Human Nature Explained Through Maus

   In order for Maus to portray the gruesome realities the Holocaust, he not only employs the illustrations but also the content in order to quake the hearts of the readers. One key ingredient in his recipe for complete awe is to show the effects and transformations the Holocaust has on its victims such as grief, guilt, and survival.
   It is no surprise that when humans are brought to their absolute survival limits, their characters will drastically change to their primitive instinct - to survive. This is evident throughout Maus and is hinted at early in the prologue when Art's father tells him “Friends? Your friends? If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week…Then you could see what it is, friends! …” He says this due to the fact that familial and friendship bonds were constantly being tested and broken throughout Maus. One recurring moment is when fellow Jews would join the side of the Germans in tormenting and exterminating their own kind in exchange for the chance to make it through the war. There is no reason to blame them, however, because wouldn't we all do the same in the end? If you were to choose your and your family's lives over some strangers you haven't even met, isn't the choice obvious? This hardwired selfishness as mentioned in This is Water is ever prevalent. This is a trait that even becomes embedded into Vladek during and long after the war. His inherent instinct to be stingy can be seen when he only offers snow to the dying train riders in exchange for goods and when he exchanges partially eaten food at the grocery store. This is to represent that these qualities can infect even the best of people, even the protagonists. This eventually leads to another trait of human nature that is seen - grief and guilt. Grief and guilt are very common side effects of trauma such as the Holocaust or the suicide of Art's mother. In both cases, it has left people in tatters over the past. Art's constant struggle with the guilt of not being able to experience the Holocaust with his parents nags at him and his even the cause of his obsession with the Holocaust in the first place. Along with that, the grief and guilt he feels as represented in "Hell on Planet Earth" shows his blaming of self due to his mother's suicide. Art Spiegelman is trying to demonstrate these traits to a large audience to let them have a better understanding of the feelings that surround the atrocities of the Holocaust.