learntoquestion ltq discussions

Originally posted by WoahWoah on February 10, 2025 08:41

I believe that Spiegelman’s use of the comic form is effective in conveying the emotional and historical weight of the Holocaust because it gives us a visual that other sources couldn’t provide. There’s many different works that discuss the Holocaust and the Jewish community experiences, but none of them truly reveal the trauma and suffering the way that Maus does. Even though it doesn’t use real people in its illustrations Maus at times can be horrifyingly graphic Throughout the graphic novel we see Jewish homes and businesses taken from them, unjust massacres, and overall just the dehumanization of the Jewish people. Reading the atrocities that happened to the Jews is one thing, but actually having a visual and a personal account gives the horror a more real and emotional feeling. The depiction of Germans, Poles, and Jews as animals is another key detail that adds so much depth to the graphic novel. Germans being cats and the Jews as mice is an easy connection. Similarly to Tom and Jerry the Jews are play things for the Germans, the Germans as the dominate group in their society did whatever they saw fit. A key detail that I found important in the illustration was the Poles depiction as pigs, I found that it symbolized how some Polish people behavior and attitude towards Jews was purely disgusting. Comparative to the Germans, they weren’t as bad but many Poles treated the Jewish people terribly, purely due to biases and their status within German society.

The format of the graphic novel supports movement between the past and the present because panels give comprehensible transitions between the past and the present, with the visuals we understand when it’s Vladek speaking in the moment and speaking in the interview. With only words it would be hard to convey the difference between the interview and Vladek’s Holocaust perspective, while also portraying Vladek’s personal experiences, his traumas and reflection and Artie’s personal struggles simultaneously. Being able to do all of this effectively on the same page would have been impossible with just words, many feel as if the comic book design takes away from the story but I believe that it only enhances it. It allows us to have a deeper understanding of each characters personal lives, enhancing our understanding and emotional connection to every character. While also making the story more approachable, as it will naturally be more appealing to a younger audience due to the advanced visuals. The visuals make the story of the Holocaust retain in young minds easier, without being purely horrified and disconnected with the topic. In society we hear terrible stories and we turn a blind eye to it, but through Maus the content can be enjoyed and the meaning is still carried out throughout the graphic novel.

My argument against that the medium lacks the seriousness that is needed is that while reading the graphic novel there wasn’t a single moment where unnecessary humor was added. Maus is not a comic book, it’s a documentary in novel form, the simplicity of most of the art and the lack of color shows that the drawings weren’t the main focus of the graphic novel but the story was the intent. The drawings only adds to the story and grab the attention of the reader, I believe those who can’t see past the fact it has drawings in it are the issue. To not recognize the work and take this story because of the drawings and symbolic meaning within it makes no sense.

I agree with WoahWoah’s analysis of the use of illustration in the graphic novel Maus, as it definitely provides the reader with a more visual representation of the events taking place as well as makes it easier to understand the connection between past and present. The fact that the characters are portrayed as animals rather than humans is also useful for understanding Art’s goals, as the different animals illustrate different aspects of our humanity that take on an animalistic feel. I believe that WoahWoah did well in making an argument against the criticism that Maus being in graphic novel form takes away the seriousness of the topic, by giving examples of how it helps rather than hinders one’s ability to read and comprehend the story. I liked the bit about how it can widen the target audience, and makes it easier for younger readers to handle and internalize the point of the book. I also liked how WoahWoah explained the roles of different groups in the book based on the animal that Spiegelman chose to illustrate them. One thing that I think could have enhanced this reflection would be discussing the different styles of illustration that appear throughout the book to give a different feel that would be difficult through words.

Originally posted by EastCoast11 on February 11, 2025 09:53

Originally posted by Ms. Bowles on February 04, 2025 12:58

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)

Rubric to Review: LTQ Rubric

A pure writer, Michelle Balaev stated, “The trauma novel demonstrates how a traumatic event disrupts attachments between self and others by challenging fundamental assumptions about moral laws and social relationships that are themselves connected to specific environments” in a Critical Journal about the Literary Trauma Theory (Balaev 2). A prime example would be the comic written by Art Spiegelman in 1980, Maus. Highly focusing on the famous but tragic era of the Holocaust and the survivors' trauma that eventually finds its way to their children's innocent minds.

