Religous events in Maus

Maus by Art Spiegelman is a graphic novel depicting the author’s father’s experience as a jew during the holocaust. Throughout the narrative, Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, tells of many amazing and odd occurrences, not the least of which have religious symbolism or significance. Spiegelman tends to leave his father’s religious war stories open to interpretation, but includes such scenes as the Parshas Truma revelation and the gypsy moth to indicate although it may be random; there is a possibility of higher forces at work even in trauma.

Early in the novel, Vladek recounts a dream that he has in which he is told that he will be let out of a Nazi work camp by a certain date, a religious holiday called Parshas Truma. Vladek claims that although he was not very religious the dream gave him hope, and he went to ask a rabbi how far away Parshas Truma was. He learns that the date is some weeks away and eventually forgets his dream until amazingly on the day of Parshas Truma they are able to leave the Nazi camp. Spiegelman makes no comment on the occurrence through his author-persona.

Later in the novel, Vladek recounts how as the war has finally come to a close his wife, Art’s mother, was waiting for Vladek with little hope that he was alive. Desperate for word of her husband she goes to a Gypsy, represented as a gypsy moth, for any sign of hope. The Gypsy tells her that Vladek is very sick, but that he is coming home and that the two will soon be reunited. This is in fact exactly what transpires shortly thereafter. Again however Spiegelman makes no significant acknowledgement of the event other than simply relating it.

What is most significant in both scenes represented in the novel is Spiegelman’s lack of explanation. The reader is left to wonder if he is impressed with the stories, if he thinks that they are simply fabricated or distorted, or if he finds them significant at all. The best interpretation is to conclude that Spiegelman wanted the reader to decide what these events mean. If he thought that the events were totally without merit and pointless in every respect, it is unlikely that he would have included them, except maybe out of respect for his father. It is more likely that he found them to have some significance which, even if he didn’t wish to or couldn’t define, he still felt was important fot the readers to consider.