Maus

The relationship Spiegelman has with his Jewish heritage is a strained one. He lives in the shadow of a generation that went through the most tragic hour in Jewish history, the Holocaust. He feels he can never measure up to what they had to go through and feels he will never be able to impress his father. This is most evident when he is talking to his wife on pg. 172 and states “but nothing can make him happy”. Spiegelman fears that he is in his own concentration camp living with his father especially after his mother kills herself. This is evident through the comic Prisoner on Hell Planet. Art uses himself in a prisoner uniform to show the reader that he feels trapped, much like the Jews did during WWII.
His relationship with his Jewish heritage is also strained due to the having to live in the shade of his older brother who died during the Holocaust. His believes his relationship with both his mother and father is strained because he is unable to replace his brother in his parent’s eyes. He also cannot understand why his father seems to gather everything and save it until he finds a use for it. This is an outgrowth from being in the camps were everything is a treasure and no one throws out anything. Art has a hard time learning how to adapt to how his father is and this leads to a strained relationship between father and son. Spiegelman comes to grips with his father after he passes away but still feels he is unable to fully allow himself to escape from his Jewish heritage.