Sunday, April 18, 2010
Vladek's issue
There was a particular part of the book in Maus II that we discussed in class where Artie, Franciose, and Vladek are in the car and pick up a hitchhiker. It seemed like a majority of the people in the class were disgusted by the way Vladek reacted when Artie and Franciose decided to pick the individual up. I would have to agree with this if Vladek was being prejudiced against black people, but if he just didn't trust the guy because he was a hitch hiker, then I think he has pretty good reasoning. The whole time that he was in Holocaust, he had to save every little scrap that he could to survive, and after the war he feels like he has to keep doing the same thing. When someone takes something away from him, he can't help but feel the same way he used to all those years ago. Maybe he is just worried that a hitch hiker is very likely to rob them; we know how hard he took it when Mala took all that money away from him. But of course if he is just being racist, then there is no excuse for behaving that way.
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I agree with you in the sense that Vladek was prejudice because it was a random hitch hiker and Vladek being the way he is, was paranoid about getting robbed. You have to remember tho that after they dropped the hitch hiker off Vladek made a comment about black people stealing from him in New York when he first came to the states. I don't think he felt the same way before that but he developed a prejudice attitude and a stereotype for black people because of the fact that the stole from him in New York. You are right, he being racist is inexcusable but he does have reasoning for reacting the way he did. Even though, Vladek of all people should know not to judge people by their race or religion.
ReplyDeleteI personally feel that Vladek may have been displaying a little bit of racism. I know it is hard to believe because of the prejudice that he went through but i feel it may be something he learned from Americans once he moved to the United States after the Holocaust. During this time period the white population was still prejudice toward the black population and Vladek probably was trying to avoid being discriminated against in that time period because he had just escaped discrimination
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