MAUS
"Witnesses in the testimonies do not search for the historicity of experience, nor do they try to recapture the dynamic flow of event. They are concerned less with the past than with a sense of that past in the present. Unlike those who re-create details and images of the event through written text , they generate narratives less predisposed to remind us that we are dealing with a self-consciously represented reality." (Lawrence Langer, Holocaust Testimonies)
Art Spiegelman made a conscious effort to maintain a linear progression throughout the story of MAUS, despite the natural opposition of non-linear expansion of memory that Vladek used to tell the story. The obvious uniqueness of MAUS is the visual guide. Anything that Art writes is amplified by the pictures that accompany it."A Common Experience" by John McGowan discusses how Art and other children of Holocaust victims are determined by the events that their parents experienced. This adds a new dimension to the intensity of the event. Not only does the event dictate the life of the observor and participant but extends across generational lines. Art's life is incomplete without the story of his father. Art said in an interview that he felt that the story of his father was the most important one that he could ever tell. The following passages demonstrate how the shock waves of events like the Holocaust extend further than the context of the book or the reader, they exist in the Eye of history and are fundamental to our understanding of the personal and the communal reprocussions of event.
Art focuses his narrative on both his Father's experiences in the War and the relationship they share. While it is a moving and important narrative of its own right, it can not be considered truly valuable unless it represents a broad commonality of experience. Granted, Art probably feels some of the effects of being a survivor more accutely than do many of his generation. But, the same sentiments usually exist in some form. The web site Cybrary of the Holocaust contains many interesting and revealing stories of children of survivors. These stories reveal that like Art, these children do like a life that is very much aware of the history of the Holocaust.
One of the most frequent themes aparent in the lives of the children of surivors is the desire to keep the memory alive. The life of Joseph Korn is one such example. Joseph now lives in Augusta, Ga where he recently edited and published Abe's Story, a collection of his Father's memoirs. Joseph had been a successful businessman in the autoparts market. Yet, their was this sense of having neglected something vitally important. When it became possible to do so, Joseph sold his company to focus all of his attention on the compilation of his Father's memoirs. This brought a sense of history and completeness that was necessary for Joseph to feel that he had done his part to keep the story alive.
A related problem and experience is the difficulty of getting parent's to share the events. Mark Melnik writes ,"I learned very little from my parents until adulthood. I heard only snippets and vague statements about "the evil out there." At around age 30, I began to ask specific factual questions and, lo and behold, I learned more in the next seven years than I had in my entire life before then." We see an example of the unspoken presence of the Holocaust as a force dominating children's experiences. Even though his parents never made a central issue of their experience, Mark was still very aware of the impact and the power of the Holocaust as a child. Even when parents don't try, they can not avoid having their children's lives dominated by the past. John McGowan