Thursday, September 9, 2010
Vladik and Artie
Vladik and his son Artie, did not have a good relationship. Through the book their relationship seemed to get slightly better. However at the end of the novel Artie seemed to lose all respect that he had gained for his father when he found out that he burned all of Anjas notebooks. He even went as far as to call him a murderer. You could tell from the comments that Artie made about never liking to do anything with his dad because he always tried to compete with him, that even when artie was growing up they never got along. I wounder if the relationship was always on the rocks because Vladik lost his first son during the war? The actual pictures provided also showed that he did not enjoy his father company. For example when Mala called Artie at home to tell him that Vladik fell off the roof he was mad in the picture that she even called. The pictures really help you understand and put together what is going on in the novel and also helps provide a visual of the hardships that the characters did in fact face.
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I agree with what you said about the idea of competition. I think that Artie was always competing with his dead brother though. His father always seemed to favor him in a way and I think that was one of the problems in their relationship that caused them to fight.
ReplyDeleteI believe that their relationship began to get stronger but then was torn apart after Artie found out about the burning of Anja's diaries. Artie continuously asked for ever detail possible just for his story it seemed. At the end of the story it seems like the two won't be seeing each other for awhile.
ReplyDeleteI agree that their relationship got stronger throughout the book.. the more Artie heard the closer he felt to his father. Artie just wanted to find out more and more about his father's past to feel close with him again.
ReplyDeleteI think Vladik's choice to burn his wife's journals is forgivable, although Artie cannot see it this way at first. Undoubtedly, they were full of the pain of their experiences during the Holocaust--the tragedy of their survival--their guilt and fear. Perhaps Vladik only wanted to save his son from the darkness that they had to walk through. I think their relationship is more complicated than we are willing to acknowledge at a mere "glance."
ReplyDeleteI can see the competitiveness with Artie and his dead brother. Vladik was always saying how beautiful of a boy he was, but you never see him praise Artie, just his first son. I think that lack of compassion made their relationship weak and made Artie feel a little neglected.
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