While I was reading Maus I noticed that Vladik treats Mala and Anja very differently. Vladik got married to Anja. Her family was very wealthy. He took care of her and protected her. He treated her with respect. As the novel progresses, he would get very emotional when he talks about his first wife, Anja. I think, after she passed away he felt alone and missed her greatly. Vladik took it really hard when he saw Artie's “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”. This was Artie’s short comic about how his mother committed suicide.
He got married to his second wife who is Mala. He claims Mala is only after his money. He told Artie that he had to change his will so many different times. He's always yelling and arguing with her because he feels she is always doing something wrong. Mala is getting sick and tired of him because she feels that she cannot do anything right. He does not treat her with respect and he seems very unhappy when he is living with Mala. He is always complaining to Artie about Mala but Artie does not want to hear about it anymore.
When I was reading I looked at the words and images together. I learned to pay more attention to the visual, sound, gestural interpretation, and spatial features that Spiegelman used in Maus. I started to think more and look at the images and words and started to guess on what is going to happen next.
I think that at this point Mala is only staying with Vladek because of his money. Why else would she stay with somebody she can't stand and be miserable with unless there was a big reward to be had at the end of it all? On the other hand though, Vladek is very stingy with his money pretty much to the point were its unfair to Mala because obviously she doesnt work so he's her only source for money. Which raises the question, who's the bad guy in this situation?
ReplyDeleteI definitely also noticed how different Vladek treats Mala, compared to how he treated Anja. But who wouldn't be stingy about their money when at one point Vladek had to use whatever money he had to survive. I haven't experienced what Vladek has and I myself am stingy when it comes to my money!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Mala was always just after Vladeks money. I'm guessing that when they first got married it was about much more. Seeing as how Vladek turned into a bigger jerk as time went on, Mala is probably just following suit.
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