Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Hypocrisy of Vladek
Near the end of chapter 3, Vladek goes off about how Blacks are stealers and how discriminating the Blacks is totally different from discriminating the Jews. At first I could not believe Vladek, especially after what he went through his whole life being a Jew. You would think after the Holocaust, Vladek would never want to discriminate others the way he was discriminated. However, after thinking about this for some time, I realized that settings have a great impact on the way people treat others. For example, studies have shown that many abusive adults were abused as kids. This relates to Vladek because since he was discriminated so much, he is now acting the same way the Nazis were. He is treating the African Americans as the Jews. So after deep thought, I am not surprised Vladek acted the way he did in the car.
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I was also surprised by his racism. This reminds me of the video that Ms. Wilsey mentioned at the beginning of Holocaust Lit about the class of children who were each given a day where they could rule the class based on their eye color. Once the children were given power, they abused it. Thus, this shows that even after suffering, people are still not ashamed to abuse this type of power. I also definitely agree that previous experiences mold the way people behave in their future. In this case, it is evident that because Vladek had been discriminated against for several years, he believed it was within his right to discriminate against others as well. However, I disagree because he is definitely not acting like the Nazis were, he may have the same mindset but the way he carries out his racism was extremely different from the procedure of the Nazis.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree with Vivian's point that Vladek does not take his discrimination to the level the Nazis did, actively persecuting those who are different than he is, I do agree with Andrew's main point that Vladek's behavior seems to be shaped from his past experiences. Like Andrew, when I first read this passage I was very confused and thought Vladek should be more inclined to accept others after his experiences in the concentration camp. However, such traumatizing experiences can certainly have an adverse effect on someone's mindset and mental state, which is what I think is at play here with Vladek's mind/behavior
ReplyDeleteVladek's past probably does not lead him to trust others different from him with ease. If anything, a different ethnic group, the Germans, destroyed his life and killed much of his family. One Black person supposedly stole from him, so he mistrusts their race in general. Such caution can only be a result of his past experiences.
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