Introduction
Survivor’s guilt is when a person feels guilty for surviving a life-threatening situation when others didn’t. Veterans are some of the people who face guilt and blame. Holocaust survivors, responders, and people who have experienced traumatic events, among others, also suffer from this type of guilt. The survivors tend to question why they survived an event, and others do not, asking themselves what they could have done to help the victims.
Survivors’ guilt can be handled by connecting with others, including family and support groups, and accepting the feelings (De Leon 4). One may cope with guilt by processing the issue and allowing the mind to heal from the trauma. It can be accomplished using mindful techniques like breathing exercises during the flashbacks and practicing self-care like engaging in sports and taking long or short walks, among others. In Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, guilt is the main theme depicting how survivor’s guilt can be detrimental using the main character, Maus’, experiences following the Holocaust.
An Overview of Events and Characters Concerning Guilt
Maus details Spiegelman’s father’s story Vladek about his experiences as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. The story runs parallel with the story of Spiegelman’s numerous interactions with his father during his visits to record his memories (Gavrilă 61). The characters in the comic are presented as animals used to highlight the author’s point of view. The dogs represent the Americans, the Cats stand for the Germans, and the Jews are depicted as mice (Gavrilă 61).
Maus bases his story on the terrifying facts about the Holocaust, which saw the systematic genocide of millions of Jews that was carried out by the Nazi regime in World War II (Gavrilă 63). Maus represents the Second-generation literature about the Holocaust written from the perspective of the survivor’s children as told by their survivor’s parents (De Leon 10). It is a way for the children to connect with their family’s past, which is a Jewish tradition.
Maus’ Guilt
Guilt greatly consumes the victim’s life, but it is one way of learning from their and other people’s experiences. Spiegelman, through Maus, talks about his guilt for not suffering from the Holocaust like his parents and stepmother did (De Leon 5). He is guilty of the fact that his life is way better than theirs because by the time he grew up, the nightmare was over, and he wasn’t directly affected by the Holocaust (De Leon5).
The guilt makes him feel disappointed, and through his experiences, a survivor’s tale is developed. In this case, Maus feels bad that he did not go through the Holocaust like his family members. He wishes he had joined in with the terror survivors. Using the character of Maus, Spiegelman shows how survival is highly-priced through the lens of his father’s experiences.
Levels and Causes of Guilt
Maus talks about guilt and blame on two levels, the first being the individual part. In a personal case, the Holocaust victims try to come to terms with their guilt of surviving the ordeal when others died in camps. Maus, through the comic, explains the Holocaust through his father’s experience, and we see that it was not an easy place to come out because of the horrors and mistreatment in the concentration camps (De Leon 4). The people who went through the experience directly are guilty because they watched their loved ones, and they feel like the ones who died deserved to live more than them.
In life, some cultural artifacts and symbols are used to remind people of their duty to self and community. The concentration camps made it such that individuals had to think about their need to survive and their sense of responsibility to others (Gavrilă 63). This means that in the camp, it didn’t matter if it was your child/sister/ mother who was next on the line to die; the most important thing was an individual’s survival, which further demonstrates their guilt.
Maus’ narration involves the character of Vladlek on a stationary bike (Spiegelman 11). The stationary bike symbolizes the impact of survivor’s guilt on an individual (Gavrilă 67). The person keeps trying to move forward, but the pain keeps pushing them back. Even though he survived the Holocaust, Vladlen is still guilty of the fact that other people did not survive like him.
In some cases, individuals may feel guilty as a group rather than individually. The second level of guilt, the collective one, is when the children of the holocaust victims feel guilty over not sharing their parent’s experiences (De Leon 13). This resembles Maus’ character, who had to question the reasons why the Holocaust had to happen, who, apart from the Nazis, were involved, and why the whole world couldn’t intervene to rescue the victims.
The stories were passed down to them by their parents, making both of them get troubled by the same trauma (Gavrilă 69). The children felt angry about the situation, and some pushed for the survivors’ justice to get over the guilt. This is the reason why there are memorial days. The days are used to reflect on what happened during the Holocaust, and the people get to learn from others’ experiences to know what they would have done differently.
Spiegelman may have been born after the world war but is guilty of the fact that he was awakening the pain and digging into the wounds of his father, making him recount the pain of the Holocaust. He feels even guiltier because he will get to sell and make a profit from talking about the people’s pain, knowing that they won’t ever get justice and the Holocaust shouldn’t have happened (Spiegelman 33).
Maus explains the Nazi ideology and consequences, which showed that they saw the Jews as sub-humans who were not worthy of ethical consideration. The Holocaust shows how weak ethics and morality are when truly tested and how bonds like friendship and family are broken. This is evident when one has to think about whether to consider the relationship they have with others or survive something like the Holocaust.
In the concentration camps, Vladlek gives Spiegelman a picture of how poor the conditions were. There was inhumane treatment with little food, and people were treated like objects of no value. The goal of victims like Valdek was to survive the Holocaust. That is why he accepted being drafted to go into different camps where life may not have been better, but he was treated differently in the concentration camp (Gavrilă 69). He was later released and managed to get his business back, but that did not mean that he could forget the people he lost in the camps.
The Therapeutic Role of Storytelling
Storytelling plays a therapeutic role in the lives of the victims. The holocaust victims, just like Spiegelman and Vladlek, were encouraged to talk about their experiences to help them heal. Talking about their experiences to the children not only connects their children with their past and makes them appreciate the struggles of the survivors but also aids in the push for justice and reconciliation. It allows the other generations to learn what to expect from fellow human beings and helps them strive to be better individuals (De Leon 9).
These stories should be told by both the Nazi generation and the Jew generations to push for reconciliation. The surviving Holocaust victims need to be given a platform to speak about their experiences to expose the rot in the justice system and find answers for the ones who did not.
Conclusion
In conclusion, survivor’s guilt arises from surviving horrifying situations that would have almost led to death. These instances can occur at any time in a person’s life. The main challenge is in overcoming such feelings, especially when one feels separated from society in one way or another. Although some people may try to handle this guilt on their own, seeking support from caring individuals such as family and friends would help.
Maus is a comical narration of a survivor who happens to be Spiegelman’s father. Maus is the main character affected by guilt resulting from his not participating in the Holocaust. His family members are considered to be survivors of what they endured, while Maus blames himself for not being present in the tribulations. Through this story, therapy for Holocaust victims can be realized.
Works Cited
De Leon, Danielle. “‘My Father Bleeds History’: Survivor’s Guilt and Filial Inadequacy in Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale and E.L. Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel.” Wonderer, 2020. Web.
Gavrilă, Ana-Maria. “Holocaust Representation and Graphical Strangeness in Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: “Funny Animals,” Constellations, And Traumatic Memory.” Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Communicatio, vol 4, no. 1, 2017, pp. 61-75.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. 1986.