ipl-logo

Guilt In Art Spiegelman's Maus

429 Words2 Pages

To illustrate, when an adult becomes a parent, he or she makes a promise to always put their child before themselves. When a parent fails to maintain this promise, every aspect of his or her life revolves around the feeling of guilt. In Maus, the author displays this cause and effect through the use Vladek’s figure-the positioning of the face, hands, and feet to express what a character is feeling. Vladek tells Artie of
Moreover, just as a parent can feel the guilt of failure and its restraints, a child can mimic such guilt in just as many ways. Spiegelman portrays an example of this guilt after Artie discovers that several days ago Vladek had seen an old and personal comic of his for the first time. The comic, titled “Prisoner on the Hell Planet,” was drawn years ago and acted as a way for Artie to express his emotions and mindset …show more content…

Not knowing the explanation behind Anja’s actions, Artie is lead to believe that friends and neighbors blame him for Anja’s death and admits that he has turned his back on his mother in moments when she desperately needed to feel loved. Artie’s newfound sense of isolation is shown through his illustrations of people’s distorted, inhuman faces. It can be inferred that Artie’s disconnect is a result of the overwhelming guilt he feels after taking responsibility for Anja’s suicide. In the last three panels of the comic, Artie is depicted as a prisoner within a jail cell, crying out, “….You put me here….shorted all my circuits….cut my nerve endings….and crossed my wires!....You murdered me. Mommy, and you left me here to take the rap!!!” (103). Artie believes that Anja is the one who has “murdered” him, turning his life upside down and trapping him in a prison of guilt. Spiegelman puts draws attention to the negative word, “murdered,” and uses three exclamation points to put emphasis on the miserable and agonizing tone Artie has taken on. The use of this word

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis Of Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

    1684 Words  | 7 Pages

    While the child was feeling down; instead of picking her son up, the mother scolds her child “[reminding] him, once again, not to shout out in public. And never to speak with his mouth full” and his sister reminds him that, “Papa’s gone” (Otsuka 50). For one of the few emotional outbursts in the novel, there is no consolation for the distressed child. There is only condemnation of his actions and a reminder of not only of how he should act but also of the very topic that is distressing him, his missing father. It is clear that it did not matter what age an individual was, it was expected that the child would remain silent and distant from

    Read More

  • Unwind

    1001 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this place we see that people created a "nursery", which is an advanced virtual reality program, that is able to create any environment that is in the owner 's mind. Furthermore, as the children are addicted to the nursery, the parents started to know that something isn’t right. Instead of successfully moving away to a new resident, the children killed their parents by visualising the scene of their parents being killed by the wild lions of Africa so much that they become real. In this text the author shows us how the technology can remove people’s sympathy towards each other. We can also imply from the children that they have lost the ability to love as they are more willing to spend their life in the nursery than living with their parents.

    Read More

  • From Confetti Girl Analysis

    523 Words  | 3 Pages

    In some cases, the parents are only trying to help their child instead of make their child feel this way. In “ from Confetti Girl and “from Tortilla Sun”, the situations in both stories created tension between the narrator and their parents which proves that they way a child is affected by their parent not only destroys them but keeps them from facing their parents. Sometimes the child feels hopeless and neglected. When analyzing these stories, tension was created because of the different points of view between the narrator and their

    Read More

  • Poem Analysis: A Story By Li-Young Lee

    772 Words  | 4 Pages

    The father, on the other hand, overwhelmed by joy and grief becomes oblivious of the present and travels into the future. His lost of thought rests in his inability to “come up with one.” The action of “the man rubbing his chin, scratching his ear” confirms the speculation that he is lost amid in the future, unable to satisfy the present. He thinks that “the boy will give up on his father” and all these fragments of gloomy thoughts incites feelings of unfulfilled desires and inevitable parting.” The author strategically creates this contrast between the points of view due highlight the boy’s eager await and his father’s internal conflict, whose thoughts bring into the light his affectionate relationship with his son, whom he is afraid to lose one

    Read More

  • Aria Beth Sloss One North Analysis

    1493 Words  | 6 Pages

    By contrast, the approach to describe the mother is calmer, with a lot of psychological activities. The father’s underlying passion flowing and burning from within is for his expedition, not for the mother. However, what the mother expected is his love and a more spiritual adventure and what she does not expect is when “[the] father’s leaving turned from adventure to abandonment” (22). The contrast flows throughout the whole story and is an indication of the fundamental confliction between them because of their dichotomy of subject of

    Read More

  • Dennis Nilsen's Theory Of Criminal Behavior

    1417 Words  | 6 Pages

    As children at young age are very impressionable, an early childhood experiences can influence a child that can affect them ass an adult. During Nilsen’s childhood, his parent’s divorced when he was at a young age where he went to live with his mother and siblings at his maternal grandfather’s home (Crime Investigation, 2014). As they lived the home, Nilsen became very attached to his grandfather; however, Nilsen’s grandfather had passed away when he was 6 years old which impacted Nilsen when viewing his corpse at the funeral (Crime Investigation, 2014). Along with losing his grandfather, Nilsen became isolated when his mother remarried and had four more children from that marriage (Crime Investigation, 2014).

