1. Beijing BISS International School
Grade 10
School Year: 2012-2013
To what degree was Vladek’s survival based on luck, and to what degree was his
survival based on his considerable resourcefulness?
URL: http://majorspoilers.com/2011/10/20/digital-comics-maus-getting-digital-treatment/
Student’s Name: Julia Li
Teacher’s Name: A. Geralis
Class: M.Y.P. – English A

2. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Rationale
“Maus” is a graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman based on a true story of his
father, Vladek Spiegelman. The story is about Vladek’s experience and survival in the
Holocaust that happened during 1939-1945 in Poland. In this essay I’m going to
discuss about Vladek’s survival. Was his survival was based on luck more? Or his
considerable resourcefulness?
In my opinion, Vladek’s survival was relied more on luck than his considerable
resourcefulness. Obviously, Vladek’s survival was also included a great deal of his
skillfulness. However I believe luck is the larger reason why Vladek survived. In this
essay, I am going to prove that Vladek’s survival was mostly based on his luck.
I intend to prove and give evidence that Vladek needed luck in order to use his
considerable resources to survive. In addition, I am going to show how Vladek
survived only by luck and when he was unlucky. Then I will compare and analyze the
degree of significance of luck and considerable resources.
The reason I planned to discuss about Vladek’s survival is because I want to prove
and show people, you need luck to survive in a hard situation, no matter how
knowledgeable or smart you are.
(Word Count: 200)
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3. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Contents
Rationale ------------------------------------------------------------------------------p.2
Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------------------p.3
Essay --------------------------------------------------------------------------------p.4-8
References ----------------------------------------------------------------------------p.9
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4. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Art Spiegelman wrote the graphic novel “Maus” and the story is based on his own
father. It is a true story based on his father’s (Vladek Spiegelman who is the main
character) experience in the Holocaust. In this novel, Art has drawn all of the events
that his father has gone through. We could see that Vladek has gone through pain and
fear; we could see how he escaped different camps. More importantly, we could see
how he survived. The question is, how did he survive? By fortunate luck or his
considerable resources? I believe skills and talent is essential. However, luck is the
choice of path that God gives you.
Before I start, I would like to give a little introduction about the Holocaust. In World
War II 1939, the Germans invaded Poland and began the event, which is the
Holocaust. Where the Germans, also knows as Nazis at that period of time, burnt
Jewish, Polish and other people from countries near Poland in ovens and put them
into gas chambers to die, to extinct the Jews. As might be expected, the Nazis didn’t
only kill Jews; they also killed millions of Non-Jews. In total, there were around 11
million people killed during the Holocaust 1 , and Vladek was a survivor who
experienced the whole Holocaust.
Vladek was a highly skilled man and with his luck he survived the Holocaust. In this
essay, I’m going to discuss about Vladek’s survival. I will prove that Vladek survived
mainly because of his luck. Since I believe, anything that can make your life better, is
luck.
1 http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/
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5. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Vladek is truly a resourceful man. However without his luck to give him a chance to
use it, it’s almost useless to have this knowledge. For instance, in the Auschwitz
camp, there was a Kapo who wanted a person who can speak both Polish and
English2. Luckily, Vladek was a Polish who spoke well English and therefore this
Kapo helped him surviving for a while in Auschwitz. Despite that Vladek knew
English or not, without this Kapo who wants to learn English, Vladek might’ve died
in Auschwitz. Vladek was lucky to barrack and meet this Kapo. Therefore, luck
comes before considerable resources.
In addition to the previous statement, there are more examples where luck comes
before considerable resources. In fact, I believe all events where Vladek used his
skills and knowledge to survive involves luck. For instance, Vladek was extremely
lucky to see his cousins through the windows before he was being sent to Auschwitz3.
Moreover, there was more luck, because his cousins were schemers who knew how to
make business and accompany the Nazis. In the graphic novel, it stated that “Haskel
was a very big man in the ghetto then…”, “Haskel played very often, cards with the
Gestapo” and “He lost to them big amounts of money, so they would like him.”4 From
this, we can discover not only how they made business, but also how lucky Vladek
was to have these cousins. Without their existence or showing up on the right time,
Vladek probably wouldn’t have lived through the Holocaust. But of course, Vladek’s
considerable resourcefulness can’t be excluded, or he would die. However, these
knowledge he owns is more dependent on the luck he has.
