learntoquestion ltq discussions

Questions to Consider:

LTQ Post Option 1:

1. Is Spiegelman’s use of the comic form effective in conveying the emotional and historical weight of the Holocaust? How does the format of the graphic novel support movement between past and present, and integration of the two, as Vladek tells his story? What is the argument against the suggestion that the medium lacks the seriousness needed to discuss the Holocaust?

LTQ Post Option 2:

2. How does generational trauma impact the children of Holocaust survivors, like Spiegelman? How does the weight of the trauma experienced by direct ancestors as well as communities as a whole play into the lives of young people today? Is it possible to move beyond generational trauma, or is it better to live with and acknowledge it? (Please note you can also discuss generational trauma from other wars, conflicts or genocides in addition to what you notice in Maus).

Word Count Requirement: 500-750 words

Sources to Reference:

Please refer to the ideas, either using a description, quote or paraphrasing, from Maus I or II in addition to one other source in your response.

Maus I (Spiegelman,1986)

Maus II (Spiegelman,1991)

“The Shadow of Past Time”: History and Graphic Representation in Maus (Chute, 2006)

Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman's Maus (Stanislav, 2013)

The root and largest impact of generational trauma, especially in the case of Art Spiegelman, is centered on relationships. For Art, the most evident example of generational trauma is in his relationship with his father, his dead family, and his mother’s memory. Throughout Maus, the reader sees how difficult Art and Vladek can be with one another, with neither safe from blame. In several instances, Vladek is portrayed as your typical cranky old man, complaining about his past procedures, knocking things over, and even throwing away his son’s coat. On page 11 (236) of Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman's Maus, Stanislav writes, “Vladek’s multiple traumas shape his behavior after the war. Growing old, he develops a number of uncongenial character traits – an almost unbearable frugality, pedantry, authoritativeness. His sermonizing and penny-pinching often embarrass Art and complicate his relationship with his father.” However, for the most part, Vladek tries to get closer to his son after a clearly tumultuous many years of Art’s childhood. He talks about his past experiences for hours at the request of his son, even when it is clear that he has had enough of the bad memories. As much as Vladek tries to better their relationship, it is clear that the damage has been done. Art has trouble creating a positive view of his father, and, whether purposefully or not, uses his father for his stories, constantly urging him to keep describing the past.

While not all children of survivor and parent relationships are the same as Art and Vladek’s, generational trauma likely plays a role in the lives of those children. Even in Maus, we see that Art feels as if he can’t live up to the struggles of his parents, and that his father is pressuring him to do something with his life. When a parent manages to survive something as horrible and difficult as the Holocaust, they think that their child should make the most of the opportunity they have. This can also be seen with immigrant parents, as many are known to be stricter or have higher standards of their children. The children, though, aren’t always able or willing to live up to the extreme standards of their parents, and many have trouble seeing their lives through the same lens as their parents. This can be another factor in damaging the relationship between children and their survivor parents, and it is evident in Maus. Art describes how Richeu, his dead brother, was a poster child for his parents, and how he was unable to fulfill the “perfect” child role that Richeu was to his parents.

Not only does generational trauma directly damage relationships, it can also lead to first-hand trauma. The survivor parents have clearly had a difficult life, and this can result in traumatic moments for the child. In Art’s case, his mother has been so affected by her past, and likely mental health troubles, that she takes her own life. This is a first-hand trauma that Art experiences, and although on surface level it could have little to do with generational trauma, it is clear that combined they can have difficult consequences on the child of survivors. It may not be as extreme in other cases, but that doesn’t make it any better. One other example of first-hand trauma related to generational trauma could be two survivor parents arguing or fighting in front of the child, with the parents’ pent up grief and inability to comprehend what they have gone through spilling out.

Furthermore, the trauma of the parents mixed with trauma of the child, even if completely separate, can multiply the troubles for the child. In “In the Shadow of No Towers,” Art related the events of 9/11 to the Holocaust, which creates a feeling of inevitability, or that widespread death and destruction is part of life. This increases the trauma of the child while limiting their hope.

