A Survivors Tale & Maus II : And Here My Troubles By Art Spiegelman

The art of survival is something that is not easily learned. For some, however, it is something that comes from a natural desire to be defiant and rebellious. In the novel Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louie Zamperini fights for survival through a number of trials that are presented to him. His life takes him from being a troubled child, to an Olympic runner, to a bomber lost at sea, to POW in some of the worst camps Japan could conjure. Louie not only survives these trials, he stands up and goes directly against the normality and ease of submission and faces his adversity head on. Throughout the novel, Louie shows that his ability to survive stems from his natural urge to rebel and defy anything that he deems too controlling in his life.

Maxine Kumin?s, Woodchucks provides an interesting and creative perspective into the mind state of those influenced by nazi warfare. What begins as a seemingly humorous cat and mouse hunt, reminiscent of such movie classics as Caddyshack, soon develops into an insatiable lust for blood. Kumin?s descriptive language provides the reader with the insight necessary to understand to the speaker?s psychology as they are driven beyond the boundaries of pacifism.

     The book uses animals instead of human characters and this is personification. The book has three main types of animals that each symbolizes the different cultures during the Holocaust. The Jews are symbolized as mice, the Nazi Germans as cats, and the Poles as pigs. The reason why Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans is because he wants to give the reader a better understanding of what type of animal symbolizes the different types of social classes that are being addressed.

Maus, is a very unique book, normally if the story is non-fiction meaning real they would use human figures, but in this book they use animal figures in the form of cats and mice. The use of cat and mouse holds a very deep meaning in this book. Jews are portrayed as mice, while Germans as cats. In holocaust Germans collected and transported Jews to Concentration camps where they were forced to perform labour work against their will and given little or no food, some were even executed depending on their accessibility to work. So the use of animal figures, cats and mice to be specific stands valid. Since cats have a natural instinct of chasing and hunting down mice, the same scenario can be applied to this book and holocaust, where the Nazis as cats executed Jews as mice. This is completely different from Anne Frank, the technique used in this book is ordinary. In Anne

Elie Wiesel major purpose for animal imagery in the story, the audience has not lived through the Holocaust like Elie did. Using the mistreatment of animals, many people have information and witnessed animal mistreatment could paint picture of the torture and horror of the Holocaust better and vivid. Wiesel was sending a message of not to repeat history and to be woke about the damage being done and to fix humanity. Wanting for everyone to know, all of humanity is equal,”Someone who hates one group will end up hating everyone - and, ultimately, hating himself or herself.”( Brainy Quotes) The novel is the perspective of Elie, as Elie was to be seen and treated a dirty animal of the treatment, from fighting for food, beat unnecessarily and other horrible torture tactics, that animals would

The concentration camps from World War II are part of a painful and tragic incident that we have learned about in school for many years. And while we are taught the facts, we may not fully understand the emotional impact it had upon the humans involved. Upon reading Night by Elie Wiesel, readers are given vivid descriptions of the gruesome and tragic behaviors that the Jews were forced to endure inside he treacherous concentration camps. Among all of the cruelties that the Jews were exposed to, a very significant form of the callous behaviors was the demoralization of the prisoners. Each inmate was given a tattoo of a number, and that tattoo became their new identity within the camp. Every prisoner was presented with tattered uniforms that became

Many Germans knew that they were the lucky ones to live, because they were not Jewish. Being a Jew was one of the worst things that could happen to them in their lives. Germans felt they had the right to shoot everyone, they would say, “If anyone is missing, you'll all be shot like dogs” (Wiesel 33). Animal motif shows a great example in the book Night because people can imagine the cruel conditions that the prisoners went through. Those in charge thought they had rightest power.

Wiesel effectively uses imagery, the use of symbols, juxtaposition, and hyperbole to illustrate the savage side of these humans all because these prisoners had lost their innocence. Right away, Wiesel depicts the transforming of the prisoners to savage animal-like beings. Wiesel demonstrates the prisoners’ savage side by saying, “ Beasts of prey unleashed, animal hate in

Social change comes from a societies understanding and acceptance of controversial topics, laws that enforce social norms and the politics that play a role in such change. The author Gerald Rosenberg of “The Hollow Hope” believes that the Supreme Court is able to bring about social change. Rosenburg main argument seemed to be questioning if a courts ruling that had once been accepted and had standing for several years were to be over turned, would the environment outside of the courtroom suddenly change and be accepting of their division.