    Read More

  • Mother And Son Analysis

    1748 Words  | 7 Pages

    This boy, paralleling the boy in “From Childhood,” is being smothered so much so that it is impacting his life negatively. Though some might argue that his attention induced embarrassment is typical of a growing child, context clues point to his mother’s overbearing nature as the direct culprit of his discomfort. The relationship between the parties of both “From Childhood” and “Mother and Son” are uncanny. But even so, the way in which the mother in “Mother and Son” acts overbearingly differs to that of the overbearing actions of the mother in “From Childhood,” thus giving this maternal relation its own place on the wide-ranged

    Read More

  • Diction And Juxtaposition In 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

    589 Words  | 3 Pages

    His five-year-old son refers to the father as “Baba”, a word filled with the boy’s entreaty towards his father as he asks for a story. However, he is later portrayed as a “...boy [who] is packing his shirts, [and] looking for his keys”. He is no longer portrayed as the five year old son, but as a grown man. However, the boy still adores his father, and the word “Baba” remains a huge role in the son’s life; it is used to express his love for his father and to ask for stories, he highly looks forward to. Despite the fear that his son will leave him one day, the relationship between the father and his son is an “...emotional rather than logical equation, an earthly rather than heavenly one…”.

    Read More

  • The Sign In My Father's Hands Analysis

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    The experiences people go through impact the way the see world and those around them. Children are raised by their parents and witnesses to the triumphs and failures. When the age comes many often question their parent’s decisions. Some may feel bitterness and contempt while others may feel admiration and motivation. The “Sign in My Father’s Hands” by Martin Espada conveys the feeling of being treated as a criminal for doing the right thing.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Scapegoat In Sula

    759 Words  | 4 Pages

    For example when a young boy (“Teapot”) comes to her house and falls down the steps, the mother of the child blamed Sula for the boy’s injuries and then starting taking care of the child for the first time. Here once again we are shown how Sula is made into the scapegoat. Later after Sula’s death the women no longer cherish and want to take care of their children so they abandon them once again. (Morrison, page. 113-115, 117)

    Read More

  • The Symbolism Of The Dog In Homer's Odyssey

    1116 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the painting Argos Recognizes Odysseus, Theodor van Thulden uses the scene of Argo’s last moments spent with his lost owner Odysseus to show that if a bond is strong enough people will always connect, while in his poem “Argos”, Alexander Pope uses the same scene to show that being too self-adsorbed with problems can lead to neglecting those that should be cared for. The poem Argos Recognizes Odysseus by Alexander Pope demonstrates the idea that often people neglect others when caught up in their own problems. When Odysseus leaves to go to war, he does not think of his puppy, Argos. Twenty years go by and Argos is no longer a puppy, he is a stray, aged dog.

    Read More

  • A Story By Li-Young Lee Analysis

    883 Words  | 4 Pages

    From beginning to end, the son calls his father “Baba” to show his affection and admiration. Despite the father’s inability to come up with a new story, the son still looks up to him. This affectionate term also contrasts with the father’s vision of the “boy packing his shirts [and] looking for his keys,” which accentuates the undying love between the father and son (15 & 16) . The father’s emotional “screams” also emphasize his fear of disappointing the son he loves so much (17). Despite the father’s agonizing visions, the son remains patient and continues to ask for a story, and their relationship remains “emotional” and “earthly”--nothing has changed (20-21).

    Read More

  • The Complete Maus Literary Analysis

    1415 Words  | 6 Pages

    In The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman uses his style of illustration to convey the theme of power in his graphic novel. In 1980, cartoonist Art Spiegelman wrote the first volume of Maus. Before Art’s work came into prominence, comics had not been truly acknowledged as art. His work would practically evolve graphic novels into a recognized form of literature. Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948 to Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, but his family immigrated to Rego Park in Queens, New York three years later.

    Read More

  • Why Did Kate Chopin Write A Story Of An Hour

    897 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kate Chopin wrote a story about Mrs. Mallard, a married woman who suffers from heart problems and also has to cope with her husband recent passing. Mrs.Mallard, she showed sincere grief about her husband passing. However, looking back at how controlling her husband Mr.Mallard were in their marriage, Mrs.Mallard felt a sudden joy when processing her husband death After her sudden emotional change, Mrs Mallard felt liberated when she started thinking about what her life would be like without Mr.Mallard, but regardless of the happiness she feels, she knows that once she sees her husband in corpse that sadness will return. Through her writing, author Chopin readers/ audience would be women who feel trapped and controlled in their marriage. Anger, loneliness and heartbroken are feelings that women who're coping with the death of their loved one feel.

    Read More

  • Morals In Steven Millhauser's The Knife Thrower

    1009 Words  | 5 Pages

    1. LL. 26-31) This explains why Hensch have been able too built and reputation out of disreputable things. The art in itself is tame. It is the dark and bloody part that he have added, that makes it interesting.

    Read More

More about Guilt In Art Spiegelman's Maus

Open Document