Hope, however, is still present. Generational trauma can be beaten, but only with the work of the child and the survivor. Maus is an incredible example of this, as both the child’s interests and the father’s love come together to establish an important foundation for a future relationship. However, Vladek and Art fall short in their reconciliation, likely due to their hesitations to fully commit to understanding one another and their troubles. Nonetheless, it is clearly possible for generational trauma to be lessened or even cured, so long as the child and the survivor have open minds and open hearts.

While reading Maus, I realized just how much pressure parents place on their children to live up to certain expectations. It makes them question their worth and hinders them from communicating healthily with others. Most children learn to grow accustomed to how their parents choose to function in life; they pick up certain attitudes and behaviors that they believe to be the way to live life. In Maus, Artie seems to struggle with understanding how other people may view various circumstances and are unable to place themselves in the shoes of other people. Because of this, he forms opinions using only what he believes to be the correct way of life, deeming any other suggestion of a different route as something offensive. Similarly, the readers watch as Vladek becomes easily frustrated when certain situations do not go the way he desires them to. He believes that people should follow his every command, but when they fail to stay in line he is unable to see them as a once caring person.

It is evident that the experiences of our role models in life tend to be characteristics based down throughout our livelihoods. In “Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Spiegelman’s Maus,” Stainslav quotes that children have had narratives from their parents placed on them as means for certain trauma to never be repeated in the future. Parents allow their unresolved conflicts to cloud their relationships with their children as they do not want them to struggle as they have. By doing this, they place harsh expectations about what the child should be living up to, and when they fail to do so they are condemned for it. For example, many parents wish to see their children reach higher education than they could so that they can have higher paying jobs and live in comfort. These presumptions add pressure for a child to do well in school and be the top of their class in certain aspects, and convince them that if they do not do this thing then their parents may not treat them the same. In Maus, Artie seems to hold this type of resentment towards his father for the critical remarks that he always makes and assuming Artie to be incapable of handling certain things that seem so minuscule.

Generational trauma, particularly in the context of the Holocaust, has left a mark on the children of survivors, like Art Spiegelman. The psychological burden carried by Holocaust survivors seems to be sometimes transferred to their children, and plays a role in shaping their identities, relationships, and worldviews. Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus is a personal exploration of his father Vladek's survival and a reflection of how this trauma is passed down through generations. Intergenerational trauma is not unique to just the holocaust but is also passed down from family members who have lived through terrible events and conflicts around the world. One of the aspects of Maus that truly stands out is how Art Spiegelman portrays how his father's trauma affects their everyday relationship. Vladek’s obsessive behaviors, frugality, and emotional detachment can be traced back to his experiences in Auschwitz and the struggles he faced both during and after the Holocaust. These traits, while survival mechanisms for Vladek, become sources of frustration for Art, illustrating how trauma affects not only the survivor but also their children. This aligns with Chute’s (2006) analysis in “The Shadow of Past Time,” which argues that Maus’s visual and narrative structure captures the inescapability of the past and how history continues to shape the present. Art’s difficulty in understanding his father's suffering with his own identity reflects the struggle faced by many second generation survivors who have to unpack their parents' past without having ever experienced it. Stanislav (2013) further expands on this idea in "Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Spiegelman’s Maus," noting that the children of Holocaust survivors often experience inherited anxiety, guilt, and a pervasive sense of loss. Art feels guilt over not having suffered like his parents or Richiue, which is further intensified by Anja's suicide. It's also clear that the burden of carrying his family's trauma affects his ability to tell their story, because he feels both responsible for preserving history and overwhelmed by the responsibility of carrying such a painful legacy. The narratives of suffering and resilience become interwoven into family dynamics, shaping the identities of younger generations in ways that are often subconscious and deeply ingrained.

Some argue that acknowledging and integrating the past into one’s identity is a healthier approach than attempting to move past it entirely. In Maus, Art engages with his father’s trauma through storytelling, transforming inherited pain into a medium for historical memory and personal catharsis. This suggests that rather than seeking to erase the impact of generational trauma, individuals and communities might find healing through remembrance and storytelling. However, living with trauma does not mean being entirely consumed by it. Many descendants of survivors find ways to honor their history while making new paths for themselves. Psychological research suggests that resilience and growth can emerge from trauma, particularly when individuals have the opportunity to process their inherited histories in meaningful ways. Education, dialogue, and creative expression—as seen in Maus—offer avenues for this engagement. Generational trauma deeply influences the lives of those who inherit it, shaping their identities, relationships, and sense of self. While it may not be possible to entirely move beyond generational trauma, acknowledging and engaging with it can serve as a powerful tool for healing, allowing individuals to carry their history forward without being defined by it.

