The Complete Maus by Timothy Nolan

Author:Timothy Nolan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Insight Publications
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Key point

The American flag forms a backdrop as the Americans arrive (p.271, frame 8). This articulates that a certain idea of ceremony arrived with the Americans, with the flag heralding the proud and patriotic victory that marked the American involvement in the war, and their role as liberators to the survivors of the Holocaust.

Q Is anything really ‘saved’ in this chapter?

Chapter Five: The Second Honeymoon (pp.279–96)

Summary: Vladek travels to New York to be closer to Artie and receive medical treatment for his lungs and heart. He tells of finally getting identity papers and being reunited with Anja in Sosnowiec.

It is interesting to see the ailments in the past and present mirroring one another in this chapter. Vladek’s current health troubles seem imagined, as he is deemed ‘fine’ (p.287, frame 5) after travelling to New York for treatment and is soon released. He then tells of real health trouble just after the war, when in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Here, he has a relapse of typhoid, and later finds out that he has diabetes – very significant scars of the malnourishment and brush with death that he met with in Auschwitz.

Before he reunites with Anja, Vladek sends her a photograph of himself, dressed in the camp uniform. It is a powerful image for several reasons. Firstly, it is his sign to Anja that he is healthy and alive. Secondly, there is sad irony in the fact that a photographer will make money from people wanting to take their photograph dressed in clothing that, to many, is a sign of profound persecution, suffering and death. Yet there is a wonderful irony involved, as a healthy and defiant Vladek stares at the camera with a determined expression, indicating that he did not fall victim to this uniform; and we know that he can now take it off as he pleases and step away from everything that it represents.

In the final frames, we are invited to question Vladek’s authority as narrator. We know that Vladek and Anja do not live ‘happy ever after’ (p.296, frame 4); at this comment we feel a certain sadness, and we are reminded that Vladek is not the faithful storyteller that we (and Artie) hope he is. In the final frame, Vladek tells Artie, whom he addresses as Richieu, that he has told ‘enough stories for now’ (p.296, frame 6). In this utterance, not only do we sense Vladek’s disorientation in having dredged up a gruelling and horrific past, but we also see the undercurrent of loss in his inability to differentiate between his dead son and his living son. The reader wonders if the ghosts of Vladek’s past disturb him more than he has led us to believe.

Q To what extent do the final pages provide a sense of resolution to the narrative?

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