The Green Light

We all enjoy countless blessings that we never acknowledge. We live in a safe community, with loving friends and family. We don’t have to think twice about buying those expensive clothes or the newest phone. The few struggles in our life aren’t nearly comparable to the daily challenges others face to survive and make ends meet. In fact, our greatest source of pain happens to be school, a privilege in the eyes of so many others in less developed parts of the world. We even manage to twist our opportunities into challenges; rather than enjoying being a part of a sports team or the orchestra, we heavily pressure ourselves to improve, unable to be content with the pure enjoyment and happiness from these activities.

Gatsby also enjoys many privileges that he takes for granted. Gatsby would be expected to appreciate and understand his privileges more than the other wealthy people, as he has experienced both an impoverished and a wealthy lifestyle, beginning as a mere farm boy and becoming a famed figure of society. However, Gatsby still is more discontent with his lifestyle than any of the other wealthy characters are. Gatsby’s source of discontent is his desire for Daisy, which is represented by his fixation with the “single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 26).  The light represents Gatsby’s single-minded focus on Daisy. Gatsby is blind to everything else he possesses, including his wealth and reputation. Daisy initially was and continues to be Gatsby’s motivation for his material successes.

Gatsby is also very withdrawn from society, which seems quite ironic considering his reputation for throwing glamorous parties. Gatsby stays apart from the crowd, drawing a distinct separation from the very people he sought to emulate just a few years before. Although Gatsby possesses the materialistic qualities of the wealthy, he does not possess their complacency and idleness. Perhaps Gatsby has not completely moved on from his past; after all, his name, Jay Gatsby, bears a strong resemblance to his previous identity as James Gatz.  But now, he has finally been reunited with Daisy. If Gatsby is able to successfully continue their relationship, will Gatsby finally settle for a life of comfort and stability? Will he truly be content with his social standing? Well, there must still be some room for improvement, even for the Great Gatsby.

Maus's Unique Take on Nazi Propaganda

The images are structured in a similar way, with a group of people under a flag, but they still convey drastically different messages. Both images depict the current situation from a limited perspective. For example, in the “Saved” poster, the Jews continue to look distraught even though the Americans have rescued them. Other than the word “Saved” at the top of the picture, there is nothing else in the poster that indicates that the Jews indeed were saved. The picture only considers the continuing effects of the psychological trauma on the Jews, rather than showing the physical benefits of attaining freedom. The Nazi poster also explains the effects of the war from just one perspective. The Nazi poster shows beaming faces and a bright sky, as if the country is peaceful and prospering, with little to suggest the violence and brutality of the Nazi regime.

In both pictures, the characters all have nearly identical appearances. The mice in the poster all look dejected and weary in their prisoner outfit, expressing how Auschwitz spared none of the Jews, inflicting an unimaginable degree of despair and trauma on all of them. The Jews also continue to wear the striped prisoner uniforms from Auschwitz. In the background, the portion of the American flag with stripes is above the Jews, suggesting that the Jews consider their rescue to be a different type of prison, in which they are trapped by their memories rather than abused physically and emotionally by the Germans.

The Nazi poster depicts Germans who all have nearly identical uniforms and faces of pride and joy. The poster reflects how the Germans favored their own race over all others. The Germans all wear military uniforms, and there is a castle in the background, reflecting the strength of German society. The Nazi flag is being hoisted into the sky, mirroring the rise of Germany as a world power. Even the clouds in the background are white and fluffy, a stark contrast to the lethal gases in the Auschwitz chambers.

Both images also depict a character at the forefront who seems to best embody the emotions of the people in the background. Vladek best embodies how lasting the effects of the torture in Auschwitz were; he habitually confuses the past and the present, as when he refers to Art as Richeu in the end of the novel. The man at the forefront of the propaganda poster raises the flag and leads the salute, best demonstrating Germany’s pride in their racial and military superiority and their “avid [desire] to achieve greatness for Germany” (Rinderle).

            The images are both created to send a very specific message about trauma, as in Maus, or national pride, as in the Nazi poster. Neither is focused on the realities; rather, they promote a biased view of the situation. Perhaps a more balanced view of the predicament, equally weighing the positives and negatives, would have been the best way for people to cope with the war and its aftermath. 

The Significance of the Swastika

            

For many people around the world, the swastika evokes a sense of horror at the brutal oppression and the violent subjugation of the Jews. However, for the billions of people from eastern cultures, the swastika represents just the opposite; it is a symbol of fortune and prosperity, commonly depicted on the walls of temples and on clothing and jewelry. Until fairly recently, just about eighty years ago, the swastika was also a largely positive symbol in the western world, present on mosaics in Spain, Italy, and even the U.S.

            The swastika’s orientation is what distinguishes the Nazi swastika from its traditional rendition in Asian cultures. The traditional swastika has the form of a square, but the Nazi swastika is the traditional swastika rotated 45 degrees. The Nazi swastika is drawn in the shape of a diamond, with a definite low point and a high point, representing how the Nazis had a strong belief in the superiority and inferiority of a select few races. The Nazi symbol is also precariously balanced on just one point, ready to tip over, reflecting how unstable and chaotic Nazi Germany was.

