Vladek Spiegelman Character Analysis

Most of Vladek Spiegelman has many (strange) personality traits. He can be headstrong, stingy, short-tempered and even borderline racist at times. As the reader reads through Maus I and II, it is learned that most of these things about him stem from his experience being a Holocaust survivor and living through World War II. Before the war, he didn 't exhibit these traits. With his first wife Anja, he is undoubtedly kind, compassionate, and wealthy. Art Spiegelman shows his father’s personality changes and the complexity of his character throughout the two books.

Vladek Spiegelman is seen as a survivor and a hero by many people, although he doesn 't always think of himself that way. If one was to survive the Nazi Regime, they would probably be considered a hero. Artie, Francoise, the reader, and many of Vladek’s friends or acquaintances see him that way, but why can 't Vladek see himself as the hero that most see him as? Of course, Vladek survived in the sense that he lived through it, but he didn 't totally survive it mentally. He is still hung up on many of the things that he had to deal with during the war. One of these things was that he always had to save his food. In Auschwitz, he was only given a little bit of food and although, “Most gobbled it right away, but I always saved a half for later” (II, 49). This shows that back then he was sparing with his food. Seemingly small items are incredibly important to Vladek like his pills

Maus is a story about the survivor that is Vladek Spiegelman. His son Art Spiegelman includes the interview process and the story of how the Holocaust formed the person that his father became. He went from a passionate, free-spirited young man to an angry, short-tempered man. The war had effects on Vladek that couldn 't be as easily understood unless the book was written and went so into detail about each aspect of his life. The complexity of Vladek Spiegelman is one of the main topics that is spread throughout both of