The divide between father and son

In this panel on page 135, Anja and Vladek are still fleeing from the bunker. After deciding the direction to follow at the crossroads, they start to head to Sosnowiec. Surrounding the images of the past, Art and Vladek are watching over the past while lounging in chairs with a clearly visible divide between the two of them. In the picture, the road they are walking upon clearly alludes to the swastika they were overlooking on page 125 as they wondered where to go. The swastika represents the extent of Nazi control over Germany and Poland. When Vladek says "It was still dark outside...we didn't know where to hide ourselves," he is referring to both the time and the state of their situation being dark and bleak. Vladek and Art's positions surrounding the past show the growing distance between Art and Vladek from Mala's descriptions of her life with Vladek which eventually explodes with Art calling Vladek a "murderer" after he learns that Vladek burned his mother's diary. Additionally, the clearly defined borders between Art and the past and Vladek's feet remaining within the past show the difference between Art and Vladek's perspectives of the past. While Vladek experienced all the terror and trauma the past had for him, Art can only listen and attempt to imagine the horrors his father had to go through just to survive. Vladek's relaxed demeanor as Art is on the edge of his seat shows just how much these events weigh on his shoulders.