Racism PEMDAS
At the last pages from Volume 2, Chapter 3 of Maus, Francoise stops on a drive home from the store to pick up a hitchhiker. Let it be known that the hitchhiker is black, and that Vladek is very much outraged. Vladek very outwardly expresses his discontent with the situation, saying Francoise "went crazy" and calling the man a "shvartser". At first I inferred that shvartser was the equivalent to the n-word, because most languages something similar, but after some googling I read some say that it's just the Yiddish word for a black person, and some others say that it has derogatory connotations as well. For the premise I will assume it could be both. The Holocaust is one of the most gruesome and horrifying genocides in the history of mankind, and not only did Art's father suffer through it, but he was forced to survive with the aftermath as well. To generalize and judge an entire race of humans based on a handful of experiences is a very similar mindset of the same Nazis that murdered millions of people Vladek identifies with. I am not claiming that Vladek's anger over picking up a black hitchhiker is at the same level as mass murder, but they have the same roots. Spiegelman doesn't make an effort to portray his father in a better light here or anywhere else, like he had the power to do as the author, but he shows his family's truth. A horrible story of cruelty and suffering, and then later the same person doing the same on to others as was once done to him. He tells it like is, and that's the point. It doesn't lessen his own tendencies and abilities to quickly judge or discriminate. Being oppressed cannot cancel out your own abilities to oppress other people.
It is so profound yet so odd and mystifying that "being oppressed cannot cancel out your own abilities to oppress other people." When I first read the hitchhiker scene I was very angry and honestly stunned and baffled! How could Vladek be so hypocritical? How could he not realize what he was saying and how it sounded? I truly think this shows the selfishness or human nature and how Vladek thought it was okay for him to act this way and he gave himself a pass, but when it happened to him it was absolutely unacceptable. It is so easy for us to judge other people because we are on the outside looking in, but then we hate when people judge us, not realizing that we constantly judge other people. You often don't realize when you're being hypocritical, and that's why it took Artie to point out to Vladek that he was. It was the fact that after he was called out he didn't stop that was so enraging though, because he found a way to justify his actions, yet he claims that what the Nazis did was unjustifiable.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you for defining what "shvartser" because like me I didn't know what that word truly meant. Reading it, I just brushed passed it but that word really shows Vladek's character. It also changes the audience perspective on him because I used to see him as brave and tough, but he in some aspects is hypocritical and weak to see beyond.
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