Spiegelman’s use of comics is an effective way of the events and the weight of the Holocaust because this format does several things for the narrative that just plain words can’t. Chute’s article, ““The Shadow of Past Time”: History and Graphic Representation in Maus” states that the comic format provides a structure and image that allows the reader to better grasp and understand the concepts and I agree. I think this format clearly lays out Art and Vladek’s stories and presents images and metaphors that can sometimes convey messages better than a book would. For example, the portrayal of the characters as animals, specifically the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice really highlights the dehumanization of Jews during the Holocaust. It gives the reader a clear picture of the Nazis attitudes towards Jews with an image many people would view in a similar way. There is also the style of the comic itself. The black and white panels and the kind of “crude” way they are drawn convey the lack of hope, the fear, and the overall bad conditions that the Jews and many others faced. Without these images, it would be hard to really describe the emotions in a way that the reader could maybe understand or even feel themselves. There are also several scenes, like anytime Vladek gets frustrated with Art or when he is talking about losing family and friends, the emotions that he feels are literally expressed right in front of us and shows the reader exactly what they are feeling. Even the images themselves help with conveying the story. They contextualize events and locations in a way that just describing them can’t. Some people can never actually visualize the experiences of the Jews, but in this format we can actually see their experiences and where they took place and how.

Another crucial thing about comics, particularly Maus, is that the format easily allows for time jumps and switches that the reader can easily follow and understand. The story could be in the past in one panel and then in the present in the next and we can easily follow the transition as the different surroundings and circumstances are very clear. As Chute says, ““Time as space” is a description we hear again and again from theorists of comics. However, it is only when one recognizes how Maus is able to effectively approach history through its spatiality that one appreciates the form’s grasp on nuanced political expression.” I think that she clearly captures exactly what Maus does with its expression of time. In the comic there are so many time jumps that are seamlessly woven between panels, sometimes on the same page. These jumps highlight how an event like the Holocaust transcends time and affects people even in the present. It conveys how trauma can carry across time and generations like we can see with Art and Vladek’s relationship, where he pushes his expectations and ideals onto Art and his trauma has affected his behavior. We can also see this with the comic about Anja’s suicide. Each panel is in its own time and depicts her past experiences and how they affected her and then how her death affected Vladek and Art. The shifts in time are essential to understanding the experiences of all characters and it emphasizes one of the reasons we learn history: to understand past events, notice patterns, and to prevent things from happening again.

Generational trauma lingers in the lives of survivors and their children, it shapes behaviors and relationship dynamics. Children, like Art, are burdened with their parents' pain. For example, Vladek’s obsessive behaviors as a result of the horrors of the Holocaust highlights that “From Vladek’s narrative we gain the impression that the Holocaust has never ended for him. He seems to be convinced that the security he enjoys in his life is transitory, because disaster can come at any moment” (Stanislav, 2013). He is consumed by fear of scarcity and danger, this unresolved trauma complicates the relationship between him and his son in the sense that they lack an emotional bond. Many survivors tend to struggle to connect with their children due to barriers they've built as protection. Unresolved generational trauma in particular impacts children by exposing them to trauma responses that they cant fully comprehend.

Young people tend to seek answers and feel a responsibility to honor, remember and understand the past in regards to the weight of trauma experienced by direct ancestors and communities. In Art’s case, when young people struggle to represent the stories of their ancestors authentically, they experience guilt and internal conflict. On the other hand, some young people don't want the past to loom over their present and tend to detach themselves from the trauma. As stated in the Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman’s Maus, “Art uses various strategies ranging from irony and humor to the variety of graphic means distancing him from the Holocaust” (Stanislav, 2013). This distancing reflects Art’s struggle to reconcile his identity as a second generation survivor, through this irony and humor, he is creating a level of separation between himself and the Holocaust. They also act as a coping mechanism in the face of such intense trauma. Lastly, the identity of young people is also shaped by the weight of passed down trauma. It becomes a part of their journey to self acceptance as it influences how they view themselves and their place in the world, leading to a dual identity. Incorporating history and individual traits allows them to not only carry the stories of their ancestors, but also apply it to their life and build awareness.

