Maus I: My Father Bleeds History

Well, when I was looking back through the blogs I realized I did not do one for the first book of Maus. And you know what our teacher says, “as long as you get it done.” So here is it is. I would like to first point out that I love the title of this first book, My Father Bleeds History. I think that it is such an original title and it truly does describe Vladek. Where to begin? Well, I found Vladek’s and Arties relationship to be very interesting. It seems to be such a wounded and troubled relationship. Almost everything about his dad annoys him, so much to the point where he does not even enjoy visiting him. The main reason that he does drop by is to get more information for his book. Most of the things that Artie does are considered by Vladek as the incorrect way of doing it. Vladek is so stingy and up tight. He is constantly finding fault in Mala. If I were in her place I would have either been driven out of my mind or have left him like she did. One might consider Vladek to be a survivor of the Holocaust, but I personally would consider him a casualty. The war forever changed Vladek, for the worse. He came out as a completely different man. Forever haunted by his horrific memories.