Storytelling elements
So far one of my favorite aspects of this story is how Vladek's narrative is all broken English Jewish style, but then when he is portrayed in the past his speech is normal English. I know Spiegelman did this because in reality Vladek would be speaking in another language and so it is translated. It is also amazing how witty Vladek was the whole time finding ways to stay alive by building hidden bunkers, wearing disguises, speaking and writing in German, and bribing and scheming for food.
6 Replies
Or how he claims to have done all this cool stuff.... The bit with Anja's journals is interesting too, "the only thing i remember about them is her saying how she hoped you would be interested in them, so i burned them'
I think Kevin raises a really interesting point: Vladek seems to be an almost super-humanly clever person during the war, and nearly every incident he relates involves him surviving while others died because he was more clever, or planned ahead better, than his fellow Jews. This could all be entirely true. But it is also the case, as the burning of Anja's journals makes clear, that the only perspective we have on Vladek's past is his own. And memory is famously malleable. How true do we think Vladek's story is? What does the way he tells it say about him, and what does it say about all the people who didn't survive the Holocaust?
I agree with Prof. Rosenblatt, that throughout the story I felt as though a lot things were extremely "coincidental." It seemed that every other page was filled with some potential for Vladek to lose his life, but just in the nick of time he thinks of some scheme, or happens to run in to a friend who hides him away, or something of that nature. For a lot of the book, I just kind of sat there rolling my eyes thinking "Yes of course, as everyone else is being shot in the streets, you just happen to manage [x] to stay alive." It seemed questionable and fishy to me. And that became even more questionable when the diary was burned... Especially because the diary was actually written when the war was occurring, rather than many decades later as Vladek is orally telling the story to Art. He probably knew that the diary was much more accurate, and again, along with my previous post in response to Patrick -- Vladek cares a lot about appearances. Hence, he probably knew the diary would create holes in his story and break his facade of being some what of a hero, so he knew he had to dispose of them.
I think that Vladek's story might be a bit exaggerate and this could tell you many thins about him but i feel most likely he just wanted to be able tell a good story and he new that if he told nothing but the truth it might get a little boring.
This thread of comments reminded of a discussion we had in a previous core class last semester, Gary Scudder’s Chinese Journeys. One of the books we read was The Silk road Journey of Xuanzang. Where many of the same points were brought up. This story was written after the journey by a biographer who was infatuated with Xuanzang before beginning to tell the story. In this book whenever Xuanzang makes a poor decision there is always some other factor that had not been revealed, making the poor decision the correct choice. The example I remember most vividly was when Xuanzang was preparing to cross the Taklimakan desert, he traded a strong horse for a weak old horse; but in the retelling of the story Xuanzang was fulfilling a prophecy.
Vladek’s story reminded me of this discussion, whenever something goes wrong it is never Vladek’s fault; however, he still has the proper solution to fix the problem. Xuanzang and Vladek’s stories both seem over embellished. The inclusion of Vladek’s personality flaws like greed and racism make him more human; but his super human abilities to predict the outcome of certain actions, and his ability to read peoples motives and personality, reverse the humanizing effect of his character flaws. While Xuanzang has gathered a following as one of the most important people in Chinese Buddhism I think Vladek simply wants his son to look up to him as a smart fatherly figure.
I'm guessing that most of the things that Vladek says happened actually happened. They just may have not happened to him. In the retelling of the story he probably took credit for other people's ideas and actions to make himself look more like a hero. In class someone talked about how Vladek always seemed to have another watch or ring to trade for something. That makes sense when you think of it as Vladek taking credit for the watches and rings that other people have saved.
Kevin Berry
Apr 10, 2013 at 9:58 AM