Generational trauma is incredibly difficult to look past, it's near impossible since it's embedded in the behaviors, thoughts and identity of those it affects. In Maus, Art’s creative way of trying to contextualize and understand his father's past experiences is a prime example of him living with the trauma, he's confronting it head on. Through documenting his fathers story, he's integrating it into his identity as a way to heal his father from his trauma. Asserting agency over his inherited trauma, living and acknowledging it, sets him on a path of healing and reflection instead of ignoring it and it's very real effects. Art's decision to honor his father's experience and taking the time to hear about his stories to gain a decent understanding put many details about his fathers personality and even himself into perspective. Confronting generational trauma opens to progressive conversation and deep understanding which is critical in all households.

A recent study in epigenetic biology suggests the ability of the effects of trauma on an individual to be passed down to their offspring. Trauma, whether it be severe mental or physical stress, can result in an altering of the expression of one’s own genetic code. Nevertheless, the effects of trauma can extend far beyond the physical genes of a second generation survivor. As Art Spiegelman’s Maus demonstrates, the tragic legacy of trauma can wreak havoc on both the mind and body—relationships, mental health, and physical well being can all be damaged as future generations bear the weight of their parents’ suffering.

As Art attempts to record his father Vladek’s Holocaust survival story, it is clear that this burden weighs heavy on him. Vladek’s suffering and the effects of the trauma of the Holocaust place a wall between him and Art. The two gripe at each other for one’s frugality or the other’s wastefulness, each as stubborn as the other. As it goes with fathers and sons (but especially parental-child relationships after intense trauma), Art does not fully understand his father. He cannot comprehend why his father could be so cruel as to burn Art’s mother’s journals, when Vladek, a survivor of years upon years of torturous hardship in which he lost almost all he cares about, only to later lose his own wife, just might be dealing with his own burdens (Spiegelman 136). Art is constantly aggravated by his father’s frugality, not understanding that frugality was one of the main reasons Vladek was able to survive the death camps and ghettos during the Holocaust (Spiegelman 102). Art feels forever in competition with his brother Richeu, who died before he was born, and feels that he has to somehow make up for all his parents lost—that he needs to make it all worth it (Speigelman 15). In contrast, Vladek constantly shows his love for Art, always telling him he loves him, that it’s a pleasure to have Art visit, even as his son may not be able to see it.

Art, struggling with the legacy of suffering and trauma he inherited, sees a therapist named Paul Pavel, a Czech Holocaust survivor. The two grapple with the heavy questions that weigh on many second generation survivors of the Holocaust: was it admirable to survive? If so, was it not admirable to not survive? This might be a pointless question, as it suggests that there are ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in genocide, but it serves to explain Art’s rationale of the atrocities of the Holocaust. By trying to rationalize it, to make his father’s survival a result of his skill or one factor or the other, he is avoiding the disgusting truth: in a war of hate, it does not matter whether you are smart, or talented, or good, those that survive do so simply because they had the opportunities and sheer luck that others didn’t, but they nevertheless lose much more in the process. And the trauma did not stop after the war. Even as the Nazi power was dismantled and officers captured and brought to justice by the Allied powers, the tragic fact remained that the deep antisemitism and brutality of the Holocaust did not start nor end with the Nazis. The idea of ‘safety’ after the war became ambiguous and unattainable for many. Vladek and other Holocaust survivors became stuck in a state of limbo, not sure when to rest, or, in Vladek’s case, when to stop preparing for the worst.

The Holocaust does not ‘define’ Vladek, as much as any traumatic event never ‘defines’ the victim. Nevertheless, its profound effect on Vladek shaped many aspects of his personality—such as his frugal attitude towards money or his dependence on his son—as well as aspects of his physical well being—like his diabetes and heart problems. Regardless of whether or not Art wants to think about the Holocaust, its effects consume his life. Being second-generation Holocaust survivor, Art is faced with the consequences of the deep trauma, seeing how it shaped his parents. Because the Holocaust is such a part of his life story, his initial detachment, then growing interest and acceptance demonstrate his journey of understanding both himself and his father.

