Images from Maus, Moby Dick, and Beloved
by Virginia Hamner
An expansion of "The Effects of the Holocaust on Survivors and Their Children"
Primo Levi introduced the distinction between the saved and the drowned in his book Surviving in Auchwitz. This distinction can be seen not only in Holocaust literature and narratives but in any work of literature that deals with "unspeakable" situations. The distinction between those who are able to survive these horrors and those who lose their souls in the process is not a distinction between good and evil nor strong and weak. It merely distinguishes between those who have the capacity to make it through their situation, focusing on themselves and their survival.
In all of the novels that we have read this semester in American Literary Traditions, there are characters that fit into the categories of the saved and the drowned. A central question of the course has been: how do people react to unspeakable situations and how do they deal with them. Though some can overcome these horrors, others cannot and lose themselves.
In Beloved, Paul D is able to survive several horrors of slavery and its aftermath; through time and energy, he is able to deal with his complex emotional scars that he carries as a result. Baby Suggs, though she survives the horrors of slavery and lives the life of a freed slave for many years, gives up on life after Beloved's death. She becomes one of the drowned, losing her soul to the horrors that she has been witness to.
In Moby Dick, Pip stands out as the stark example of the "drowned." He goes insane and "loses himself" when he is tossed overboard. He becomes the child-like idiot of the ship, rambling incoherently about how "Pip is lost." The picture of the saved in the novel is Ishmeal--the only survivor of the reckless journey. Surviving because of luck and the coffin of his friend, Ishmael's character is definately one of the saved.
In MAUS, Vladek and Anja survived the Holocaust; however, Anja became one of the drowned after her survival. Anja committed suicide in 1968, joining the drowned that dies twent-five years earlier. Vladek, however, is one of the saved. Not only did he orchestrate his survival (with the help of much money and luck), but he is able to function in the world as a survivor. Even though he was definately and severly affected by his experience, he remains one of the saved.