In Maus, Art Speigeilman illustrates the indifference he faces in his life due to being the son of a holocaust survivor, Vladek. It starts in the town of Auschwitz, which continues to haunt him from past to present, but this traumatic persona also seems to seep into the relationship between him and his son. For instance, when Artie is staying over his fathers house along with his wife accompanying him, there is a lot of tension that reveals a lot about the dynamics. Vladek is seen to be excessively hoarding and resourceful as a trauma response to the tragic events he went through. Year after year of being poorly mistreated, used as labor tools, not being properly fed, it was normal to see each jews bones seeping through their skin. Though, Artie only sees it as excessive and over dramatic, therefore forming a physical and emotional distance between the two.

The majority of Maus is constructed through time stamps and scenes that Vladek is explaining from memory for the sake of Arties new book. Throughout the book, it's crucial to take notice that Artie is hearing the long history of what his father went through in Auschwitz, so he is able to try and understand it. Considering how dehumanizing that lifetime was, from living a good life with his girlfriend to stepping over thousands of dead bodies, it's expected to see Artie feel a certain type of weight on his shoulders as the son of a survivor. Amy Hungerford asks, “How can the children of survivors be survivors themselves?”, because we tend to overlook Artie’s personal emotions, we don't recognize the pressure he's feeling himself. Artie has stated, “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! I guess it's some kind of guilt about having had an easier life than they did” (Spigielman 176). Corresponding to a dream his father had told him about, the Parshas Truma with his dead grandfather, hinting that things will be okay. Despite the miracle that Vladek was able to physically survive the Holocaust with Artie's mom, Anja, Artie often feels like there are high standards and expectations to how his life should be so that he’s able to make his father feel as though his survival was worth it.

Post your response here.

I thought it was very interesting how you viewed the emotional distance and generational trauma experienced by Artie. After reading your reflection, I have a very clear understanding of how Artie struggled with the pressures of understanding his father’s past and also dealing with his own guilt. This generational trauma is evident, and I think that the way in which you represented its significance was very clear. I completely agree with your idea that trauma doesn’t just affect the direct victims, but also the generations that come next. I thought that your post also connected very well to Amy Hungerfor’s question about how the children of survivors are strained emotionally along with the survivors themselves. I think that it is very important to highlight the fact that weather parents mean to or not, the way in which they handle their trauma has a huge impact on their kids.

Originally posted by riversky127 on February 11, 2025 19:14

The book Maus in itself is a good example of how trauma transcends generations and events, simply because Art Spiegelman chose to write this book in the first place. Despite — and perhaps because of — his strained relationship with his father, Art immortalizes Vladek’s story as a way to work through his own internal experience as the son of a Holocaust survivor, on top of sharing his father’s story with the world. With any immense trauma such as the Holocaust, the echoes of its first-hand affects live on through generations. This is evident in Maus, not only with the way Vladek raises his son, but in the way Art interacts with the world as a result of his second-hand trauma. Even though he didn’t experience the horrors or true loss of the Holocaust, Art struggles with a sense of belonging, as he feels trapped in the shadows of his brother’s death and the suicide of his mother. Undoubtedly, the psychological consequence of living through the Holocaust throws a wrench in Art and Vladek’s relationship, and for much of Maus Art appears to have little sympathy for his father’s past. In many ways, Art’s inability to connect with his father is as much a result of Vladek’s pain as it is his choices as a parent. Having gone through such a traumatic experience and being largely unwilling to discuss it, Vladek creates a barrier between himself and his son and makes it hard for Art to truly know or understand who he is. The idea of postmemory, in which descendants inherit non-physical traits linked with deep emotional tolls of their parents, helps explain Art’s own experience as the child of a survivor. “Postmemory reflects the level of identification with the original recipients of trauma and is often characterized by the feeling of displacement, living in temporal and spatial exile, estrangement and the experience of a lack and absence which frequently leads to an identity crisis” (Stanislav, 2013). Vladek’s obsessive frugality and anxious habits, a direct result of his experience in the Holocaust, frustrate Art and weaken their relationship, despite the fact that they were born out of immense suffering that Art knows his father went through. Today, generational trauma remains prevalent, from countless families affected by the Holocaust, slavery, and war. In Maus, Art personifies the feelings of guilt and alienation that often emerge from such ancestry. As with many people who experience generational trauma, Art is burdened with a history that is not his own but still has a significant impact on his own identity and self perception. It’s important to understand and confront these impacts, as failing to do so only deepens the gap in understanding between father and son in Art and Vladek’s relationship. Although processing and working through trauma is difficult, Art Spiegelman’s creation of Maus is itself a way of understanding this trauma, and shows how open communication and storytelling can surpass the discrepancy between generations who have gone through drastically different experiences. Diving into the history of one’s trauma can often lead to self discovery and a deeper understanding of the flaws in a relationship. For example, in Maus, Art feels isolated from his father, and Vladek struggles to connect with his son because of how much the Holocaust shaped his distrust of others.