As stated in the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma in Spiegelman's Maus by, Stanislav Kolar, Kolar states that “Problems with the precision of memory are of particular importance in connection with trauma, because the unfamiliarity and extremity of the traumatic situation is great enough to prevent comprehension and integration of this situation into the mind of the victim”. The trauma experienced by the Spiegelman family in the Holocaust prevents Artie from fully connecting with his father impacting his daily life. In Maus II, Artie speaks about the completion of his story with anxiety and feels he can not properly make sense of Nazi extermination camps without having a full relationship with his father. Artie begins to speak about his late brother Richieu who he calls his “ghost brother”. He states that his parents did all they could to find him after the war. Vladek holds himself responsible for not saving Richieu, although he could have done nothing to save him. Mala, Vladek’s second wife, suffers becuase of the blame Vladek places on himself. They often fight in the story and it seems that Vladek thinks she is a poor replacement for his late wife Anja. For Vladek, Anja’s death and the suffering he experienced prevented him from dealing with the loss and trauma in his life. Vladek suppresses his memory of Anja as the story is never shown from her point of view and Artie later learns that Vladek destroyed her journals, silencing her forever.

On page 16 of Maus II, Artie reveals that he has had nightmares of SS men dragging him and his Jewish classmates out of school. Spiegelman write Maus from the words his father gives him in interviews, preventing Artie from fully grasping his father’s story. Later on page 16, Artie states that he sometimes wishes he had experienced the Holocaust with his parents to understand what they went through. Artie feels guilty that he pieced together his family’s story and feels he is doing injustice to them, he states “I feel so inadequate trying to reconstruct A reality that was worse than my darkest dreams”.

The suffering of Vladek during the Holocaust and his inability to forgive himself for the death of Anja and Richieu affect Artie who feels shattered by his father’s stubbornness and inability to fully open up. In The Shadow of a Past Time by Hillary Chute, Chute reveals that Vladek’s trauma is passed to Artie because it affects him through his family and how he is treated as a son who will never live up to his late brother. After all, he did not experience the Holocaust. This is shown in Maus II, when Artie says he cannot compete with his brother and believes that the photo of Richieu in his parent's room is their attempt to keep him in their life. He calls himself a “pain in the ass” and that Ricieu was the “ideal kid”. He said Richieu could have done great things and could have “dealt with Vladek”.

I believe that Maus reveals it is impossible to move on from generational trauma without first acknowledging it. This is shown by the distance between Vladek and Artie shrinking as they speak more about the Holocaust. The gap in Artie’s understanding is filled with more and more interviews and they become closer. Although he will never fully understand the trauma his father experienced he now cares for his father and after worrying about the potential of his father moving in with him, he does not shy away from traveling to bring his father home to a more suited hospital for his care. Artie tries his best to understand his father but realizes he never truly will.

