Honors Blog

Where I got the Picture

The picture above shows two of the main characters in the story. I will first start off by doing a character sketch writing on Artie, the son of the holocaust survivor.

In Maus, the characters are either mice to represent the Jewish or cats to represent the German Nazis. Some physical character traits that Artie has are a long nose and beady eyes. In the book he is usually dressed in slacks, a collard shirt and a sweater vest on top. Artie smokes and it sometimes irritates his father. He is very curious about his father's past and is eager to find out the answers so that he can get started on writing his book. Artie is Jewish because he comes from a Jewish family. Throughout the book you can see how it may be difficult at times for Artie to communicate with his father because his father is so old fashined and very proper while Artie comes from a new generation and is more open minded. He also shows a side to him that to me seemed like resentment. It was the part where Mala showed Artie the comic strip that the father found that Artie wrote. The way it was written shows how he was resentful to his mother.

The other main character shown in the picture above is a picture of Artie's father, Vladek. Vladek is the one in the story who develops the plot of the book. It is because the story is based around him telling his son Artie about his experience during the Holocaust. He is very much so old fashioned. He wears a suit and tie when he is at home. He speaks with a strong accent and is more cautious of money more so then Artie. He is an old man and does things such as counting his pills and riding on his bicycle as he tells Artie about his past. He does not get along well with his current wife Mala but loved his first wife Anja very much. Historically, his connection with history is that Vladek's story is something that actually happen in history. He had a personal experience with the Nazis and lived to be able to tell about it.Where I got the Picture

Another main character in the story is Anja. Anja is Vladek's first wife and the mother of Arite. She appears numerous times in the book in the stories that Vladek tells about his past. It is said in the book that she is not the prettiest girl but her attitude and presence can make you fall in love with her. She was also Jewish and came from a wealthy family. It was her father that helped Vladek open the textile factory. In the book she has to go to a mental assuylum for a bit because she has a breakdown. She helps contribute to the plot of the story because Vladek loves her so much wants to make sure that he is not separated from her or his family. She is dead though.

The pattern I noticed with all three of the main characters is that they are all related. This leads me to believe that the reason why the book was so good is because Artie had more passion to write about this story because it was something personal that happen to people he was close to and loved very much.