The book the Maus was a very interesting and new look at a historical but tragic event. We have all learned year after year about the events and hear countless stories about the Holocaust. The entire book was interesting, and many different parts stuck out to me for many reasons. But one event in particular stuck out to me. On page 21, the Pop was telling his son about how his personal life before Holocaust. In this page after the father tells his son about a woman he was “dating” after he then says that he does not want his son to put this information in his book. The son ask why not and the father response because it has nothing to do with the Holocaust. The son then replies that he would like to use it because it is good material and it makes everything more real. The father responds that it is not respectful and proper to talk about the privet things.
This struck me personally because it reminded me of my great uncle. My great uncle was a fighter pilot in WWII. He was shot down and was held captive for two years, and they did not inform the U.S. that they had him. So for two years he was missing in action. After he was released he came home and went on with the life that he had, he got married, had kids etc. The reason this passage stuck out to me was because the Pop mouse in the book did not want his personal life written about, because he though it was not proper or respectful. This is somewhat like my great uncle; he will not talk about what happened and what he went through while he was in the army. The only people he talks to it about are his former army friends. Although we all know about what happened to my uncle, it is understood that we do not ask or talk about the event. It is out of respect for my uncle, who is a very quite and modest man. We understand that it is not something that he wants to talk about.
As a society we know what is proper and respectful to talk about. People tend to not like to talk about painful events, and as friends, family members, we know the unspoken rules about what we can and can’t talk about. In my case, as a family even though sometimes we would like to talk or ask my great uncle about what happen we respect his choice to not bring up what he went though.
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Maybe the Pop didn't tell his son about those personal times because he couldn't handle talking about the past again. I know if I went through a similar situation, I would not want to talk about the personal emotions I was feeling at those times. Emotions like that can take a person right back to that time and make them feel the same pain. Pop could have been trying to avoid the paint hat came along with those stories.
ReplyDeletejust another way to look at it....
My grandfather was a paratrooper in WWII and while he never talked about the war with my father or any of his other children, once me and my brother were born thats all he talks about with us. My grandfather has never told us why he decided to talk about the war late in his life but the stories he tells me are something I value. His experiences are not something you can read in a text book. While respecting someone's wishes not to talk about their experiences for whatever reason is a good thing I feel very fortunate to hear my grandfather's stories probably as does the son in Maus.
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