Similarities In Maus

   

The last pages of each volume of Maus are similar in a variety of ways. First being that the conflict on both pages deal with Anja. On page 159 (Volume 1), Art is angry with Vladek because he burned Anja's old diaries. Art is upset because he wanted to see how Anja felt during the Holocaust, and he has no other way to get this information now that she is dead. Contrarily, Art fails to see this situation through Vladek's eyes. Vladek wanted to burn away the bad memories associated with Anja and the Holocaust. The reason that the two men have so many altercations is because they lack a sense of empathy towards each other. It is ironic that Art is calling Vladek a murderer because earlier on in the volume Art expresses how he blames his mother's suicide on himself.  On page 136 (Volume 2), Vladek is discussing how he and Anja both made it out of the war alive. He says "More I don't need to tell you. We were both very happy, and lived happy, happy ever after." However, this is ironic because we know that they did not exactly live "happy happy ever after" because of Anja's suicide. Another similarity between these two pages is that they both end with one of the men calling the other by a different name. At the end of Volume 1, Art calls his father a murderer because he "murdered" all of Anja's diaries, killing all of her experiences that Art wants to know about very badly. On the final page of Volume 2, Vladek calls Art "Richieu." This demonstrates the bad relationship between the father and son. Having this as the last dialogue of the graphic novel, Art makes his final point about their broken relationship. The final page also wraps up both of the stories that were going on throughout the books: Vladek's story about the Holocaust and Art's story about his relationship with Vladek. Vladek's Holocaust story ends on a happier note showing Vladek and Anja embracing after they are reunited, and later on the page showing their grave together. Art's story with his father clearly does not end in the same way.