Your post does a great job of showing how trauma affects Art and Vladek’s relationship in Maus. The strongest argument here is that Art struggles with his sense of belonging because he and his father cannot build a strong connection. Art is stuck between trying to understand his father’s pain and feeling distant from it because he cannot fully relate. Even though he inherits this trauma from his father, he struggles to understand its full impact since he did not experience the Holocaust himself.

I agree that this disconnect is the main reason their relationship is so strained. Vladek’s past shapes the way he acts and how he treats Art, making it hard for them to communicate. I also really liked how you talked about Art’s feelings of displacement, especially after the loss of his brother and his mother’s suicide. These tragedies add to his struggle, making him feel even more distant from his father. I think Vladek’s inability to fully open up only makes this worse, since it stops Art from truly understanding his father’s pain. I also agree that Maus is Art’s way of processing and making sense of his father’s story. By telling it, he is able to connect with Vladek in a way that he couldn’t in real life.

Generational trauma in Maus, significantly impacts children of Holocaust survivors like Spiegelman himself and extends to their descendants of other traumatic historical events. This trauma is collective, passed on from families to communities; in Maus, Artie comes to know his father Vladek's traumatic memories through stories and behavior an experience Marianne Hirsch has described as postmemory, in which the second generation inherits memories of trauma they did not live through but feel connected to. Vladek's cheapness, emotional detachment, and weird survival strategies are all the direct result of the Holocaust. Artie has to cope with the weight of his father's past. Artie is also living in the shadow of brother Richieu, who died in the Holocaust, a matter of absence and displacement. This dynamic in families where trauma has happened, and the dead or lost are remembered, compelling the survivors to struggle with feelings of inadequacy. Identity crisis is normally brought about by generational trauma as the offspring struggle to balance their present existence with their forebears' traumatic past. For Artie, this is a break from his father and from himself as a Jew, the trauma of the Holocaust creating a rift in the family narrative that leaves him having to piece together a fractured sense of self. The dislocation of family members, culture, and language lost through traumatic events like the Holocaust creates a vacuum to be passed on to later generations and is part of the emotional burden.

Getting over the generation of trauma is a complicated task involving awareness and understanding, rather than compelled closure. Trauma, especially at the scale of the Holocaust or similar genocides, can't be "worked past.” Artie's composing Maus is an exercise in coping with and reframing his father's trauma. This act of creation is therapeutic in that it allows Artie to confront the past but speak for himself. Over time, the power of generational trauma can perhaps lessen. but this is not to imply that the trauma is erased but rather becomes part of the family or community identity. To suggest that survivors or their descendants should "let go" of their trauma is both painful and does not achieve the goal of moving forward. Artie's use of the comic book genre to tell his father's story is a powerful illustration of how art can transmit trauma. This allows him to take back his and his father’s histories and find meaning in their inherited trauma. This is not unique to the Holocaust; children of survivors of other genocides, wars, and other atrocities have the same issues. Lastly, the goal is not to erase the trauma but to integrate it into a broader context of identity and history so that the lessons of the past are not forgotten and resilience and healing are created for the next generations.

