Depiction of Trauma
Dive into a situation where every day was a good happy day. No stress, worries, or tragic experiences. You would always feel "happy" without ever knowing what it felt to feel the opposite. Gladly, these type of worlds does not exist because, how bad as it sounds, true happiness is not felt unless one experiences sadness. However, there is a limit for how much trauma one can experience. This limit was broken during the Holocaust: a life where every day was more traumatizing than the other. One simply wouldn't be able to imagine the difficulties the Holocaust survivors had to go through, but Art Spiegelman makes it easier to understand through his comic Maus.
Art shows the survivors guilt the second generation feels because of the trauma their parents went through. He also shows how Art feels guilty publishing an article about the horrific experiences his dad endured, and then soon getting money from publishing it. The audience can truly understand the magnitude of misfortune the survivors, including Vladek, felt.
The black and white palette of the comic is used to focus on the main events and what happened during them. Using black and white, Art keeps the audience less distracted from irrelevant aspects such as color, surroundings, etc. In addition, Art's portrayal of humans and races as various animals helps the readers realize the tragic experience. After seeing the animals go through so much at first seems funny, but later the readers can make a connection between the animals and humans. Art takes a serious and depressing topic and portrays it through animals to depict that what matters is what happened. If he had used humans, readers would be so focused on how the humans looked and what they did rather than what they experienced.
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| example of tragic experience |
Even after all these methods of portrayal, Vladek claims that "Reality is too complex for comics... so much has to be left or distorted(volume 2. 16)." However, every minor detail isn't needed to learn about the traumatizing experiences the Jews had to go through. In Maus, there are enough details for the readers to gain a substantial understanding of what the Jews experienced.
I liked your introduction and its relevance to the main topic. Also, your description of the color in "Maus" brings up a good point, but you should expand the analysis a little bit more. Overall, great job with the interpretative meaning of all these elements.
ReplyDeleteI like how you analyzed how a life with happiness is also made up of trauma and sadness. You also described very well the difficult situation between the generation that went through the Holocaust, and the one living in the agony of their parents. You write really well, it's a pleasure to read! :)
ReplyDeleteI am not entirely sure if I agree with your introduction. On one hand, trauma does appear to be one of the things that give perspective to life. On the other hand, would it really be impossible to have perspective if there is no trauma? I think this is something that is impossible for us to know. An average person cannot truly understand what it is like to be a Holocaust survivor; it also appears impossible for people who live in a world full of tragedy to understand what life would be like if trauma does not exist. What we do know is that a world where tragedy does not happen is a common wish among humans. It motivates people to find religion and spirituality. Many pop songs lament the fleeting nature of love and happiness. In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien yearns for a world where Linda does not have to die. The belief that a world without tragedy would be a world without perspective seems to me to be a "sour grapes" attitude that many people have toward the existence of a world where tragedy is so prevalent. I am not saying that I think you are wrong; rather, I am saying that I don't think this is something anyone can know for sure.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a blog post about this, by the way: http://humanstruthandstories.blogspot.com/2017/09/an-indescribable-beauty.html
DeleteHey Kevin, I think you interpreted my wording in the wrong way. I changed that sentence to "true happiness is not felt unless one experiences sadness." Hope this clears up any confusion.
DeleteHey Sahita, it is great to hear from you personally. You didn't need to change a thing. In fact, it was a pretty poor choice of me to comment on that one sentence. I only commented on that one because it was related to a blog post that I had made earlier, and I really should have chosen a sentence that was more important to the focus of your post. Your post was great, by the way; my comment was just nitpicking. I especially like how you talk about why he depicts animals suffering in place of the humans. That was definitely a new perspective for me. I am not even sure if I agree with my own thoughts in the previous comment anyway.
DeleteI like the topic you chose! I was so focused on trying to analyze the panels, I never considered how the monochrome drawings added to our ability to better comprehend the comic. I also think that without color, liveliness is taken out of the story, and black is used to portray the dark, traumatizing events.
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