In the Beginning

It all started with a father, a son, and a story......

The Primary Characters

• Art Spiegelman- (born 1948) A cartoonist and intellectual who has a strained relationship with his father, Vladek, who calls him "Artie".
• Vladek Spiegelman- (1906–1982) A Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust and moved to New York in the early 1950s.
• Mala Spiegelman- Vladek's second wife. She married Vladek after the suicide of Anja, his first wife, to whose memory she is made to feel she can never live up to.
• Anja Spiegelman- (1912–1968) Art's mother and Vladek's first wife, also Polish Jew who has survived the Holocaust.
• Francoise Mouly-(born 1955) Married to Artie. she is French but has converted to Judaism to please Art's father. Her representation in the book is thus complicated as to whether she should be represented as a Jewish mouse or a French frog.

Symbolism

Americans: dogs
Germans: cats
Jewish: mice
Polish: pigs
French: frog

plot

 The book opens in 1978 and Art Spiegleman arrives in Rego  Park, NY, to dine with his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor. Art's mother, Anja, killed herself in 1968 after suffering through depression after giving birth to Artie's brother Richeau, who died during the Holocaust. Vladek is now remarried to a woman named Mala, herself a survivor of the Holocaust. The couple does not get along and there does not appear to be much love in their relationship. Vladek, constantly fearful that Mala will steal his money, is intensely stingy and treats his wife like a maid. After dinner, Art tells his father that he wants to draw a book about his experiences in the Holocaust, and Vladek starts to tell his son the story of how he met Anja. Vladek and Anja soon get married and lives a very wealthy life. Vladek is then drafted to fight in World War II and is taken prisoner. He serve his time and returns home to Anja and Richeau. Soon they go into hiding in order to save themselves. Richeau is sent to his aunt's house where he laters dies, being poisoned by his aunt. At the end of the war, Anja and Vladek reunite and move to America, where Anja eventually commits suicide. Vladek dies after calling Artie his dead brother, Richeau. He is burried next to Anja.

Vladek Spiegelman

Artie's father, Vladex, is one of the main character in this book as he tells his story of surving the holocaust. Even though he was captured, Vladek was very knowledgeable, thus giving him a great advantage. He knew several languages which has helped him greatly thoughout the whole book in helping him to survive. He  had tenacity in refusing to give up and die. Another useful thing for him was the fact that he knew how to do many jobs, and even if he didn’t know how to do a certain job, he was  a very fast learner. Even though he was seperated from his wife, Anja, who was at a concentration camp, his will to survive brought them together after the war. In the end, he was laid to rest next to his wife in 1982, long before the book was completed.

Art "Artie" Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews Vladek Spiegelman (1906–1982) and Anja Spiegelman (1912–1968). Spiegelman grew up in Rego Park in Queens, New York City, New York and graduated from the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. Spiegelman attended Harpur College, now Binghamton University. He did not graduate but received an honorary doctorate from there 30 years later. At Harpur, Spiegelman audited classes by the avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and became friends with him. Spiegelman has acknowledged Jacobs as one of the artists who inspired him, though he claims Harvey Kurtzman, the creator of Mad as his true spiritual father.

 He is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines Arcade and Raw has been highly influential, and he spent a decade as contributing editor of The New Yorker starting in 1992, where he also made a number of high-profile and sometimes controversial covers. He is married to Françoise Mouly.