A Picture is worth a Thousand Words: The use of Animal Allegory in Maus

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The graphic novels Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman possess the power to make the reader understand the pain and suffering that takes place during the Holocaust. Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans in his graphic novels to represent the different races of people. The use of visual mediums in Art Spiegelman’s Maus enhances the reading of the narrative. The graphics throughout the novel help the reader fully understand everything that is happening. The victims of the Holocaust lose sight of who they are during this time and begin to live their life by playing a part they believe they were because of their race. Loman discussed the irony behind the cat-and-mouse metaphor that Spiegelman uses in his graphic novel in his article titled “’Well Intended Liberal Slop’: Allegories of Race in Spiegelman’s Maus”. In his article he states, For many reasons, the translation of the cat-and-mouse metaphor from America to Nazi Germany succeeds brilliantly. As Spiegelman’s research incontrovertibly bears out, in many instances Nazi propagandists represented Jews as mice or rats, claiming thereby that the Jewish presence in Europe was an infestation of vermin that needed to be wiped out. And there are various grotesque ironies that Spiegelman noted in the course of his research; for instance, Zyklon B, the poison used in the gas chambers, was first developed as a pesticide. Loman demonstrates that Spiegelman did not just randomly choose these animals to represent all the people during the Holocaust. Spiegelman used these animals to help demonstrate how these people were feeling. The Jewish people during the Holocaust suffered from dehumanization and treated like vermin. All the advertisements used by Nazi Germany during this time depict th... ... middle of paper ... ...ader understand what people go through during the Holocaust. By illustrating the different races of people using different animals, it helps the reader understand the power of identity during a traumatic event. By telling the Jewish population numerous times that they are worthless, they begin to believe this and in a sense give up in their fight for their life. The graphics go along with the narration of the story to help illustrate to the reader the difficulties faced by the Jewish citizens just because they are Jewish. When the reader sees a cat on the page with a mouse it causes the reader to tense up and really feel the difficulties faced during the Holocaust because of discrimination. The portrayal of the characters as animals in his novel is a sort of allegory to demonstrate the struggles faced during the Holocaust with regards to identity and discrimination.

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