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Maus II, Chapter II Auschwitz Time Flies | MissBrooksEnglish | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Maus II, Chapter II Auschwitz Time Flies
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Summary
Core Theme
Chapter 2 of Book 2 of Maus explores Art Spiegelman's complex feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and the struggle to process his father's Holocaust trauma while experiencing personal success. The narrative delves into the meta-fictional process of creating Maus itself, highlighting the challenges of representing such profound suffering.
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Okay. Hello, year 12. We're going to
look now at chapter two of book two of
mouse. Um, we're looking here at Alitz
time flies. I believe we talked about in
class the flies and significance that
they are uh time flies and that they're
coming from the past. And that's
revealed further on this page here where
we can see that the flies which are a
representation of guilt are emerging up
out of this pile of dead bodies. So time
flies is not only alluding to the fact
that we've actually moved forward in
time because if we look over here we're
looking at um a period of time where art
is reflecting on everything that
happened in book one. So uh the death of
his father for example. So time flies
has multiple meanings there. And notice
here we've got these horrific images as
well of the mice burning in the
furnaces. And it's quite a a
confrontational and graphic image that
we're seeing. And it's definitely called
here Awitz is compared to Mauitz before
possibly to remind us that this is real.
This is a horror that
happened. All right. So this uh
narrative is what we call superresent or
meta narrative. And we can tell this
because of the strings and the fact that
he is depicted as in art or Spiegelman
is depicted as a human who is wearing a
mouse mask. Okay. So this part of the
narrative is all about the process of
creating past of creating mouse sorry.
So all about the creation of mouse one
and it's him reflecting on his
successes. And it's really important to
note that this triple layered narrative
wouldn't be possible in any other form.
We would not have this in traditional
text. It would be too complicated. So
having this meta narrative is part of
the features of the graphic novel. Um we
can also set that mouse mask is symbolic
of his struggle to identify with his
father's story. And we can see this
further because he compares himself to
what his father uh went through. So he
says, "In May 1987, Francois and I are
expecting a baby. Between May 16, 1944
and May 24, 1944, over 100,000 Hungarian
Jews were gassed in Awitz." So maybe
he's saying that uh Ashwitz is, I guess,
like a presence or a ghost from the
past. and his father's story is
constantly on his mind. And we'll talk
about father-son relationships in class
and we can talk about the fact that he
feels inadequate compared to the deck.
Um then down the bottom we look here and
it says at least 15 foreign editions are
coming out and I've gotten four serious
offers to turn my book into a TV special
or movie. So he's referring here to book
one. So remember we talked about the
fact it's published initially as weekly
installments of a comic book series then
book one then book two and then more
recently what we've got in front of us
which is the complete mouse book one and
two. So he's reflecting on his success
and he's thinking about the process he's
undertaken working on the book and how
he feels about uh creating it. And here
he says, "Lately, I've been feeling
depressed." Which is really interesting
when we connect it with, of course,
these guilt flies and the fact that he's
uh art easel is coming up out of a pile
of dead bodies. So maybe we could say
that he feels anguish or he feels guilty
that he's
um succeeding or that his previous
success seems to be because others
suffered before him. like he's
capitalizing off a Holocaust story um of
his parents and of other Jews that he
didn't live to through. So he wonders
what right he has to tell the story. So
I guess the question we could say for
this bottom panel uh is does he have the
right to tell us something to tell Rita
something he doesn't experience. We've
also had people suggest that in the
background here this is the watchtower
from Ashwitz. Okay. And that this is the
light from like the
watchtowwer shining down. So it's like
um like Ashwitz is a continued presence.
Ashwitch is like a ghost from the past
that is still like watching over him in
the same way his father uh seems to be a
presence that he can't escape. So if we
flick over then we've got this uh panel
here and we're looking at the reporters.
Notice they're different
nationalities here, which is really
interesting. Uh, so we've got an
American dog, we've got maybe like a cat
here, and then another American. And
they're all interviewing him, and but
they're still wearing the masks. So
maybe that suggests that they are merely
caricaturures of that nationality. I'm
not entirely sure that we can chat about
that in class. Uh, but notice how he
feels while he's being spoken to by the
reporters. He feels flustered. He feels
overwhelmed. Uh, we notice here that the
reporters are literally climbing over
the piles of dead bodies to get to him.
So, he feels like he's really
disrespecting the past at this stage.
Feels really unsure about what has
actually happened. All right. And then
they ask him questions here like, okay,
let's talk about Israel. So, we know
that Israel is the Jewish state. So, I
think he gets confused
because he's being asked to comment on
things that he never claims to know
about because here they say, "If your
book was about Israeli Jews, what kind
of animal would you draw?" And he says,
"I have no idea. Porcupines." So, the
whole idea that once he uh opens this
can of worms, he's expected to know
everything, so to speak. And we can
notice here too, especially in these
last few panels, he's still of a normal
size, but by this point here, he's
started to shrink. All right, so he's
feeling very overwhelmed, very guilty.
All right, and at this point, he says,
"I want my mommy." So again, the guilt
of the past. He continues to get
smaller. All right, in these pages, and
he doesn't start to grow again until he
meets Pavll. Look here, he's climbing
onto um his chair. He talks about his
father being a ghost hanging over him.
