then caught and the Germans ask him this question “Give me your gun. It’s hot! You were shooting at us!” Vladek’s reply is “My commander made me shoot. I only fired in the air”. Now, we know it’s a lie because he in fact shot someone from the previous page. I would have lied also. This lie saved his life; it was quick thinking on Vladeks behalf. Who knows what would have happened if he had said something different.

Dying for a loved one is a very hard decsion. In volume one on page 91 we read as this situation unfolds. The Jewish families are all told to register. Vladek’s family includes his own and his father and sister with her kids and Anja’s family all go to the stadium to register. There are two sides of placement the good side and the bad side. The bad side includes the sick, old, and families that have too many children. Anja’s family go through to the good side and Vladek’s family and father make it’s but not his sister with her kids. So the decision his father makes is to sneak to the bad side. They were never seen again. My decision would have been the same. How I feel is that I have lived my life and as the parent of that child I would not want for her to suffer alone.

Betraying someone for money has greed written all over it. In volume one on page115 betrayal comes to the surface. Family member s of Anja pay a guard jewels to be release out of the Ghetto. The family members are her parents. Vladek and Anja have made their payments to be release and the deal for her parents goes sour. The payment is taken from the parents to the guard and not only is it someone they know but a cousin of Vladek’s. He takes the jewels and never releases her parents they were betrayed. The parents are sent to Auschwitz. If I was put in that situation I would have released them. Even though the parents would have been taken away because their age; at least I would not have looked like a crook. So under certain circumstance is when you’re put to the test of what would you do? I rather would chose and have the choice of what I would be able to live with.

Images

History is a subject that all mankind should at least embrace in one way or another. I am fortunate that I have taken this English class and learned of events that have taken place far beyond my expectainons. A different tool was used. I’m talking about the book “Maus”. It’s not a text book but a comic book . It’s very different from what I’m used to reading. I have to admit that I found it quite hard to jump in and start reading. I guess you can say I had to train my brain to read this comic book. The events in this comic are real. I can just imagine the struggle and pain that the Jews went through. I found myself emergied in the reading and could not put it down. It turns out that I liked this type of format for reading and the drawings are great.

The drawings in this comic so far of what I have seen, have been drawn very well. I like for instance, that since the comic is black and white that the characters have been drawn as different animals, according to what Art has placed them as. The Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Polish are pigs, the French are frogs, the Americans are dogs. What made me kind of laugh that in volume II in chapter 3 towards the end of the chapter when Francoise picked up a hitch-hiker is that Vladek kind of turned the role of being a racist. The hitch-hiker was a black dog, and of course Vladek called him a colored guy so you know what that ment. You can say that you saw a diifernet side of Vladek at this point.

I would like to mention that the images are also graphic. I say graphic because some of them are even hard to look at. I can just imagine if he drew them this way that in reality it must have been worse. The image that hurt the pit of my stomach is on page 72 at the bottom of the page. The burning of the dead and live bodies .I just can’t imagine it happening but then I realize that it’s a fact that I did happen and I wonder how can someone do this to another. The madness and chaos that are shown in the images I believe help us not to repeat these death camps.

Even though this is not a text book but a biography of a life of survival I feel myselef getting more information than I would a text book. I feel that I am watching a movie when I read this comic. The flow has become very easy to read and at the same time it is teaching me. The reason why I say a movie but what I do mean is a cartoon. I can picture it as if I were watching t.v. That’s how second nature it has become. History can give a person so much. Past events sometimes present events we all need to know what is going on in our country and others as well.