Analysis Of Art Spiegelman's Maus

Spiegelman has presented his father’s memoirs in a creative way by portraying racial groups as animals and by making the story into a graphic novel. By presenting it in comic form, Art Spiegelman is able to better capture the emotions of those in the graphic novel. Not a dedication in the conventional sense, the book eternalizes the memoirs of Vladek and those around him.

The Holocaust was a traumatic event that most people can’t even wrap their minds around. Libraries are filled with books about the Holocaust because people are both fascinated and horrified to learn the details of what survivors went through. Maus by Art Spiegelman and Night by Elie Wiesel are two highly praised Holocaust books that illustrate the horrors of the Holocaust. Night is a traditional narrative that mainly focuses on Elie’s experiences throughout the holocaust while Maus is a comic book that focuses on the relationship between Art and his father and the generational trauma Art is going through as well as his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. Night and Maus are very different styles of

An author’s form of word usage and manipulation provides stories their feeling, tone, and pace while simultaneously creating a reader’s suspension of belief. Elie Wiesel in his book Night tells us of the year he spent in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Like many people have said and proven true, a lot of things can happen in a year making it almost impossible to retell every experience down to a tee; with this information in mind Wiesel writes of the moments that stuck with him, and would possibly with readers.

The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is a journey of pain that none shall forget. Hope and optimism vanished while denial and disbelief changed focus during Wiesel’s journey through Europe. A passionate relationship gradually formed between the father and the son as the story continued. The book Night genuinely demonstrates how the Holocaust can alter one's spirits and relations.

To further exacerbate the situation, a typical father son relationship is all about bonding, trust and understanding each other. Seemingly he's not able to do so because of the distress overpowering his brain, he continues to be insensitive to Art. Art can't fathom Vladek and he starts to lose hope by saying to Francois his women, "I mean, I can't even make any sense out of my relationship with my father..how am I supposed to make sense out of Auschwitz?..the Holocaust?" (MAUS 2 14) Art later on start to get the sense of hope again and make better out of worse and asked Vladek questions of his mother Anja. Art finds out that her "diaries" (MAUS 1 159) we're destroyed purposely by Vladek. Not only does Art feel hopeless because his mother is gone but now he can't even share her voice with the world today. There was no way of expressing her

Throughout human history, there has been many horrible and tragic moments involving famine, death and war. In that long line of history, there is however one moment that can’t be challenged to none other and that is World War 2: The rise of Nazi power and the slaughtering of many Jews. Many Jewish people suffered during those times and not many survived. Few of the people who did survive however, managed to write about their experiences and morals they had during World War 2, sharing their ideas to the world. A survivor and author of one of these books, Elie Wiesel, inscribed many of his morals and ideas in his writing using many literary terms such as tone, mood, characterization, diction, and even dialogue to portray them as themes in his

The mass killings of entire races are important events to recognize and understand so that history won't repeat itself. One genocide that was clearly documented was the Holocaust. Ellie Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust who wrote a fluent account of his experience in the camps in his memoir Night. In the memoir, Wiesel creates an articulate style with the use of a few style devices which help portray his narrative clearly.

The Holocaust was a massacre of over six million Jews that occurred during the Nazi Regime that has been regarded as one of the most significant events in history. However, multiple forms of media such as literary works and films have incorporated this horrid event into a lesson about an aspect far more common and greater in today’s society, indifference. Indifference is literally “the lack of interest, concern, or sympathy towards someone or something” (Holocaust). Night, by Elie Wiesel, is an excellent example of a literary work that depicts the theme of indifference through the main character, Eliezer. Night is not only a nonfiction novel about the Holocaust, but is written by a Jewish boy who was in an actual concentration camp. In

The word Holocaust refers to the mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the German Nazi regime during World War II. It began in 1933 and ended in 1945. The ruler of Germany during this time was Adolf Hitler. He and the Nazis put the Jew in concentration camps, where thousands were killed everyday. This was one of the worst if not the worst genocides in history. Many books have been written to document survivors’ testimony of this horrific event. Elie Wiesel shares his story and Art Spiegelman shares his father’s story in the books Night and Maus. Comparisons can be drawn between Maus and Night through the author's purpose for writing , the survivor’s experiences, and the author's perspective.

Guilt is the major theme for this novel. It is a major factor that greatly affects the relationship between Art and his father. Art feels guilty because of three things: Guilt for not being a good enough son to his father, guilt over his mother’s suicide and guilt for publication of the book ‘Maus’. Art felt guilty about not being a good son as he contemplated his relationship with his dad. Throughout the novel, we see the complex relationship between Art and Vladek. An example is how it was when Art came back to the house from school. Often you could think they hated each other.

By comparing, analyzing and questioning the validity of Maus I and II, Night, Night and Fog, nonfictional historical accounts and a poem, called Already Embraced by the Arm of Heavenly Solace, found in Europe in the Contemporary World, Schindler’s List and the Return to Auschwitz we may determine to what degree these sources serve to advance humanity’s understanding of the holocaust. The holocaust can be explained as the historical event in which the Nazi’s, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, and its collaborators murdered and persecuted approximately six million Jews. This came about because of the German belief that they were “racially superior” and the Jews were an alien threat to the German state. For humanity to advance in

A powerful and provocative graphic novel, Maus, generates a Jewish individual’s life of grotesque and horror. With its ability of perception and interpretation, it tackles the main points of the ominous Holocaust and delivers a spooky aura to the absorbed audience. In comparison to Schindler’s List, the graphic novel shines brightly than the pale movie due to its realism and humor that is constantly present throughout the storyline. The novel has the ability to connect to the audience; thus, it gives an in-depth look and overall comprehension of the massacre that Spiegelman is trying to communicate. The graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman, brings an honest account of the Holocaust to a wide audience because of its historical truth and intriguing viewpoints and characters that shows the effect and process of the genocide.

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.

In my presentation, I’m going to discuss the relationship between Art and Vladek, and how their relationship develops. The relationship develops gradually throughout the novel; however, I have chosen a few key points that I feel are the most important.

In Art Spiegelman’s biographical graphic novel Maus 1: My Father Bleeds History, ethnic groups are portrayed as animals to allow the audience to understand the history behind the discrimination of Jewish people during World War Two, and the reasons behind the holocaust; Spiegelman utilizes this comparison to provide a better understand the mindset of the Germans, Jews, and Poles as the genocide began to unfold. Overall, Maus 1 focuses on the story of Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, who lived through the horror that was the holocaust, and his experiences as he tried to survive in Nazi occupied Poland. Therefore, the reason why Spiegelman portrays Germans as cats, Jews as mice, and Poles as pigs is to express how these groups viewed each other and to provide an understanding into the hostility behind anti-Semitism. As well, by using animals as an analogy, Spiegelman ensures that by creating an inhuman feel, the events could be looked at through a critical lens. Due to the relevance behind Maus, many articles were written, analysing the work. The article “Rhetoric Functions of the Infestation Metaphor in Hitler’s Rhetoric” by Steven Perry, provides insight into the origins of the depiction of Jews as rats or mice, and how it led to anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. Likewise, Sheng-Mei Ma’s article “Mourning with the (as a) Jew: Metaphor, Ethnicity, and the Holocaust in Art Spiegelman’s Maus,” and “Well Intended Liberals Slop: Allegories of Race in Spiegelman’s Maus” by Andrew Loman