Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A new perspective

Up until this chapter, my opinion of Vladek has been solely negative. He is very needy and annoying. His habits from the Holocaust have carried over into his everyday life. He is overly frugal, which annoys Art very much. His rationality has been greatly affected by the Holocaust. In this past chapter, he really only offered Art food, and Art's responded to him very harshly. Art would snap at his father, which is not only disrespectful even if deserved, but Vladek did not deserve it. Vladek did not yell back at Art, which was surprising considering his personality traits. I was pleasantly surprised with Vladek's actions in the past chapter.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Andrew LimApril 25, 2010 at 2:51 PM

    Along with Vladek’s ability to brush aside Art’s temper, I also found it interesting how Vladek was so open and willing to tell Art his story. On page 24, when Art asks Vladek to talk more about Auschwitz, Vladek replies, “Of course darling. To me you can ask anything!” Vladek is more relaxed and comfortable retelling his past versus trying to cope with the present reality after the Holocaust. His conflicts with Art seem to disappear as soon as they begin to talk about the Holocaust. In addition, at the end of novel, when Vladek has memory lapses, he can still remember all the events of the war. The Holocaust defines Vladek, and its presence shapes all his characteristics (including frugality, neediness, and annoyingness) after the war.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 25, 2010 at 3:33 PM

    I have felt guilty for Vladek for most of the book. The fact that he was in the camps brings enough guilt as it is, but the fact that Mala left him, Anja, the love of his life, killed herself, and the fact that Art gives him a hard time and just wants his story. All this piled up, and if I were Vladek, all this would give me so much stress. However, after hearing what he said about African Americans, I was not only surprised, but angry. He is acting like the Nazi discriminating the Jew. It's unbelievable how he was doing the exact same thing Nazis did to him.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)