2 Maus II, Art Spiegelman
3 Maus I, Art Spiegelman
4 Ibid, pg. 116
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6. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Miloch was another cousin of Vladek who helped him surviving through the
Holocaust. Once again, Vladek’s cousin saved his life. In the novel, Miloch built a
hiding place in his shoe shop.5 Vladek didn’t need to use a large amount of his skills
and knowledge. However, he was lucky. He was lucky that he was the one that could
survive. He was lucky that he had smart cousins. He was lucky to be born in a
wealthy family to learn all the skills. The only thing Vladek was talented and skilled
with, was managing his own time and using his luck to make him stronger.
However, not every situation is about luck. Sometimes, you’re unlucky and you need
to use your skills and brain to solve it. For instance, a few children caught Vladek and
cried “A JEW! A JEW!”6 Through Art Spiegelman’s drawing, using some drawing
techniques I could see that Vladek was panicking. For instance, Art shadowed
Vladek’s face, and I could feel an alert going in Vladek’s mind. Fortunately, Vladek
was smart enough and used his brain and worked his way through. He knew that if he
ran away, his identity of being a Jew would be exposed.
In addition, with Vladek’s extraordinary hiding skills and rather little luck he survived
through a period of time. Vladek said it himself “Therefore I arranged for us a very
good hiding spot…”7 In fact, it was quite an advanced hiding place from the sketch
that Art drew. Without Vladek’s skills, knowledge and talent, they wouldn’t have
survived and would end up being sent to Auschwitz.
5 Ibid, pg 121
6 Ibid, pg. 149
7 Ibid, pg. 110
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7. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Moreover, Vladek was a true business man, he knew how to make connection. Which
is an important talent and skill in the Holocaust, because you can’t live on your own,
you can’t get everything you need in order to survive. You need to trade, you need to
know where to get them, how to get them and from who. This is something that
Vladek owned, he knew how to find connection, then he knew where to find more and
start trading, and he knew how to pay. One example of Vladek using his benefit of
connection and business skills is meeting Motonowa. After a long period of trading
with her, he made friends with her and she allowed them to hide in her place 8. It
involves some luck, which is being lucky enough to meet a generous person like
Motonowa. However, it was mainly based on his skills and talents.
Even so, luck is still a very important factor of his survival. There were a few places
where Vladek survived with luck. For instance, they were lucky when they came back
to Sosnowiec; Mr. Lukowski allowed them to stay9, which normal people wouldn’t
dare to do. In fact, it didn’t require Vladek and Anja (Vladek’s wife) skills and talent,
but naturally, they had to have good connection. Moreover, the y got even luckier to
meet another Jew to introduce them to another place10. After that they got to meet
Mrs. Kawka11. These luck didn’t require a great amount of talent and skills, all you
needed was money and connections. Later on, Vladek was lucky enough to meet
Motonowa to help him out which I mentioned earlier.
8 Ibid
9 Ibid, pg. 136
10 Ibid, pg. 138
11 Ibid, pg. 139
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8. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
Even if I have mentioned numerous examples where Vladek’s survival is mainly
based on his considerable resourcefulness, there is always a portion of luck in it.
Everything that happens, even the worse contains luck. When something worse
happens, think that you’re lucky enough, because something worse can happen.
Therefore, I believe that Vladek’s survival was based on luck more than his
considerable resources. In this novel, his considerable resources were up to a degree
where you needed it, something that you could have reached for. Where luck is in an
emergency degree, because you ask for luck when you are about to die. Vladek needs
it as desperately as he needs his considerable resources, but it’s something
unreachable and unstable, all you can do is hope for it, something you can’t control.
Therefore, Vladek needed luck and his skills desperately, but one was unstable, the
other one could have been stabilized.
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9. Julia Li Grade 10 – English A
References
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: a survivor's tale : and here my troubles began.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. Print.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: a survivor's tale : my father bleeds history. Rev.
pbk. ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 19921986. Print.
Spiegelman, Art, and Jack Murphy. Maus. GradeSaver LLC, 2007
Unknown, “Holocaust – Non-Jewish Holocaust Victims”, Holocuast
Forgotten, Terese Pencak Schwartz, Sept 23rd 2012,
http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/
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