But the isle of home is always on your mind"
--Celtic Thunder, "Isle of Hope"
This picture from Art Spiegelman's Maus is an introduction to Chapter Four of the second volume. Pictured is a worried Vladek, with Holocaust prisoners behind him, and towering over them is a sideways American flag. The staring prisoners behind him represent his terrible past always prying on his actions and thoughts. The slight bags and marks underneath his eyes represent his anxiousness towards present-day life. As well as this, Vladek's eyes are not looking directly at the reader, but away into the future, worried because his past pervades all that lies ahead.
If vertical stripes represent being a prisoner in horrific conditions, then horizontal stripes represent the opposite-loveliness. The American stripes are at an angle between vertical and horizontal, resembling how Vladek lives as a prisoner of his memories and a survivor trying to enjoy life. The flag is located at the apex of the picture, resembling the view that the Americans were the heroes of the Holocaust, yet they didn't save any prisoners from memories and reminders of the war throughout life.
The chapter is entitiled "Saved", ironic because
Vladek will never save his future when the past peers into his brain as
he seeks to find happiness. The "S" simulates half of a swastika,
symbolizing that his horrific memories are included in the rest
of his life. He may be saved from the Nazis, but he will never
be saved from the constant reminders of suffering.
Nice post! I really liked how you said that the Americans saved the Jews from the Nazis but not from the memories. It really emphasizes how traumatizing the Holocaust is.
ReplyDeleteSarah, your insight on this post was enlightening. I never noticed how the "S" in saved was a different font than the rest of the word, resembling an arm of the swastika. Now that is just one more example to add to how the swastika is never fully intact!
ReplyDeleteI really like your analysis on the diagonal American stripes and on the "S" in "Saved". To add another aspect to the analysis on the picture, I think that the position of the American flag behind the suffering prisoners signifies that their suffering outweighs the fact that the Americans saved them.
ReplyDeleteI love how you used Vladeks body language to represent the reoccurring theme that Vladek is stuck in the past. I never noticed his eyes or the s in saved before.
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