The "Art" of Survival

In the novel MAUS, Vladek’s trauma from the past manifests itself into physical features of the present to show that he can’t escape the Holocaust and his horrifying experiences. On page 79 of Volume II, this trauma is shown by the “four young girls” (Spiegelman 79) and their hanging bodies. As he tells the story, Vladek physically sees the bodies hanging in the woods just outside of the car window. Although this panel takes place in the present, Vladek sees his trauma manifest right in front of him. It is so boundless that his past and present have melded, creating a never-ending nightmare. 

Vladek associates many traumatic elements of the past with his surroundings. The mere fact that something as normal as driving through a wooded area could trigger such trauma is eye-opening. In the panel, it is shown that Vladek associates the woods with his experience at Auschwitz, so the trauma appears in his present life. 

The trauma that Vladek faces every day could also explain his constant irritability.  Every day, he is forced to relive the worst years of his life. Although some Jewish people survived the war, Hitler did win in one sense. The survivors are so traumatized that they can never truly escape. This begs the question: are they really surviving? This ideation of being trapped is also why Vladek has no sense of past or present. Instead of differentiating them, he is stuck in his time at Auschwitz. The trauma that manifests not only furthers the feeling of entrapment but leaves Vladek in a constant fight for survival.