MAUS - QUOTES Flashcards
Vladek’s present health conditions after the war as he suffers from diabetes and heart problems as he doesn’t trust doctors to take care of his body. However, it also applies to how he approached life during the war, believing the only person who could save him was himself.
“For my condition, I must fight to save myself.”
This quote can be interpreted to how the Nazis basically didn’t care about a person’s status, wealth or reputation, and saw all jews as equal when deciding who was to die next.
“He was a millionaire, but even this didn’t save him his life.”
After losing everything – their home, money and son. Vladek acknowledges that in his current situation that it would be far easier to die now, which is why he refuses to keep on living. It also means that he wants to survive alongside his wife, Anja, to fight alongside him.
“To die, its easy. But you have to struggle for life.”
Vladek’s methods of survival are different to Anja’s as he works completely independent for his own safety. In contrast, Anja is frail meaning that she needs all the food she gets, however, she shares her scraps to others. Vladek then insists that she stops sharing if not for her own safety, but for his happiness as he doesn’t want to live without her.
“Don’t worry about friends. Believe me, they don’t worry about you.”
As Vladek stumbles upon a German couple whose home was destroyed by American troops he doesn’t show a single shroud of empathy as it was just a fraction of the horrors Germans inflicted on the Jews.
“Let the Germans have a little what they did to the Jews.”
Artie, Vladek’s son, says this as he has never suffered as much as his parents did during World War 2 and even knows their story the best, though he feels unqualified to tell it because he’s had the feeling of inadequacy throughout his entire life. Along with how he will never experience anything equal to surviving the Holocaust.
“I feel so inadequate trying to reconstruct a reality worser than my darkest dreams.”
