Reflecting on Maus I

I am mostly interested in talking about the narrative circles, as I'm calling them, in Maus I. Here's what I mean. There are so many different stories that are being told in this book, some of which intersect and some of which do not. Some of these stories are complete, finished stories while others are left with me as a reader wanting to know more. So maybe calling them narrative circles isn't an accurate term. Maybe it should be something like narrative layers?  I'm not sure what, exactly, to call these different stories. I just know that they are interesting to me

What I'd like to do in my post is write about the different stories that I notice and see if any other Maus readers find these interesting as well and worthy of a comment.

1.  The Art-Vladek relationship story. This runs through the whole book, of course. They love/hate each other. Art is the LSD-taking crazy son who draws comics for a living and Vladek is his nagging and controlling father. It's easy to see why these two clash.   But why can't Art be more understanding of Vladek's annoying ways, given his life experiences as a survivor?

2.  The Sibling Rivalry. The specter of Richieu hangs over Art consistently. And clearly has been there his whole life. Richieu, the little brother who died tragically during the Holocaust, is the perfect child who never disappoints, whereas Art . . . . Vladek, though, takes a lot of the blame for keeping this going. Stop it, Vladek. Richieu is dead.

3.  Vladek & Anja's Idealized Love. This relationship is really tragic, to me. I wonder how they ever got together. She is so needy and really needs to be taken care of. And Valdek clearly wants to take care of her . . . it's a big part of their relationship all throughout, including the time in the concentration camps, and after. I wonder why he burns her journals? She is always writing in them . . .he talks about that. I don't think he likes her to write, because he can't control her thoughts or what she writes down. I think V. likes to control things. So that's kind of weird. I think he burns those journals so that no one can really know who Anja was. It's the cruelest, most controlling thing in the world to do.  It makes me really angry. I hate that he does that.
4. Vladek & Mala's Bad Marriage.

5. Mice vs Cats (the Jews and the Nazis). Cats are always chasing and killing mice. The Nazis are always chasing and killing the Jews. I don't know what else needs to be said. It's the entire story about which everything else revolves.

6. Mice vs Pigs (the Jews and the Poles). This is interesting, because the Poles, who are disliked by the Nazis, also hate the Jews. An example of how oppression breeds oppression.

7. The relationships between Vladek and Anja and the various relatives and other people who helped them by either hiding them or aiding them in other ways (conspiring against the Nazis). One thing that Vladek is rich in is his many relationships. Time and time again he is able to find ways to save himself and Anja by hiding in someone's barn or elsewhere. He also gets numerous jobs, he is able to barter for more food, etc.  He's pretty savvy.  So it's ironic that the way he's so good with relationships all through wartime and even into the camps seems not to work for him later on, after the war is over. He seems to have a pretty shitty relationship with others, once he is a survivor.

8. Vladek's relationship with Mala.  This is the story of the bitter second marriage.  They both seem to hate each other and even get energy from their mutual dislike.  So why stay married to each other? They clearly enjoy their misery.

9. Art's story of telling the story of Maus.  Some of the book is about Art talking about trying to put the story together. So that's part of the many "stories" of Maus too. He is aware of how hard it is going to be to figure out a way to tell this rambling story that covers so much time and so many incidents.

OK.  That's it for me for now.