Maus

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the Holocaust, antisemitism, and antisemitic violence.

Art makes clear in Volume I that his relationship with Vladek is strained. He recognizes that Vladek’s life has been filled with trauma and that many of his defining traits are a result of this trauma. One of the traits that Art finds maddening is Vladek’s frugality. Vladek is highly unwilling to waste any material good, be it food or other everyday objects, such as wooden matches. Though, to a large degree, this resourcefulness is a logical learned behavior after being imprisoned. In Auschwitz, Art emphasizes how Vladek takes saving things to an extreme, a tendency that is paralleled by Vladek’s obsession with his savings and his constant fear that Mala intends to steal his savings. Many of his conversations with Art are laments about his expenses and the unfairness of Mala’s demands.

Art believes Vladek’s concerns are unreasonable, and conversations with Vladek’s neighbors about his miserliness confirm this. A key aspect of Vladek’s thriftiness is that the other survivors in Vladek’s neighborhood do not share it. Art, therefore, finds it inaccurate to hold the Holocaust to blame for this trait. It is a trait that is unique to Vladek but one that Art further fears aligns him with the negative stereotypes about Jews that fuel antisemitism.