Why was art such a dick to his dad?

>trying this hard to be an edgelord
>being naive enough to think people would band together as a happy team when in extreme deprivation
Next time, pick a fucking lane and also don't try so hard.

>people are stuck in a horrible situation
>every man for himself mentality kicks in
Doesn't look that bad to me.

Let's ignore when he stuck his neck out and got his fellow prisoner proper fitting
shoes.

Let me explain this to you as clearly as I can.

When you're raised by an asshole, you don't really care WHY they're an asshole. When you're an adult, you can sympathize and understand, but during the time that they're raising you, they just seem like assholes. You may know they're tortured. You may know WHY they're tortured. But in the end, the suffering they impose on you overwhelms any sympathy you may have for them, particularly when you're young and your brain is focused on your own wants and needs (That's not even an insult to childhood. You have to be a little bit selfish growing up, because you have so many needs as a child.)

And the after effects of this linger well into adulthood, and will affect your relationship with them for the rest of your life.

Some people condemn Spiegelman for not sugar-coating this, but they can go to hell.

because it's based on a true story and real people aren't perfect

user you completely forgot the part where but even the other holocaust survivors commented on how dysfunctional Art's dad was. It was like "yeah the 'caust fucked us survivors up but Artie's quirks are particular to him". I don't blame him though major experiences like that change a person (death of Richieu, the war years) or re-enforce already carried traits and has long repercussions. There's a reason Oprah declined to have kids.

I remember reading this in the tenth grade, and as gay as it sounds, it taught me that books were important and worth respecting.

Till then I don't think I ever actually enjoyed reading anything assigned to me.

This is the actual answer.

Bam, there it is.
He wanted to give an honest depiction of his father during the holocaust, and that's what he did. His dad wasn't perfect, but editing out all of the rough edges would be to diminish the memory of the man himself.

>user you completely forgot the part where but even the other holocaust survivors commented on how dysfunctional Art's dad was.

Good point.

I think some people have the attitude that if you suffer enough tragedy, you can never be held responsible for anything you do for the rest of your life, but really, different people can go through the same suffering, and have totally different reactions to it.

Some people come out broken and twisted, and others become almost saintly afterwards.

I get the impression Vladek was already a neurotic, self-centered, miser before the war, but the Holocaust refined those traits into a purer form.

Well he was an asshole but just because he a holocaust survivor doesn’t mean he can’t be a dick

There's a scene in the comic itself that calls this defense out. Other jews who survived the holocaust living the same neighborhood say that the holocaust is no excuse for Vladek being such a prick and a miser. It's not like they were all like him after all

Vladek was always a dick. But the central theme, or one of them anyway, about Maus as a biography of Vladek was that this didn't make him a monster or evil, just a dick. He was more than that and could be kind, dedicated, loyal, and generous. There was just always this aspect of him looking out for himself and how he describes his experiences and life makes it clear he considered all of his actions justified in helping him not only survive but move up in the world. And thus able to protect and support his friends and loved ones. Before and after WWII. He was loyal to Anya, but he was just as easily dismissive of an earlier girlfriend he considered ultimately below his station and crazy. He would use his skills to the benefit of others during his travels, but often it was out of pragmatism just as much as kindness.

People are complicated and have a lot of blindness or self delusions about their actions that tie their virtues and vices together into a single person.

>I get the impression Vladek was already a neurotic, self-centered, miser before the war, but the Holocaust refined those traits into a purer form.
He's not the only one. It's fairly clear Anya was always kind of morose and prone to bouts of depression, and maybe also mania.

As for why Art's "such a dick" to his dad, don't forget Vladek destroyed Anya's diaries she meant for Art in a fit of depression over her death. It's almost unreal how Art was able to forgive him for that, though the nature of the comic has the timeframe skip around a lot. It may be Art never really did forgive him and it was just another in a long line of petty bullshit his father inflicted upon him that Art came to accept as part of being his son.

