When reading the second volume of Maus, my mind kept revisiting the PTSD essay we read last week. I was reminded of how there are two different reactions to trauma. The first, and healthier of the two, is going through the trauma but being able to compartmentalize it. The memories naturally distant themselves and morph. The second reaction is when one can’t get over the trauma. Every memory is as clear as if it had just happened. It effects your daily life, your body is in a constant state of arousal, close to panic. Even though it wasn’t clearly said, I feel as if Anja and Vladek represent these two types.
Vladek wasn’t the restful type. I believe that there was only one moment in the entire story where he was sitting without fidgeting or contemplating what to do next, the moment while they were sitting outside. Mostly the reader’s saw him exercising, walking, counting pills, going over bills and just fretting. This restlessness I attribute to his brand of survivalism. Part of his PTSD was a constant readiness. Maybe discussing the events of the holocaust caused some of the restlessness we saw, but the almost distant tone with which he used negates that. If it wasn’t sometimes boastful I feel as if he could have been telling a tale that he’d heard.
His hustling tendencies, admittedly amusing, also seemed like a form of his PTSD. He hoarded his money and wouldn’t spend a dime if a nickel would do. The moment where he goes to the grocery store to return a box of already opened cereal, although a wee bit funny, was also slightly saddening. He also had no shame playing the pity card by using his holocaust survivor status to get the manager to acquiesce.
Everyone in the story claims that Vladek’s penny pinching is not a result of the holocaust, but how he has always been. And yet there is evidence in the previous story that he wasn’t always like that. Such as when his wife had postpartum depression and he took her on a 3 month “honeymoon” to a popular resort for her to get help. This doesn’t appear to be the same guy who wouldn’t pay to get his roof fixed by a professional.
Maybe his PTSD wasn’t as severe as his wife’s…but it definitely shaped him.
You make a really good point that there’s evidence in Maus to suggest that Vladek wasn’t always such a hoarder; the “honeymoon” with his wife is a great example. I’d agree that his time in Auschwitz changed something fundamental in Vladek. What other evidence might we use to support this theory?