So again, he can't escape uh the
traumatic legacy of his parents'
Holocaust story. Even though him and
France have moved on with their lives,
but then we come to this uh part with
Paval. So he says, "Paval is my shrink.
He sees patients at night. He's a Czech
Jewish survivor of Awitz. I see him once
a week. He's placed over on stray cats
and dogs." We've talked about this scene
here where it says, "Can I mention this
or does it completely last up my
metaphor?" So, this is Spiegelman kind
of poking fun at himself and saying that
the metaphor is not rigid, of course,
because he stuffs it up if he says the
psychiatrist who's a cat has stray cats and
and
dogs. So, he feels weighed down when he
begins to visit uh his psychiatrist,
Pavll. He feels belittled by like the
gravity and the guilt pressing on him of
his father's experiences and he also
feels deprived of the boyhood that he
feels he deserved all right with his
father. Uh he feels like somehow he
feels like things aren't right. Okay.
But as he talks to Pavvel, he goes from
shrinking as seen here because he's
trying to climb onto the chair to
beginning to grow again. Um, and then
here he's taking the Mickey out of
himself again where he says frame photo
of a pet cat.
page. He um his size has diminished a
little bit again and it might be because
he's talking about uh the arguments he
had with his father and we will write on
this whole idea of a fractured
father-son relationship about why they
can't get along and he can't he feels
like at times all he represents are the
negatives of Fleck when he says here
mainly I remember arguing with him and
being told that I couldn't do anything
as well as he could Um, and then we've
got this really famous quote here and he
says, "No matter what I accomplish, it
doesn't seem like much compared to
surviving Awitz." I think that's really
important. He feels Arty feels Spigman
feels inadequate. He feels like no
matter what he achieves, his father
survived the Holocaust. So nothing he
does will ever live up to that. All
right. So that's really important. It's
the basis of a lot of essays. It's the
basis of a lot of our discussion. in
this quote, "No matter what I
accomplish, it doesn't feel like much
compared to surviving outwards." So, he
is riddled by the guilt of having had an
easier life than his father. All right?
And Val tries to talk him around it sort
of thing. He tries to say, "Maybe your
father was guilty. Um, he took the guilt
out on you where it was safe." Uh, etc.
So, it's like this residual guilt that's
right. Um, Paval asks him if he admires
his father uh for surviving and he gives
a really unclear answer. He talks about
his father being resourceful and
everything. Um, but he doesn't
necessarily say. And then Pavll says,
"You think it's admirable to survive?
Does that mean it's not admirable to not
survive?" and he gets quite confused
here and Paval tries to point out to him
that it's not really clear.
Okay, it's not really a clearcut issue.
It's not something that we can just
We've also got the uh framed photo again
of a pet dog in the background which is
quite interesting whether he's
deliberately trying to uh louse up his
own metaphor. This is a really good
quote here too in the top where the uh
cursor is where it just says what awitz
felt like. Hm. How can I explain boo? I
think that's really good because it
tries to explain to Arty that it's
really hard to understand. It's a great
quote that you can use in some of your
essays, too, when you're talking about
guilt and Arty's attempt to try and
understand and the fact that he always
feels like he's not good enough or not
doing a good enough job.
job.
Okay. And then down the very bottom of
the page, notice that he says that these
sessions with Paval somehow made me feel
better. And we see the growth here. He
comes back to normal size. Uh, however,
as soon as he's back at his easel and
listening to his father's tapes here,
cuz here we are back to his father's
tapes. This is what he's listening to.
Notice the capitalization.
Um, this is when he starts to feel
inadequate again. It's like his father's
ghost is a presence over him again.
Notice the circular motif, the fact he's
almost in a spotlight and it's them
pages. I want to look at this page just here
here
um where we've got this diagram. So the
diagrams and stories that are placed in
the book remind us that what is
happening is real. So this uh diagram of
the camps that uh VC has drawn, it
symbolizes the true horror and it's it's
Beagleman's way of trying to convey to
the reader the actual reality of the
situation and how um this happened and
how does all the truth so to speak or
We've just got uh more of this
historical narrative here um where he's
gone back and he's listening to his
father's tapes. Then we've got a really
interesting passage, couple of passages
just up the top here with the orchestra.
So the orchestra is actually being
blotted out by the people because they
argued about whether there was an
orchestra. So he says, "I just heard
about the camp orchestra that played as
you marched out the gate." And Liddette
says, "An
orchestra?" And he says, "No, I remember
marching not any orchestras." And Arty
says, "I don't know, but it's still very
well documented." And then VC, "No, at
the gate, I heard only guards shouting."
Okay. So, he has to somehow try and
visually represent this tension. How can
you represent this? So, he does it by
having the orchestra kind of fade into
the background that they're still there,
but that maybe the uh prisoners don't
notice. So, as they're marching, it just
sort of happens and they just sort of
blend into the background, so to speak.
On the next page passage I want to focus
on. Sorry I zoomed out too much there is
when the past turns into the present. So
this is a great passage to note as well.
It's page 218 in your books. Okay if you
got the same version as me remembering
the digital copy numbers are different.
Um so we've got this little section just
here. Okay. where um Leiddc is actually
trying to explain something to Arty and
he's does doing it in like modernday New
York and it's the whole face left face
right and he's talking about the whole
process of selection in front of the uh
notorious or infamous Dr. and Gali. And
so we can see that
uh this is happening that Vak is doing
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