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“Friends? Your friends? . . . If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week . . . THEN you could see what it is, friends!”
Vladek says this to a young Artie in the prologue to Maus Book I. The series of images gradually zoom out on Vladek, who is holding a saw as Artie holds a piece of wood steady for him. Artie has just fallen because his roller skate came loose, and he is upset because his friends called him a rotten egg. This moment introduces many of Maus’s themes and motifs, including how the past shapes the present, the strained relationship between Vladek and Artie, and Vladek’s unflagging resourcefulness. Vladek is a Holocaust survivor, and he is haunted by his experiences of hunger and starvation in Auschwitz. His own past makes it difficult for him to connect emotionally with his son Artie. Instead of comforting Artie, Vladek seems to sneer at his son’s pain.
The background action depicting Vladek using his hands and hand tools to build something characterizes him as a man who can make something out of nothing. Vladek’s ability to pick up trades and use all of his resources proved invaluable during World War II. But in the present day, it often leads him to focus disproportionately on saving things and forget to pay attention to the emotional needs of those around him.
