The book MAUS – A Survivor’s Tale is by American cartoonist, Art Spiegelman. It is written in comic book format in which Spiegelman interviews his father about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor during World War II. Since Spiegelman was a comic artist, it made sense that he told the story that way. It is primarily a narrative story within a story and flips between two timelines, during the 1970’s in New York City and from the mid 1930’s to the end of WWII. Throughout the story, Art questions his father, Vladek, about the war and his life. Art records his father’s many experiences, from being drafted to being a prisoner of war, escaping across borders, being captured and sent to Auschwitz before finally being liberated. Art Speigelman uses …show more content…
Jews would never be considered German even if they were born in Germany. They even kept their citizenship when the Nuremberg Laws come into force in 1938. I think the major theme would be survival and the author uses this to emphasis the story. This is illustrated throughout the story in many examples. The main survivor is not just Vladek but also his son Art. His Dad survived POW camp, overcame the loss of his factory, typhus fever, and the loss of his oldest son and wife. Art survived dealing with his father, the struggles of being a second generation Jew, and depression over his mother’s suicide. I thought one of the most interesting episodes in the book was in the beginning, when Spiegelman includes a memory of a moment shared with his father as a child in which his friends have just left him after roller-skating with them. His father is upset by their behavior and says that you would know your real friends if you were forced to spend grueling days and nights with them in a crowded bunker. This made me think about the reliability of some of my friends. This shows that his father can be reminded of his experiences during the Holocaust very easily, and that he has a certain bond with his son in which he is able to share such experiences. It goes to show that the Holocaust has been such a horrible experience and will change the very core of a
In the graphic novel Maus, this book deals with feelings of guilt and memory and show the importance between both. Art Spiegelman illustrates three primary themed feelings of guilt, Family and Survivors guilt as well as the effects of Death. These feelings of regret are formed through the experiences from the holocaust but also the relationships built on from this.
"A Jew cannot be a Reich citizen. He is not entitled to the right to vote on political matters; he cannot hold public office...A Jew is anyone descended from at least three grandparents who are fully Jewish as regards race.
Vladek lived a normal life before the war, got married to Anja a daughter of a millionaire. He also got Richieu his first son. They all lived a happy life for awhile until the Swastika was raised as an emblem of the German Nazi party. That’s when the fairytale ended. Vladek went to the army and got captured by the Nazi. Back to luckiness, he could easily died at the P.O.W camp, disease, hunger or even get beat up by the Nazi. On page 48, the bullets came in his direction, the bullet ricochet on his helmet, he could have died if the soldier aim better or if he didn’t have the helmet, he could have easily been dead. Being resourceful also helped him in the war. On page 53, he bathed in the river in the winter, unlike his soldier mates, he didn’t get infection on his frostbites.
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the audience is led through a very emotional story of a Holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with the author, who is his son, and his wife. Throughout this novel, the audience constantly is reminded of how horrific the Holocaust was to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the novel finds very effective ways to insert forms of humor in the inner story and outer story of Maus. Although the Holocaust has a heart wrenching effect on the novel as a whole, the effective use of humor allows for the story to become slightly less severe and a more tolerable read.
The quote that stuck with me trough the book was one not so much about the emotions that can with the Holocaust, but more of the actions that people at this time must do.
By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
When reading a traditional book, it is up to the reader to imagine the faces and landscapes that are described within. A well written story will describe the images clearly so that you can easily picture the details. In Art Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus, the use of the animals in place of the humans offers a rather comical view in its simplistic relation to the subject and at the same time develops a cryptic mood within the story. His drawings of living conditions in Auschwitz; expressions on the faces of people enduring torture, starvation, and despair; his experience with the mental institution and his mother’s suicide; and occasional snapshots of certain individuals, create a new dynamic between book and reader. By using the form of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman created a narrative accompanied by pictures instead of needing to use immense worded detail.
The quote that stuck with me trough the book was one not so much about the emotions that can with the Holocaust, but more of the actions that people had to take during this time.
