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“More I don’t need to tell you. We were both very happy, and lived happy, happy ever after.”
With these words, from the final page of Maus, Vladek ends the story that has made up the majority of Maus. The image shows Vladek and Anja embracing after their long separation at the end of World War II. The background is black with a white circle framing Anja and Vladek, making it appear as though they are in a spotlight. In some ways, Vladek’s declaration that he and Anja were happy after the war is true. They both survived. They moved to America, had another son, Artie, and Vladek found success as a diamond dealer. But this statement hides more than it reveals. In the end, Anja and Vladek were not happy. Anja was so unhappy, in fact, she committed suicide. Vladek is demonstrably unhappy in the present, as well. He is high-strung, stingy, and even his son and second wife find him almost impossible to deal with. Vladek’s denial of this unhappiness is a way of denying the traumas of the Holocaust and how they have haunted him throughout his life. But as readers, we know that the past Vladek hopes to deny or forget is ever present, always just under the surface.
