I have recently realized how odd the idea of a protagonist and antagonist are. We not only apply protagonist and antagonist into stories, but we make people the good and bad guys in our own lives. Think about a situation where you were mad at a friend; in your mind your friend is probably the antagonist-- while you play the protagonist. Yet if you were to get the same story from your friend the roles could be switched. Or what about getting that same story from a bystander? One of the questions from the Maus seminar was, " How do you feel about Vladeck's role as a flawed protagonist?" I disagree with this question as a whole, because how can we ever truly identify a protagonist? I think overall Vladeck was a good person who was just trying to survive, but that doesn't mean that he always was seen as the good guy. What about when he let the blonde women traveling between Auschwitz and Birkenau risk her life for him to stay connected with Anja? He let her put herself in danger for his own personal gain. Would her family view him as a protagonist? Or what about when Vladeck would only give snow to the dying people on the train, if they gave him sugar? Although Vladeck was trying to survive, he could have been the cost for lives lost. These people had nothing, yet Vladeck would not share his snow unless he had something to gain. The entire idea of protagonist and antagonist are faulty and dependent on the view of others. The idea that our perspective is thorough and unbiased enough to give someone the title of "good guy" or "bad guy," is faulty. Although it may serve as temporary clarity, it can never really capture all of the essence and qualities of an individual. So I suggest that we take away the labels of protagonist and antagonist completely, and accept the fact that all of us fall somewhere in the middle of good and bad. Humans are not perfect and we never will be, so even giving ourselves these labels in everyday situations can never really be accurate.
Lesson #5: Labels can never fully represent a person.
That is so true. No person can completely be the good guy or bad guy. Maybe one person knows someone as an amazing person, but someone else knows that same person and has been treated horribly by them. It's so sad to think that during war, probably one of Vladek's worst traits (selfishness) saved his life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! There is no way to put a label on whether someone is a protagonist or antagonist, because it all depends on the perspective you are looking from. To an antagonist, a protagonist will seem as the bad person in the situation, and vise versa. We cannot put labels on people just from our own judgements.
ReplyDeleteI agree. In novels and movies, we only root for the ‘protagonist’ because we see things from their perspective and only know one side of the story. We feel sympathy for them and justify their actions. I like how you made this connection with Vladek.
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