Depiction Of Masks In Art Spiegelman's Maus

In the Holocaust novel Night, Elie Wiesel criticizes the two-faced nature of dehumanization through the style choice of connotations. Initially, as the prisoners were getting dressed to begin the death marches, Elie reveals that the camp resembled a “masquerade”, describing the crowd as “poor clowns, wider than tall. poor creatures whose ghostly faces peeked out from layers of prisoner’s clothes!” (Wiesel, 83). Immediately, the word choice of “masquerade” has connotations of a costume party, where people cosplay to hide their identity through clothes.

The book, Survival in Auschwitz, depicts the story of an Italian Jew in a a concentration camp with unfathomable conditions. The prisoners here are treated as animals and pieces, their primary task to serve the German officers. The SS officers, and all the other men in a position of authority at this camp, try their very hardest to break the souls of the captives and reduce them the number tattooed on their arm. While the Nazis try to destroy the men in many ways throughout the course of this novel, the two things that demonstrate their dehumanization most strongly, are? the process the prisoners undergo upon arrival at the camp, and the way the selections of who will live or die are carried out.

Over 6 million people died during the Holocaust, not counting Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, gypsies, and many more innocent people. There are many instances where these human beings are treated unfairly to the point of them being treated worse than animals. It is important to understand how severe this event was and how millions of people’s faith and will to live shattered in these atrocious work and death camps. To add on, literary elements help convey the messages the writer tries to get across. This is shown when Elie writes so vividly with setting that it feels as if the book is being illustrated.

Almost immediately upon arrival to the concentration camp the orders “Men to the left. Women to the right.” echoed over all of the sacred ears and trembling bodies of the Jews. This is an example of dehumanization because the Nazis did not treat or think Jews to be humans, but rather animals. On page forty-two it says “I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other identity.” The tattooing of numbers on the Jews shows

In the novel night, one of the constant themes is dehumanization of people to objects or animals. One example of this act is when Eliezer and his father first arrive at Aushwitz. Them and the rest of the Jews get tattooed a series of numbers and letters. This is a good example because the Jewish were no longer thought of as humans, they were now classified with numbers and not names. Another example is when they had to be transported. Large groups were held in tight box cars on the train. They were fed very rarely and many died of starvation and every few days all who died were thrown off the train. This shows the Jewish being treated like animals because the Germans didn't care who lived or died. The last example of dehumanization is right before the remaining Jewish were rescued. The Germans had left the Jews to starve for 6 days and when they were found, they were fed small amounts of food so their stomach could

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.

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.

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.

Masks have held countless uses and meanings throughout history. Masks have been used in plays, like those of Shakespeare, traditional dances, social gatherings, even as a form of casual or corporal punishment. Although masks have several different uses in different cultural situations, the meaning of the masks is generally the same. Masks are used to conceal an appearance and assume the identity of another. Metaphorically, masks can be used to hide feelings, to protect oneself, and to block out the outside world. Many of these examples are shown in Art Speigelman 's Maus.

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor” (Thomas Jefferson). In the graphic novels Maus I: A Survivors Tale & Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman, he uses animal imagery to portray the predator-prey relationship that the Nazi regime shared with the Jewish population. Based on the alienation of the Jewish “race” albeit “not human” and the superiority that the rest of the populations begin to feel, these depictions of races, countries, and ethnicities as animals is both appropriate and effective to illustrate the various groups during the Holocaust. This resembles the Nazi belief that certain populations have a conventional character and will retain their inborn predator or prey status by characterizing the Jewish as Mice and the Nazis as Cats.

We can read Maus from a historical standpoint. The Holocaust is a deeply etched fallacy that took the lives of millions of innocent people. By reading Maus we can explore the historical downfall of mankind and the side effects that such a traumatic event. Throughout both books, Vladek is portrayed as a cynical and angered individual, which can only mean that whatever happened inside the concentration camps changed the way he saw the world. It’s unfortunate that this event had to happen, but like the saying goes what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Since Vladek survived the Holocaust it’s understandable the way in which thinks and acts. The way in which Vladek acts allows for us to explore history through the eyes of someone who was actually there during this time and not by an author who wasn’t there. Because we have this opportunity to explore history through someone’s eyes, we are able to see the devastation and the torment that these individuals went

In fact, there are good mice and bad mice, good cats, and bad cats, and so on. The book reveals a relatively real society at that time to its readers, and it also considers how racial stereotypes still exists today, questioning that if we as a society learned something from the Holocaust.

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

This report is based on the best-selling graphic novel Maus, written by renowned American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. The book was originally published in 1986 by Pantheon Books. The anomalous novel depicts the life and story of Art Speigelman’s Polish born parents - Vladek and Anja Speigelman and how they survived the Holocaust. In his novel, the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Poles as pigs, and Germans as cats. The story alternates between the parents’ struggles and the present day strained relationship between Vladek Speigelman and his son, including the suicide of Art’s mother when he was 20 years old and its effect on them.

Maus enters the realm of animals which is adamantly stressed in the graphic novel; therefore, it creates a sense of symbolism and figurative aspects from the compelling outlook of the Holocaust. During the time when Vladek was in a military tent to provide support for the Nazis, he had to go urinate which ultimately almost cost him his life. “That night I went out for the tent…I had to urinate and a guard began shooting to me” (Spiegelman 62). The author, Artie, depicts this panel in his novel seriously when Vladek was the victim of getting shot. The Jewish are displayed as mice and specifically the shadows and dark