You Do What You Have To Do.

After reading Maus, there were a few parts in the comic book that I felt were so emotional and passionate. The story of Vladek and Anja and their son Richieu. On page 66, the Vladek is returning from war to Anja and there is just a moment where they embrace each other and it is finally a permanent reunion for him with his family. This moment in the book struck me because I, as well as many other people I’m sure, have had those moments in their life where they haven’t seen a loved one in a long time and that immense relief of just ‘ ok, I’m here, we’re together,’ just floods every muscle in your body. The excitement building up to seeing a long lost love again is strenuous and nerve-racking so that relief, that release of hope is finally successful when you embrace that loved one. It is a powerful moment in the book when he picks up Richieu, his now 2.5 year old son and he is screaming because his Dad’s buttons on his jacket are cold. Vladek is taken aback and thinks that he doesn’t know who he is, but it’s just because his buttons are cold on his jacket. I feel this just shows how life can continue while there is a loved one missing and the son is just taking in each moment as they come and not worrying or stressing over his father not being there. This is due to the son’s age, however it’s a lesson that every age can learn from. On page 109, I was really moved by this passage where Tosha decides to commit suicide and the three children she has with her instead of die in a gas chamber. She always carried around a bottle of poison and decided to commit not only murder but suicide. This is a powerful thought and point in time as it is representing how the Jews were resilient in their beliefs and if everything else was taken away from them, if they could control at least how they died, they would. I can comprehend was Tosha decided to do, I do not necessarily agree with it, because it is such a morbid and hurtful task to accomplish. This section represents to me the idea of when a person has all their freedoms stripped from them and all they have left is the choice of how to die. This brings to light how many freedoms I live with today and take for granted. The “problems” I feel I have in my life are significantly diminished if not completely erased by the thought of how the Jews were treated back in Poland during Hitler’s reign.

It's incredible all of the sacrifices that not only Vladek makes throughout his story, but all of his family members and friends. His friends who were hung, that was a point were the story started to finally show and foreshadow the horrific events that will happen to the rest of the Jewish community. I truly felt bad and upset when there were the drawings of Vladek's friends hung and he kept playing the image of it in his head he sat and thought about what his next move would be. He was always planning his next " move" his next escape and way to keep himself and his family safe and out of harms away. Thinking he could save Richieu's life, he sent him away with Tosha only to have his son posioned by Tosha right before he would have been gassed in Auschwitz. Anja is constantly upset and is heart broken about Bibi ,Tosha and her baby Richieu. She flings herself to the ground on page 122 and is desperate to die and give up. Vladek will not let her. He makes the point of being together and they must struggle to live. Vladek did everything he had to in order to keep the family, Anja, he did have together and safe.

Hiding in bunkers, barely being able to eat and try to provide for his wife, Vladek proved that even in the worst of times you can keep going and you can survive. His hope and efforts to stay alive made him succeed.

After reading this book it makes me realize more about what Auschwitz means to people even today. I feel that when we go to visit Auschwitz I will appreciate the historical factors of it more and be able to understand and visualize what happened there years and years ago. It is not a place of happy memories, but right now in my thoughts it stands for a place where innocent people were killed and others survived and escaped from. It is a place that separated and divided families, devastated millions and was the physical representation of evil.
I appreciated the ‘ cat and mouse’ aspect of the book and how the author tried to create this little world animals drawings to represent what was happening in such a horrible time. I feel that it makes it easier to connect to the characters because you are truly reading their feelings and thoughts and regardless if they’re human or mouse it’s in front of you, moving your thoughts around into patterns and ways that maybe aren’t pleasant, but the author got me to feel what each character did at certain points.
I can relate Maus to my own life in that I have overcome some particularly gruesome and truly empty moments in my life, not nearly to the extent of the holocaust, but I still have had similar feelings to Vladek. I have never given up even when there was another horrible thing coming my way, I plan and I figure out a way to get around it. Survival is key when bad things begin to happen and they are out of your control.