Maus shows not only the devastating impacts of Art Spiegelman’s father Vladek as a result of the Holocaust but also how that trauma can be passed onto a second generation. The trauma is also not confined to one person, it can affect everyone around it. I think there is no singular answer to whether it is possible to move beyond this generational trauma or to acknowledge it and live with it. Everyone’s experiences are unique to themselves and everyone handles it differently, meaning that there is no single solution to coping with trauma. In Maus, Art shows his personal struggles with generational trauma as he finds it difficult to connect to his father. His father had obsessive behaviours and other things that were a harsh reminder of the trauma he faced. Although Vladek only picked these behaviours up from his survival of the Holocaust, Art isn’t able to fully understand why he acts the way he does, creating this barrier between them. He is torn between sympathizing for him or being frustrated with him. His depiction of himself as a “child of survivors” also shows his emotions and how the trauma has been passed down to him. He often expressed feelings of guilt since he didn’t experience it himself and couldn’t relate to his father. His dead brother also served as a reminder of the disconnect he felt from his family in general. He wasn’t able to move on past this trauma or shake it off. Vladek’s trauma is also not just representing himself, he represents a lot of aspects of trauma. He faced feelings of displacement, hopelessness, loss, and violence. These emotions are passed down to later generations and often can be seen through Art. Many children of survivors of traumatic events find it difficult to just acknowledge the events and move on because it causes them to consider the history and how that affects their identity. In “The Shadow of Past Time: History and Graphic Representation in Maus”, it highlights how the graphics allow readers to see the trauma in a visual way since it is difficult to imagine. The way the narration jumps from past to present can also be seen as the disconnect that trauma causes people to feel. The question of whether generational trauma can be overcome or not is extremely complex as I mentioned before. Maus is able to convey how there is no simple resolution for the trauma that has been passed down. Art attempts to understand his father in some ways but isn’t able to because he is also struggling with his own emotions and identity. He is an example of how one lives with trauma since he never was able to move past it. It seemed like he came to terms with it in the end and accepted it in a way. He doesn't seem to have forgotten about the past but he acknowledges the difficulty in trying to undo the trauma. The process of dealing with generational trauma is ongoing. In “Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman's Maus”, Stanislav argues that the generational trauma is not permanent but actually a continuous process. It is argued that just because one isn’t able to overcome the trauma, it doesn’t show weakness since the trauma is so deeply rooted for generations. Although Maus is specifically about the Holocaust, this idea of generational trauma can be seen in many other wars and historical events. This goes to show how powerful the trauma can be, as it affects so many people over long periods of time. Although there really isn’t a resolution to it, there are ways to cope and it is different for each individual. Confronting the trauma is just the beginning of healing from it.

Even if they did not physically go through the suffering, children of Holocaust survivors, like Art Spiegelman, are particularly impacted by generational trauma because they carry the emotional burden of their parents dissressed memories and traumatic experiences. Art finds it difficult to relate to and comprehend his father's trauma in Maus. Art's connections, character, and general way of life are all influenced by his father's experiences during the Holocaust. In addition to making Art feel alienated, his inability to comprehend his father's suffering has an impact on his own identity and mental well-being. This demonstrates how past trauma can have complicated and long-lasting effects on the following generation.

Entire communities can suffer greatly as a result of wars, genocides, and other traumatic events, and the effects of these catastrophes can persist for many generations. The trauma has an impact on those who experienced it as well as their offspring, grandkids, and others. Children may hear tales of pain, grief, and terror as they get older, which can have an impact on their mental health and influence the way they see the world. Even if the children were not present during the events, they are frequently impacted by these tales that are passed down from one generation to the next. They may have inherited anguish and anxiety as a result, which makes it more difficult for them to fully separate themselves from the suffering endured by their ancestors.

It is hard to say if generational trauma will always be a part of the lives of people who inherit it or if it can ever be fully overcome. Some people may think that healing is possible, while others may think that the trauma is too severe to be completely removed. Nonetheless, it is evident that a crucial first step in the healing process is admitting the trauma. People can start processing the trauma of the past and resolving its consequences on their lives by acknowledging and discussing it. People can better understand their own feelings and the difficulties they encounter when they acknowledge the trauma. While some may believe that the only way to deal with the trauma is to live with it, others may concentrate on figuring out how to end the cycle so that future generations do not have to bear the same burden. Many people also want to ensure that their kids don't experience the same emotional burden and hardships that they did. This could entail offering emotional support, discussing the past in a way that promotes healing, and, if necessary, obtaining expert assistance. In any event, it is evident that acknowledging the trauma and having an honest conversation about it while working through it together are important components of healing.

Generational trauma impacts the children of Holocaust survivors through the inheritance of behaviors, to the permanence of guilt that occurs when constantly having to compare themselves to parents and family members who have experienced the worst of the worst.

