All of My Family is Dead. No Big Dill.

On page 116 of Maus II, by Art Spiegelman, Art is asks about the whereabouts of Vladek's family after hearing about his mother's. This page contains a mixture of "moment-to-moment" transitions when Art is positioning himself more comfortably on his father's couch to listen to his father's story and a section of "aspect-to-aspect" transitions on the left side of the page which focuses on different parts of Vladek sitting down and breaking him up into different panels. In this way, it "sets a wandering eye on different aspects of a place, idea, or mood" (McCloud 72). By doing this, Spiegelman adds emphasis to his father's sorrow when he has to rethink about the family he has lost in the Holocaust for the sake of Art's book. Because Vladek is broken up into different panels with "gutters" in between, it seems as the choice to do so metaphorically represents the man the Holocaust created; a broken individual. This also applies to all of the victims of the Holocaust who have survived the tragedy but have lost their love ones. The only memories he has of his family are from his own recollection which may also be why the remaining pictures he has are scattered on the floor and are being given to Art. They mean nothing to him and only offer as a painful reminder of the people he lost.

Furthermore, when Spiegelman illustrates his course of action in the story in "moment-to-moment" transitions of getting comfortable on his father's couch, he somewhat critiques himself in a way that it seems like he is not particularly proud of being apathetic to what his father was feeling at the moment. This occurs throughout the story as he pesters his father for more information about his experiences during the Holocaust without acknowledging how painful is must be for Vladek to recall those memories. In showing himself in this light after his father's death, he is reflective of his actions and displays the shame in what he did by emphasizing Vladek's sorrow. This also may connect to the point that he writes in Maus I of his father and him not being close. His insensitivity and obsession in completing his story made him fail to realize that Vladek genuinely enjoyed his son's company and may have only relived his painful history in order to spend time with his son.