Morality and Ethics

Morality is the "principle concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior" (Google) while ethics is "the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct" (Google). Both words mean to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. It seems easy to decide what is right and what is wrong as we do it every day. However, when the Jews get thrown into the Holocaust, identifying between good and bad becomes the choice between life and death.

In Maus, the recurring theme of morality and ethics emphasizes how emotional strain will inevitably affect the decisions of humans. First of all, the Nazis reduce the Jews to sub-human status such as pests like mice in order to degrade the Jews even further. This shows that the Nazis did not believe the Jews were people worth of ethical consideration. They believed that Jews weren't even capable of differentiating what's a good and what's bad. The Holocaust also creates multiple situations that illustrate the strain of morality and ethics in desperate times. Everything that holds humans together, like friends, family, and community, crumbles. During this time, "it wasn't anymore families. It was everybody to take care for himself!" (Spiegelman 114). Vladek emphasizes this to Art so he realizes that Jews were put in impossible circumstances where people had to throw away their morals to live. For example, the Jews had to start stealing food because it became so scarce. Some Jews ratted out others in hopes they would survive. Whole families were torn apart and friendships were irreversibly damaged. The ones that remained after the Holocaust would forever have to live with the guilt and regret of their selfish behavior.