A broken past

A particularly compelling scene of Maus depicts Vladek reminiscing over his lost family members. Spiegelman questions his father on the fate of the rest of his family, only to bring up tragic memories which tear Vladek's spirit apart. In the page, the form and content meet; Vladek appears heavy-hearted as his head droops and he painfully tells the tales of his family to Spiegelman. Vladek's body spans several panels and the individual panels almost represents how the war has broken him apart into pieces. The tragic deaths of his family not only destroyed Vladek's spirit mentally, but has also physically torn him apart. 

The pictures of his family also depict something more significant. Valdek holds in his hand a snapshot of the only member of his family that survived the war. The rest of the pictures are scattered upon the floor, dead and defeated. An interesting point to note is that all the pictures face upwards as if all the lost members at least can still be remembered, even if they are dead. Unfortunately, Vladek doesn't possess any pictures of his only family, which signify that their memories are slowly being lost. Vladek's eyes can be seen looking towards the ground, searching hopefully for something lost, just something to grab onto as a physical reminder of his own family. 

The layout of the ground is also surprisingly representative of Auschwitz itself. The photo box's shape appears like the walls of Auschwitz standing upon the field. The couch's pattern also resembles the barbed wires that entrapped the prisoners. Perhaps this setup is an indicator of the destiny of the family members captured in the photos. Although they've tried to temporarily escape the confinement of Auschwitz and Nazi terror, metaphorically represented by Vladek taking out the photos, ultimately, they return to the photo box, back to the place where their bodies rest with eternal unrest. 

"From the rest of my family, it's nothing left, not even a snapshot" (Spiegelman 116)