The children of Holocaust Survivors often feel an large sense of helplessness and guilt, unable to have intervened with their parent’s trauma. They can feel bad, but that’s all they can do– simply feel bad. We see this happen with Artie and the intentions of creating his comic: “[Maus] expresses his regret over what he should have done and has not. As a matter of fact, his narrative is permeated by self-accusation; he ruminates that he might have saved her if he had got home when expected and if he had not been resentful to her attempt to tighten their emotional bond, or, in other words, if he had not suppressed love for her. He feels responsibility for her death because he realizes that his resentment, be it a pose or a sign of the alienation from his parents, could be interpreted as a betrayal.” (Stanislav 5) This reveals that Artie feels much regret for his mother’s death, albeit an uncontrollable fate and he wasn’t even there to stop it from happening. It makes sense that he feels an large part of Anja’s suicide is due to him, since he had pushed her away and now can no longer talk to her. It explains why Artie also calls his dad and “murderer” for burning all the comic books, because to him it felt like the only way to get communication from her now that she’s passed away, the only remnants of her life and what she was like as an person is gone. A part of history is now disappeared, which was not only important to Artie in an work-sense with his comic but also personally painful.

Young people are also effected by the loneliness and the lack of figures to look up to in their lives. The epitome of this example is Richieu in Maus, the son who had died during war, being constantly compared to Artie Spiegelman in Maus, where Richieu is said to have been the ideal child who would have grown up to be the doctor. This reveals the inferiority complex that Artie has, to be compared to his older brother, where even though he was dead, Richieu “never threw tantrums or got in any kind of trouble”, thus Artie “couldn’t compete” (Spiegelman 175). He is suffering the consequences of Richieu’s death, he’s the one who has to take care of father after the war, and he’s the one who will never have a strong emotional bond with his father because he simply cannot fathom an fragment of the pain they went through. It’s also an conflicting feeling since Artie wonders of an life where he did have an older brother, and the possibility of them getting along.

In conclusion, it is possible to move beyond generational trauma, but it requires a lot of communication, venting, and cleaning to ‘purify’ it. Artie Spiegelman has shown throughout his comics that he is learning to talk out his problems, like with his wife Mala and his therapist (Spiegelman 202). Acknowledging what the issue and stem root of your trauma is well, but it’s even more beneficial to confront it and make sure feelings don’t get buried and left under the surface

Generational trauma greatly impacts children of Holocaust survivors because when they’re young, they absorb much of their parents’ attitudes and feelings, and these are passed down to their own children. Similar to all types of trauma in families, children will internalize it, subconsciously or not, and repeat it to their children. Trauma is impossible to forget, especially when it’s over a prolonged period of time like the Holocaust. People who survive it don’t simply walk away and immediately begin a new life, they have to adjust slowly. They could be feeling survivor’s guilt or immense sadness and be driven to suicide, like Anja. In addition, children of Holocaust survivors haven’t gone through all that their parents went through. Art Spiegelman was born in New York, where he didn’t have to worry about family members being taken away forever, when his next meal would be, or whether he would still be alive to even eat it. Because of this, children of Holocaust survivors can never truly know their parents, even though they try, such as Art did through his book Maus.

The weight of direct ancestors hugely impacts young people because that’s who they’re the closest to. However, an entire community’s trauma even more greatly affects young people because that’s the environment they’re growing up in. It’s not the same as with direct ancestors, where young people spend time with others as well as them. If young people are only experiencing a community’s trauma, that’s the only thing they’ll know because it’s all around them. Both trauma experienced by direct ancestors and trauma experienced by a community play into a young person’s life because immigrants, such as Holocaust survivors, tend to move into areas that already have other families who share the same culture and experiences as them. Because of this, children of Holocaust survivors are affected not just by the trauma of their parents and grandparents, but also by the shared trauma of the community they live in. This is similar to all communities who have experienced genocides, such as in Rwanda, Armenia, and Cambodia.

It’s not possible to move past generational trauma; it’s so ingrained in a family that it’ll always be there. It’s better to live with it and acknowledge it, because that’s how a survivor can get back a bit of a sense of normalcy, even though there’s no way to go back to living life like how one did before the traumatic event. Vladek tried to do that when he moved to the US and started a new family, but he can never forget what happened to him, which is something Artie takes advantage of. He doesn’t consider that reliving trauma could be hard for his father, and he can be very demanding at times, although it is a new and interesting idea to write a Holocaust story from only one person’s perspective instead of trying to encompass all of it. This, along with the comic form, make the story much easier to read and understand.