The Past in the Present

            While reading Maus, we repeatedly noted that Art Spiegelman wants to show how connected the past and the present really are. He does this through details in the illustrations and text with hidden meanings that we analyzed in class. As a society, we tend to think that the past is, well, the past. That it already happened, and that all those people were dead anyways, so who cares? Although it makes sense to think this way, Art Spiegelman thinks of the past differently, and I think that is one of the main arguments that he supports. After all, the past was once the present.

It is important to realize that the past influences the present more than we give it credit for. During a present scene in Maus, Vladek openly discriminates against a black hitchhiker by checking his groceries and calling the man a “shvartser”. Ironically, Vladek was a victim in the Holocaust because of discrimination, but that hardly had an impact on his suspicion of African Americans. In fact, Vladek’s racial views in the present were most likely enhanced because of his experience in the Holocaust, where people were against one another and trust was rare. But, even if the past impacts the present, I still think that the two are separate. In my opinion, the effects of past events trickle into the present, but the two will never formerly collide. Which is a good thing, because I doubt many people wish the Holocaust or a world war was happening right now.