In 1991, a comic
writer by the name of Art Spiegelman had finished publishing his graphic novel
Maus.Maus is the story of Art's father, Vladek Spiegelman, and how he lived
through the tragic events that were a part of the holocaust. Throughout the
course of the book, you see Vladek using his resourcefulness and wits to get by in a place where most others were
unable to. Both luck and skill played roles in his survival, but was luck so
vital to it? To what extent did luck play in Vladek's survival?Well in my
personal opinion, I thought the extent Vladek's skill played was equal to the
luck he was given.
Vladek greatest
skill was he was able to learn quickly and use it to his advantage. He was a
Jack of All Trades and a Master of none, and in a situation where the skilled
people had already been killed and very few people could do certain tasks,
being able to know many different skills would have been the difference between
being life and death. For example, Vladek was a great businessman. When he and
his family were forced into the ghetto, the only way to make extra money was to
trade on the black market. As well, Vladek was faced with the problem of fixing
shoes in Auschwitz. He had already known how to fix shoes when he had been in
the ghetto, but he had been given a shoe that was very battered: something he
had not known how to fix well. So he found a real shoemaker in the barracks of
Auschwitz and paid him to fix it. As he did, he watched the man and how he had
done it. So when he had to fix another shoe that was so badly damaged, he had
known how to do it himself.
Yet his luck had
played a large role in his survival. The fact that time and time again, Vladek
had ran into a situation that had given him an advantage. Like that fact that
he had met a Kapo who wanted to learn English. Or the fact that he was somehow
able to receive a job where he could work near Anja. There was also the time when he happened to
have a blanket for which he could use as a hammock in the train. Vladek had
also contracted Typhus. Being able to survive it was an act of absolutely pure
luck, especially in the conditions he was living in. Most people died of it,
yet he was able to survive it somehow, without any skill and wit very little
help And a great example is that he and Anja had both survived the Holocaust,
let alone reunited after the Holocaust ended. In fact, many of the instances in
which Vladek had used his skills also had the need of luck, which gave him the
chance to use such skills.
So in the end his
skills and his luck played equal roles in his survival. There were times where
it was luck. There were times where his skills were the reason he survived.
Most of them had to do with both luck and skill, but they both played and equal
role in his survival. And because of that, Vladek was able to get through a
time where many people were very, very unlucky and skill was hard to find from
people.
