Maus, by Art Spiegelman, shows a unique way to view history and allow readers to understand the suffering he went through during the Holocaust. Spiegelman describes every detail through a comic book unlike reading a textbook. More specifically the characteristic features of Maus is the use of the tale of animals with characteristics more or less civilized as characters of history. This work of art that deals with the theme of the Holocaust, and as a comic book that challenges the fictional tradition of the genre and opens its doors to history and to the narration of reality. For an artistic representation that fulfills its function regarding the suffering and the memory, the author resorts to the representation of animals. Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans from the beginning to differentiate the various races; In Maus, the Jews are characterized as mice, the Nazi soldiers as cats, and the Poles as …show more content…
For example, Spiegelman represents the Jews from a Nazi perspective according to which the Jews would be the most unacceptable and unclean animals or creatures of life. To characterize Jews and Germans as different species, as ingenious and clever cats, as weak as mice, would be to avoid the fact that the Holocaust was not entrusted by one species against another, but by humans versus humans. Spiegelman wisely used the comic resource of cat and mouse chases (Tom and Jerry) to give it a clearer aspect; Uses the most negative stereotypes, emphasizing the drama, in which cats unsurprisingly hunt and eat mice while they flee and hide in the corners of the shacks, and pigs are thoughtless animals with no ability for intervention. It’s obvious to say in the comic book the Germans are cats who acted as predators who prey on Jews who were mice. He attempted to use these animals or stereotypes as a platform to unravel the actuality of
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 format of "Maus" is an effective way of telling a Holocaust narrative because it gives Art Spiegelman the chance to expresses his father's story without disrespecting him at the same time. It shows this through its comic book style drawings on a topic that is difficult to explain. With the illustrations throughout the story, it shows the true meaning of a picture is worth a thousand words. Compared to any other type of Holocaust book, it would be hard for a person who did not go through the Holocaust to understand what was taking place during that time.
In the years after the Holocaust the survivors from the concentration camps tried to cope with the horrors of the camps and what they went through and their children tried to understand not only what happened to their parents. In the story of Maus, these horrors are written down by the son of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek. Maus is not only a story of the horrors of the concentration camps, but of a son, Artie, working through his issues with his father, Vladek. These issues are shown from beginning to end and in many instances show the complexity of the father-son relationship that was affected from the Holocaust. Maus not only shows these matters of contentions, but that the Holocaust survivors constantly put their children’s experiences to unreasonable standards of the parent’s Holocaust experiences.
From Hitler throughout the Holocaust, Maus the graphic novel has brought a story of a survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew. Vladek has been there when the Swastika was a symbol of well-being and the goods. From the start of World War II and sustained until the war ended. Vladek survived the war because of luckiness, after that, being resourceful was the reason he lived. Lost his first born son in the process, moved to the United States. Lost his wife and lived with a fear it might happen all over again, he is a survivor of the Holocaust.
Art Spiegelman's Maus stands "among the remarkable achievements in comics," according to Dale Luciano in Comics Journal. Maus, an epic parable of the Holocaust that substitutes mice and cats for human Jews and Nazis, marks a zenith in Spiegelman's artistic career. Prior to the Maus books, his was a name known primarily in the underground comics scene. He has been a significant presence in graphic art since his teen years, when he wrote, printed, and distributed his own comics magazine. By the end of his first year in college Spiegelman was employed by Topps Chewing Gum as a creative consultant, artist, and writer, an affiliation that wrought such pop culture artifacts as "Wacky-Packs" and "Garbage Pail Kids."
The Maus series of books tell a very powerful story about one man’s experience in the Holocaust. They do not tell the story in the conventional novel fashion. Instead, the books take on an approach that uses comic windows as a method of conveying the story. One of the most controversial aspects of this method was the use of animals to portray different races of people. The use of animals as human races shows the reader the ideas of the Holocaust a lot more forcefully than simply using humans as the characters.
Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a novel about the Vladek and his experience as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. It narrates the reality of the Holocaust wherein millions and millions of Jews were systematically killed by the Nazi regime. One of the themes in the story is racism which is evident in the employment of animal characters and its relationship with one another.
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.
During 1925, Mein Kampf was published by the Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler. In this autobiography, where Nazi racist ideas originated, he depicted his struggle with the Jews in Germany. These ideas sparked World War 2 and the Genocide of the Jews. The tragedy of the Holocaust inspired authors, such as Art Spiegelman who produced a Graphic novel, where both the text and images helped him convey his own ideas and messages. In fact, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus is an effective medium for telling a Holocaust narrative and specifically his father’s story of survival. Through this medium, he is able to captivate the readers while providing interesting insight into the tragedy of the Holocaust by using the symbols of animals, the contrast between realism and cartoon imagery and the various basic elements of a graphic novel.
This seems to demonstrate that Maus I has a certain level of influence on Spiegelman’s life, and the lives of others who have experiences with the text, such as the reporters and his shrink. It represents how the book, and the history that is embodied within it, seeps into author’s actual life. Additionally, one might argue the possibility of the human’s wearing animal masks representing the worry, for Spiegelman, that Maus I feels artificial. Just as a mask depicts a lack of reality, Spiegelman may be trying to reveal his fear that the graphic novel, with its somewhat controversial artistic choices, is not an accurate representation of the Holocaust and his father’s
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.
Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus unfolds the story about his father Vladek Spiegleman, and his life during the WWII. Since Vladek and Art are both the narrators of the story, the story not only focuses on Vladek's survival, but also the writing process and the organization of the book itself. Through these two narrators, the book explores various themes such as identity, perspective, survival and guilt. More specifically, Maus suggests that surviving an atrocity results in survivor’s guilt, which wrecks one’s everyday life and their relationships with those around them. It accomplishes this through symbolism and through characterization of Vladek and Anja.
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.
September 1st, 1939, German forces invade Poland beginning the deadliest war in human history. Fifty million casualties including six million of Jewish heritage in concentration camps. Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ would not only destroy the lives of many but also severely damage the lives of the ones still living. Vladek Spiegelman changes immensely throughout the novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. Comparing the two narratives in the novel it is evident the culture during the Holocaust has had an everlasting effect on Vladek Spiegelman.
And while it may appear callous to write about the Holocaust in a format that is not as serious, Art does not fail to make the book serious. Comics can be “childish,” and Art is a child to his father. The contrast between Art and his father also emphasizes the effect the Holocaust had on their family. In addition, Maus is supposed to be a story that is very personal to Art, and he should express himself in a way that is natural to