tragedgy

Spiegelman gives the story of Anja and Vladek a bittersweet end simply with his last 3 panels. In the 4th panel on the page, Vladek and Anja finally found each other, and they are illuminated by a spotlight. This spotlight was once used to signify the fear and terror that Jewish people had to live with during Hitler’s reign, but now it symbolizes the happiness and freedom that the Jewish people have now that Hitler’s reign is over. But the spotlight also signals the end of Vladek’s movie, much like how at the end of TV cartoons, the entire screen is black except for a small circle where the characters break the fourth wall and end the show. Art doesn’t draw anything about the struggles of living in America or what happened after Vladek and Anja reunited; he simply just ends his story about the Holocaust there as if Vladek’s story ended the minute he was reunited with Anja again. During the next two panels, we see Vladek asking Art to stop the tape recorder because he is tired. He calls Art Richieu by accident,which shows how Vladek is lost in the stories that he told Art and confusing the past with reality. He is hopefully recounting his tale to firstborn that has been dead for many years, unaware that he is not in a perfect present and Richieu actually didn’t make it out of the war. Art ends in story with a tombstone with Vladek and Anja’s birth and death dates and a flame burning between them. The flame symbolizes Vladek never-ending love for each other, even long after Anja has died. The ending suggests that Vladek died and is reunited with Anja in heaven, a sad but fitting end to Vladek and Anja’s story.