Primo Levi, in his novel Survival in Auschwitz (2008), illustrates the atrocities inflicted upon the prisoners of the concentration camp by the Schutzstaffel, through dehumanization. Levi describes “the denial of humanness” constantly forced upon the prisoners through similes, metaphors, and imagery of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization (“Dehumanization”). He makes his readers aware of the cruel reality in the concentration camp in order to help them examine the psychological effects dehumanization has not only on those dehumanized, but also on those who dehumanize. He establishes an earnest and reflective tone with his audience yearning to grasp the reality of genocide.

Maus has an interesting way in approaching a historical account such as the relationship with his father and the Holocaust. One of the most interesting aspects of Maus is the way in which Spiegelman uses animals to distinguish the various races within the comic

Spiegelman uses mice, cats, pigs and other animals to portray the victims and events in the Holocaust. He uses real features of human beings such as hands, feet and emotions to give the animals the full potential to relate to. Maus reveals that the characters portrayed as mice are being seen in sharper relief as human concerns in the world of mice. Spiegelman decided on interesting but possibly offensive use of different animals to use. The first type of animal which appears in this comic is the mouse (MausI:5). The form of mice is used to represent the Jewish people during the Holocaust and as of now too. The Polish police were involved in the arrest of innocent Jewish mice (27). The Polish people were pigs and Germans were represented as cats. The Germans’ appearance as cats began to make sense in the way how cats chase, hunt and kill mice (33). This comic book was translated into an easily readable format to educate the history of the Holocaust to the younger generations.

This one review made me question myself about my own opinion because i couldn't have disagreed more with the reviewer. He said “it was difficult to relate to the book and the holocaust because the author made the characters as pigs, cats, mice.”(mouse#1). So basically the reviewer is saying that he couldn’t see the connections that were trying to be made with the use of the animals as the characters throughout the text. I would have to say that i disagree with the point that the reviewer is trying to say, because the author used these animals as characters to show symbolism between the characters and humans. The cover of the book is a great expamle from the book to show how these characters symbolize humans.(spieglemen Cover.) The picture shows a nazi symbol with a cat (germans) in the middle and two mice scared down below, it symbolizes that during the holocaust the jews (mice) were scared and defenseless throughout the book and the germans (cats) were the bigger and more leatheal to bully the

Because the war started out with Axis victories, New Year’s of 1941-1942 was a tough year for the United States. The cartoon shows the slithering Axis snakes haunting Uncle Sam as a terrible hangover from New Year’s Eve. In his cartoon depicting Germany as a dachshund, he writes, “The Man who was SO LOW, he could walk under a Dachshund’s belly.” Dr. Seuss chooses a dachshund to depict Hitler and Germany as sub-human, but he also picks the breed to show how low Germany is as a country of people. Underneath the dog is Pierre Laval, the French premier who supported Nazi Germany (why Dr. Seuss picked him as the “man so low”) and was targeted often in Dr. Seuss’s cartoons. Besides the cartoons that portrayed Germany, Japan, and Italy as sub-human savages, animations were used to depict the enemy in the same way. The American government and army turned to Walt Disney for his animation propaganda. In “Der Fuhrer’s Face,” Walt Disney mocks Nazy Germany and Japan through satirizing the language, body stance, and culture of Adolf Hitler and his followers and allies. Disney satirizes Hitler by overly emphasizing the Hitler salute to come across as irritating and brainwashing. Donald Duck wakes up in Nazi Germany, portrayed as having a low quality of life in Nazi Germany with a breakfast consisting of the “aroma of bacon and eggs,” and bread made of wood. A Nazi shouts at him, “Improve the mind, Heil Hitler!” as

The unlimited cruelty that was placed upon the people in Eastern Europe showed that these people were seen as smaller, powerless human beings. For example, in the first chapter of the novel there is a scene in which “a powerful bird with a sharp hooked beak pinned the pigeon to the ground and struck at him” (Kosinki, 6). This symbolizes all the victims of the Holocaust. The Nazis saw themselves