Maybe it's because Jews are genetically predispositioned towards antisocial behavior and greed above all other things, hence why they're willing to destroy Western civilization and promote the extermination of the white race for profit

>106820591

Attached: thou.png (215x140, 31K)

I remember reading a memoir of a Holocaust survivor whose mother had borderline personality disorder or some shit and was blatantly emotionally abusive both before and after. Going through a horrible experience doesn't magically make a person noble or anything.

Anya’s story was very sad, she was institutionalized for suicidal depression and ultimately did take her own life. Reading through Maus I always got the impression that Vladek loved his family but he’d been so damaged by the events of the war that he had trouble functioning in his daily life. Really he was just a harmless grumpy old man.

imagine surviving through the holocaust to find that your kid makes a furry version of your story. I mean him being a furry is bad enough, but... jesus

>but he’d been so damaged by the events of the war that he had trouble functioning in his daily life
It's interesting to consider that between Vladek and Anya, Vladek was the better one at living life ultimately. He has his problems, more than average I'd say, but if you just told someone about a prideful, grumpy old miser who keeps haranguing his son about petty material concerns and gets into fights with his old lady, but is still very lonely and keeps trying to find ways to keep his son and wife around, would you think there was anything in particular wrong with him? Anything in particular that required knowing he was holocaust survivor to explain? His problems in the "present" of the story are, fundamentally, nothing incredibly extraordinary. He has his vices, but he ultimately lived to his final days capable of interacting in the world and living in it to no less a degree than his peers. It his life and experiences that make this all seem extraordinary. It almost demands you take it into consideration.

But it's also hard to say that his traumatic experiences in WW2 and the holocaust couldn't have shaped who he was in his later years, even if you can still see the seeds of it all before then. And then in some ways Vladek seems remarkably unaffected by the holocaust, though this seems to be more what Vladek would wish and he always tries to avoid Art noticing how reliving his experiences may be affecting him even years on. Look at how he goes about getting a job right after the war. Compared to the go getter he was right before the war, it hardly seems as if anything had changed at all. Still, you can see some of the cracks that come through, and it becomes all the more complicated because of how they seem so natural both with and without the holocaust to explain them.

At the very least, it couldn't possibly have helped. The war as told by Vladek offered many opportunities for him to see his actions and beliefs as necessary.

You’re right, there’s nothing about his behavior that immediately indicates that he’s a holocaust survivor. His own reconciliation of it is pretty strange, he even tries to use it to his advantage, like when he wanted to return a box of opened cereal to a supermarket and guilted the manager by saying he was a holocaust survivor. Really he just seemed to like getting away with things though, like how he snuck into a resort to play bingo and would just give away any prizes he won to members.

The mouse and cat analogy was a bit on the nose, but it serves a purpose. I wonder why he made the British fish?

I think Vladek just sees it as natural that one should try and take every opportunity and advantage one can get. Again, how he describes it as helping him through the war hardly seems to have challenged that view, but it's not something born through those experiences either. I don't think he does it for that kind of criminal, getting away with it feeling, so much as there's things he wants to do or thinks should happen and damn the rules or propriety that get in the way.

That does sound gay.

so you should put up with someone emotionally abusive and not call them out on their shit ever?

>Artie whined all the time and played the anti semitism card despite loathing his father who experienced actual oppression
Pretty much like every minority today.

Another prey of the cat, but one that can be big and bite back

fish & chips mate
>frogs - french
> gypsy - moth
> poles -pigs
>americans - dogs
I remember in the book there is a German Jew
mentioned and its a fusion of a cat & mouse

There's literally nothing wrong with being a furry.

No being a furry is wrong.

You can reconcile that the terrible things they've gone through contribute to their behavior and be more patient with them than you would be otherwise. Not that they should be allowed to do whatever they want.

>His dad experienced unimaginable horrors
It was real in his mind

Repent god will forgive you

and real irl