In the novel, the swastika is a recurring symbol, striking fear in the Jews whenever they run across it. In many panels, the swastika acts as a searchlight, threatening the Jews still in hiding to reveal themselves to the Nazis. The swastika also represents the rise of the Nazis; the swastika rises in the sky like the sun, just as the Nazis are rising to power in the world. When Vladek is trying to avoid the Nazis, he recounts that he “didn’t have anywhere to go”.  Vladek’s desperation grows, as he says that he “walked in the direction of Sosnowiec, but where to go?!” (Vol. 1 p. 125). During this moment of increasing despair, Vladek almost sees the swastika spanning the streets ahead of him, realizing that the Nazis will inevitably capture him. In fact, the swastika represents terror to such a degree that it is never drawn entirely. The swastika is always obstructed by some other character or object in order to lessen the misery and hopelessness the swastika evokes.  

            Much of the world continues to remember the violence and persecution of Nazi Germany when they see the Swastika, forgetting how that the Swastika has represented peace and luck since ancient times. We seem unable to completely move on from the crimes of the past, dwelling on the negatives instead of focusing on the positives. Similarly, Vladek is consumed by the violence and torture he faced in the concentration camps decades after the war. Instead of being grateful that he survived the war, Vladek almost wishes that he perished as well, along with his friends and family. Perhaps Vladek could have found more value to his life had he considered the positives in his new life, with a new family and a more relaxed, peaceful lifestyle.

The Meaning of Masks in Maus

On page 43 of Volume II, Art and the other characters are visibly human, wearing animal masks on their faces. The masks reflect how people’s differences in race or religion are superficial; everyone is inherently human with a universal set of values regarding love, peace, and respect. The fact that Spiegelman only chooses to portray his characters as humans many decades after WWII emphasizes how people have gradually become more open-minded of other cultures and races. People now more readily embrace the diversity in society and have a mutual respect for each other. However, Spiegelman chooses not to completely expose the human faces of the characters to indicate how racial prejudice and discrimination still exist in the world, and people still possess biases and stereotypes regarding other races and cultures.

Art feels confused regarding his true identity and purpose in life. Art wears the mask in an attempt to feel a closer connection to his family and his Jewish heritage. By depicting himself as a child, Art reveals how he feels sheltered from the tragedies and hardships that his family endured. Art feels weak and helpless, guilty for enjoying such a comfortable lifestyle when his entire family was subjected to torture and other horrors. Art’s original goal in creating the novel was to gain a better understanding of the Holocaust and his father’s experiences. Instead, he is left with more questions and a greater realization that he truly cannot “begin to imagine what [the Holocaust] felt like” (46).

There is also a cat depicted in a photo frame in Pavel’s house. This cat is smiling and harmless, a stark departure from the ruthless Nazi officer cats. Pavel, a Jewish survivor, forgives the Germans for the hardships they inflicted on the Jews, unlike many other Americans and Europeans in the aftermath of WWII. Pavel recognizes that Germans should not be stereotyped as militant and aggressive people and understands that there are morally sound people of all cultures. The smiling cat also shows how Germany has evolved from a chaotic and war-torn society into one of the most developed societies in the world. Germany now is among the leaders in the automobile and electronics industries and provides its citizens a remarkably high standard of living.

                                                                                                                                  

 

Our True Default Setting

David Foster Wallace presents the idea that we are all inherently self-centered and egocentric, and that we “see and interpret everything through this lens of self” (233). But is being self-centered truly our “default setting”? As humans, we are some of the most social animals and we constantly crave recognition and attention from other people. We have a desperate desire to conform to societal norms, even disregarding our personal opinions just to fit in with society. Sometimes, we are so fixated on other people, such as the popular kid at school, that we struggle to focus on ourselves. We are also driven by competition in almost all our endeavors, as opposed to focusing on our individual performance.

For example, after school tests, we fervently ask around to find out who scored the highest, eager to determine how we performed in relation to our peers. If we scored higher than a so-called intelligent person, we feel especially accomplished. We overlook the fact that we probably could have studied harder or performed better on the test. We only evaluate ourselves in relation to that intelligent student; our satisfaction is derived solely from a comparison to another student rather than our true understanding of the subject material.

In addition, many of our interests provide no significant personal gains for us. We watch professional sports and idolize the athletes when we actually have little in common with them. We may think that we play the same sport as our favorite athletes, but in reality, our sports have little semblance to the sports the professionals play. Although the rules are the same, the professionals run at an almost unimaginable speed and are blessed with razor-sharp reflexes that we could only dream of having. Despite being so different from these athletes, we still have a strong investment in our sports teams. Even though I rarely watch the Lions play and have little personal attachment to them, I still feel genuinely excited whenever they win a game because everyone around me feels the same way.

We are deluded to think that any of our thoughts and opinions are truly our own. With 7 billion other people in the world, there will surely be someone else who shares the same beliefs. We have not had one original thought; we just respond to what society deems as moral and correct. We are immediately shaped by our interactions with the most important people in our lives, especially our parents and teachers. We will constantly remember their sayings and stories even though these stories have no personal meaning for us. Even Wallace and Thoreau, who have unique views on many topics in life, have opinions that follow directly from those of other great thinkers and philosophers. Our personalities will forever be defined by the teachings of others, and as much as we value the self, we tend to value the people around us even more.