How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Page Number). Page numbers refer to The Complete Maus.
Quote #10
“Samuel Beckett once said: ‘Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.’” (II.2.35)
As Art points out, Beckett had to say those words. That is, words are necessary to explain that words are unnecessary. These words help explain Art’s ambivalence toward writing about the Holocaust. In the face of such a tragedy, is every word an “unnecessary stain”?
Quote #11
“I learned a little shoe fixing watching how they worked when I was with my cousin in Miloch, there in the ghetto shoe shop […] You see? It’s good to know how to do everything.” (II.2.50)
Vladek’s diagrams help Art to visualize life in the concentration camps, but these diagrams also suggest that Art’s visual skill as an artist is not so alien to his father as we might initially be led to believe.
Quote #12
“More I don’t need to tell you. We were both very happy, and lived happy, happy ever after.” (II.5.126)
There’s a see-saw in the book between Vladek’s story and Art’s retelling of Vladek’s story. Vladek’s ending to his story is a romantic “happy ever after.” But Maus shows us that not all was so “happy ever after” after Vladek and Anja are freed from the concentration camps. The image of his parents’ tombstone at the end of the novel reminds us that Anja committed suicide in 1968.