Storytelling

            In the very beginning of Maus II when Artie was making his remarks about his father and how much he irritates him, I couldn't help but think about the phrase, “You’ll miss me when I’m gone”. Not only is this a narrative of the holocaust, but storytelling is what kept Artie and his father’s relationship alive. Throughout the comic, we witness Artie clinging onto his father through these stories, because it is the only time that he seems calm. We also witness Artie’s counseling sessions discussing his father, and finally he admits to his wife that he already has enough regret towards his relationship with his father. Artie tells the story of his father to remember his father as a chance to hold onto the little memory he has of his mother; the drawing of the grave at the end stands in place of an “in memory” dedication.
            While we see Artie reach out to his father through storytelling, it is also important to notice that Vladek does the same to keep his son around. Vladek cared so much for Artie that he did so much as lie about illness to get the chance of him visiting. Some of his last words were, “So…Let’s stop, please, your tape recorder…” (Spiegelman, 136), signifying that he was done sharing his stories. Vladek also never openly told these stories unless he was asked to do so, hinting that he typically did not enjoy revisiting the past but did it for the sake of keeping his son around. These two characters stand as foils when it comes to family bonding, the son hides his desire to be around his father, later regretting it, while the father openly wants his son around and dies peacefully having shared everything he had. While different, they met in the middle through storytelling.            
          The most noteworthy concept that I have taken from this course has been that you do not have to physically travel to have the experience of travel. Traveling can be granted to you through the stages of your life, others’ stories, different environments, and so many more. Whether you are physically traveling or not, you still gain from both the physical journey and the internal journey, and the internal journey stays with you forever while making new physical memories.