...urvivors crawling towards me, clawing at my soul. The guilt of the world had been literally placed on my shoulders as I closed the book and reflected on the morbid events I had just read. As the sun set that night, I found no joy in its vastness and splendor, for I was still blinded by the sins of those before me. The sound of my tears crashing to the icy floor sang me to sleep. Just kidding. But seriously, here’s the rest. Upon reading of the narrators’ brief excerpt of his experience, I was overcome with empathy for both the victims and persecutors. The everlasting effect of the holocaust is not only among those who lost families÷, friends,
Art Spiegelman's Maus II is a book that tells more than the story of one family's struggle to live thought the Holocaust. It gives us a look into the psyche of a survivor's child and how the Holocaust affected him and many other generations of people who were never there at all. Maus II gives the reader a peek into the psyche of Art Spiegelman and the affects of having two parents that survived the Holocaust had on him. Spiegelman demonstrates the affects of being a survivor's child in many ways throughout the book. Examining some of these will give us a better understanding of what it was like to be a part of the Holocaust.
The comic implies that surviving the holocaust affects Vladek’s life and wrecks his relationship with his son and his wife. In some parts of the story, Vladek rides a stationary bike while narrating his story (I, 81, panel 7-9). Given the fact that it is a stationary bike, it stays immobile: no matter how hard Vladek pedals, he cannot move forward. The immobility of the bike symbolizes how survivor’s guilt will never let him escape his past. Vladek can never really move past the holocaust: he cannot even fall asleep without shouting from the nightmares (II, 74, panel 4-5). Moreover, throughout the story, the two narrators depict Vladek before, during and after the war. Before the war, Vladek is characterized as a pragmatic and resourceful man. He is resourceful as he is able to continue his black business and make money even under the strengthened control of the Nazi right before the war (I, 77 panel 1-7). However, after surviving the holocaust, Vladek feels an obligation to prove to himself and to others that his survival was not simply by mere luck, but because h...
The authors of the books, Survival in Auschwitz, All But My Life, and Maus II, tell their heart-wrenching, brutal, and hopeful journey of their lives throughout the Holocaust. Though, the stories are written regarding the same historical event, their paths lead to strikingly different outcomes. Primo Levi, an Italian Jew, was sent to Auschwitz where he endured years of the Nazi’s brutality and the horrific images that followed. Art Spiegelman’s Maus II tells the story of how his father, Vladek Spiegelman, survived the war. While Gerda Weissmann Klein describes her own journey in which World War II had taken her. Though these three authors describe very horrific, disgusting, and heartbreaking scenes from their experiences, their books end similarly,
The books Maus I and Maus II, written by Art Spiegelman over a thirteen-year period from 1978-1991, are books that on the surface are written about the Holocaust. The books specifically relate to the author’s father’s experiences pre and post-war as well as his experiences in Auschwitz. The book also explores the author’s very complex relationship between himself and his father, and how the Holocaust further complicates this relationship. On a deeper level the book also dances around the idea of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. The two books are presented in a very interesting way; they are shown in comic form, which provides the ability for Spiegelman to incorporate numerous ideas and complexities to his work.
What if you were a holocaust survivor and asked to describe your catastrophic experience? What part of the event would you begin with, the struggle, the death of innocent Jews, or the cruel witnessed? When survivors are questioned about their experience they shiver from head to toe, recalling what they have been through. Therefore, they use substitutes such as books and diaries to expose these catastrophic events internationally. Books such as Maus, A survivor’s tale by Art Spiegelman, and Anne Frank by Ann Kramer. Spiegelman presents Maus in a comical format; he integrated the significance of Holocaust while maintaining the comic frame structure format, whereas comic books are theoretically supposed to be entertaining. Also, Maus uses a brilliant technique of integrating real life people as animal figures in the book. Individually, both stories involve conflicts among relationships with parents. Furthermore, Maus jumps back and forth in time. Although, Anne Frank by Ann Kramer, uses a completely different technique. Comparatively, both the books have a lot in common, but each book has their own distinctive alterations.
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History is the first part of Art Spiegelman’s adaptation of his father’s life as a Jew in Europe during the Second World War. Instead of using the “traditional” novel formant, Spiegelman choses to use the graphic novel format. This format allows him to tell his father’s story in a more visual way. He uses both the content of the artwork and the style of artwork to make his narrative more symbolic. Art Spiegelman choice to use fable animals to represent different races, his symbolism in many of the panels, and the contrasting art style he uses allows him to use the graphic novel medium to tell a more engaging story than if he had only chosen to write his father’s story in book format.