In Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman presents not only his father’s Holocaust narrative but also his own personal narrative, especially with regards to his relationship with Vladek. Readers learn that Artie and Vladek do not always get along, and there is a palpable tension between them. Vladek seems frugal and argumentative, while Artie appears self-centered and uncaring. In both cases, the characters’ faults are not glossed over. They are portrayed realistically, with positive and negative traits on full display. These portrayals accomplish two different goals for Spiegelman: one, they emphasize Artie’s interest in accuracy as opposed to sentimentality, and two, they allow the audience to discover Artie’s own personal trauma—namely, …show more content…
As the story of his life in pre-war Poland begins, Vladek states that, “I was at that time, young, and really a nice, handsome boy. I had a lot of girls what I didn’t even know that would run after me” (15). This image fits in well with traditional portrayals of attractive and popular story protagonists. Indeed, Vladek possesses many heroic qualities, including resourcefulness, determination, and intelligence. He is also clearly devoted to Anja, as he visits and cheers her up during her time at the sanatorium, and he later urges her not to give up, insisting, “To die, it’s easy . . . But you have to struggle for life! Until the last moment we must struggle together! I need you!” (124) [See Figure 1]. Such moments certainly reveal Vladek’s admirable traits. However, intermingled with these are the scenes that chip away at Vladek’s character, revealing him to be far from perfect. As the critic Gordon puts it, although Artie “respects Vladek for what Vladek has suffered and survived [he] finds him maddening to deal with” (Gordon 61). And Spiegelman has no issue revealing this to the audience. For instance, Vladek’s extreme frugality is referenced throughout the work, as it constantly alienates those around him, such as Mala, who exclaims that Vladek is “more attached to things than to people!” (95). Artie even becomes concerned that he is painting Vladek as a stereotypical “miserly Jew,” yet he defends his representation of Vladek by saying “I mean, I’m just trying to portray my father accurately!” (134) [See Figure 3]. He makes a similar statement on page 25 when he tells Vladek, “I want to tell your story, the way it really happened” [See Figure 2]. In other words, Spiegelman is intensely interested in portraying things as accurately as he can, “warts and all.” And this even includes Vladek’s ugly traits, especially his