Originally posted by cherrybacon on February 11, 2025 12:00

Generational trauma impacts the children of Holocaust survivors through the parents' reflection of trauma onto their child. This can be seen throughout Maus with Vladek and Artie. Towards the beginning of the graphic novel, Vladek seems to want to do everything by himself such as sorting his medication and doesn't like when Artie bothers him, asking him if he needs help. For example, there's a scene where Vladek is sorting nails. Vladek gets extremely upset with Artie after he asks if everything is okay, stating, “with my life now, you know it CAN’T be everything ok!” (Spiegelman 100). Vladek is taking his anger out about his life and the struggles that he has had to go through out on his son. Vladek can also be seen as very cheap due to how he had to live in the Holocaust. The issue is that this “cheapness” negatively affects those that are around him. During a conversation with Artie and Mala, Mala exclaims how Vladek is extremely “Pragmatic” and “Cheap” and even says “it causes him physical pain to part with even a nickel!” (Spiegelman 133). She was so upset because Vladek wouldn’t spend anything on her needs even though he has enough to do so. Initially when they got married, he expected her to wear Anja’s clothes instead of buying her some new ones when she needed some. There are many times within the graphic novel where the readers can see Vladek trying to save everything in case anything ever happens where he will need these resources again. His reason for doing this is because if Hitler were ever to come back he would want to be prepared and have resources so he can barter and survive. Another example of his trauma affecting Artie is when he decided to burn all of Anja’s journals. Artie obviously would’ve loved if he could still have a part of his mother with him through her writing but due to Vladek’s trauma, Vladek decided to burn the books that way he wouldn’t have to encounter those memories he had of the holocaust. This was selfish of him, but of course he justifies it with how he was depressed after the death of his wife and didn’t want to see it. Even so, she wrote in her journal how she hopes Artie will read her journals when he grows up. Artie also experiences this trauma just from being told the stories that his parents had to go through. As told in Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman’s Maus, “During these interviews, Vladek reenacts his suppressed trauma as brought about by the loss of almost his entire family. Art, the secondary witness, receives the history of the Holocaust and re-interprets it by rewriting Vladek’s testimony in the form of a comic book. In doing so, he acquires what can correspond to Marianne Hirsch’s concept of post memory, which “is distinguished from memory by generational distance and from history by deep personal connection”(Kolar 3).

Even today, it can be seen how the weight of generational trauma caused by direct ancestors and communities play into the lives of young people today. For example, slavery has definitely had a generational impact on the African American community. There are many examples of traumas inflicted on the black community due to slavery such as, self-hatred, loss of culture, economic disadvantages, unemployment, incarceration, stress, etc. I believe that it is possible to move beyond generational trauma but it takes many generations to break the cycle. Each generation can get closer and closer to breaking this cycle but it will take a very long time to overcome such a traumatic experience that lasted for hundreds of years.

I agree, and I like the connection you made back to slavery as well, since it's an example that has such a clear impact on the black community today, especially since it was immediately followed by decades of segregation and discrimination. In my experience, a lot of people try to downplay the effects of slavery and other historic events just because they happened a "long time ago", but they fail to recognize what followed these events, and the fact that these events didn't just stop and return to how life was before. I believe this is why Vladek was so stubborn, and resistant to change in Maus as well as you said about him being cheap, wanting Mala to wear Anja's clothes, and wanting to do everything himself. From my perspective, that seemed to be his way of life going back to "normal", so changing that might've been seen as a threat to hi the way the change that came with Nazi power was.

I heavily agree with your statement that in order to move on, there are cycles that have to be broken. I feel that this really goes along with the social psychology we learned at the beginning of the year, and that humans quite literally have to break away from the way our brains have worked for years to escape certain cycles.