THEME OF GUILT
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Theme of Guilt
Guilt is a feeling normally people have after doing wrong things intentionally or accidentally. A sense of guilt is usually related to a person’s action. Guilty is a powerful emotion that consumes people’s lives. Guilt combines feelings of anxiety, shame, humiliation, and frustration affecting one’s self-worth and self-esteem (Brown & Cehajic, 2008). Maus is a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman narrating Vladek, the holocaust survivor, and his tragic experience living with Jews. Art Spiegelman expresses different forms of guilt and how guilt can affect relationships throughout his graphic novel Maus. This paper will focus on the theme of guilt in Maus: characters affected by guilt, causes of guilt, and how the characters attempt to deal with their guilt.
Art Spiegelman expresses a survivor’s guilt as one form of guilt. In chapter two of Maus II, Artie responds to a reporter, “maybe everyone has to feel guilty” when he is asked why young Germans feel guilty for a holocaust, yet they were not born during that period. It’s clear from the response that Artie felt guilty; that’s why he includes himself by saying EVERYONE FEELS GUILTY. Artie feels remorseful for his father’s experiences that he described to him to get daily food. Vladek described to Art that he was forced to rely on his decision and action, such as trading cigarettes he saved for food, trading on the black market, and exchanging a piece of a loaf for a spare shirt to get daily food. Artie victimized himself by wearing a mouse mask together with the Jewish survivors of the holocaust. He is pretending to be a holocaust victim, but in reality, he was never a victim because he was not born during that period. He is a guilty victim of holocaust survivor from his father’s experiences. Artie tries to deal with the guilty by pretending to be one of the holocaust survivor’s victims. He gives up his feelings to end his guilty. He realizes that he cannot compare his guilty with that of the actual survivor, such as his father.
Anja is Artie’s mother and Vladek’s wife. Both Artie and his father express guilty due to Anja’s death. Vladek and Anja stayed together during the war only to be separated when they arrive at concentration camps though they reunited later. After his mother’s suicide, Artie feels he was responsible for his mother’s death. At the end of the comic, Art talks about the last time his mother was alive. He was dismissive and very cold to his mother. The reason why he feels responsible for his mother’s death. Also, the fact that he was not there to prevent his mother’s death makes him feel more guilty. Anja’s diaries were the only thing that was left. Arties reacted in a bitter manner when he caught Vladek burning the diaries. “GOD DAMN YOU! You-you MURDERER! How the hell could you do such a thing!” (Maus I, 206). The shouting made his father feels guilty for burning Anja’s. This is justified when Valdek tries to explain to Artie that the journal has many painful memories that remind him of the holocaust experience. Artie does not understand his father’s pains caused by Anja’s journal. He perceives the journal as the only material and memory his mother left to him. Finally, Artie tries to deal with guilt by publishing his book Maus 1.
Artie feels guilty by believing he is not a good son to Vladek. Although they live close to each other, he rarely visits his Father without reason. “I hadn’t seen (Vladek) for a long time- we weren’t that close” ( Maus I, 13). Vladek phone calls Artie for help with draining pipe, at the roof, Francoise asks Artie if he will help his father, his response is he will rather feel guilty, besides he is too busy and can afford to hire somebody to help his father. He later on goes and helps Vladek with house chores. This is evident that Artie feels guilty for not lending a hand to his father. As a result, he feels like he is not a good son to his father.
Throughout the book, Spiegelman expresses the theme of guilty and its importance. How the feeling of guilt affects Vladek-Artie’s relationship makes them have a different perception of each other. Spiegelman guilty is undefinable, and he overcomes it at the end by telling the most regrettable story to the world. All along, he is tormented by his father’s experience during the holocaust, his mother’s death, and his failure to lend a hand to his father.
References
Brown, R., & Cehajic, S. (2008). Dealing with the past and facing the future: Mediators of the effects of collective guilt and shame in Bosnia and Herzegovina. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(4), 669-684.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus, I My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II And Here My Troubles Began. New York: Pantheon, 1986.