Maus Book Review

The other major animals represented in the novel are Polish people, Pigs, and the Americans, Dogs. The pigs remain neutral throughout most of the story, and even when helping it’s rather cautiously, worried about their own trouble first. It does not seem, as presented in the panels on page 37, that the use of Pigs is negative, nor positive, but it does have a strong presence. It does not seem as though Spiegelman has picked the animal to present the polish people as ‘filthy’, but more to differentiate between the Nazis and Polish citizens. And when later on in the book several Jewish character try to disguise themselves as Polish citizens, they put on a mask of a pig, not a cat. Spiegelman is creating the sense that Nazi soldiers are their

     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.

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

The Maus books are award-winning comics written by Art Spiegelman. They are the non-fictional stories of Art and his father, Vladek. In the book, Art Spiegelman is a writer, planning to portray Vladek’s life as a Jewish man during WWII Europe in comic book form. While Art gathers information for his story through visits to his father’s house, much is learned about their relationship and individual personalities. Through this analysis, Maus becomes an example of how the Holocaust has effected the lives of survivors and their children for decades. Survivors suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which impairs their ability to live normal lives and raise their children. By

The Holocaust was a major event that happened in history, causing death to around ten million people who suffered death from this tragic incident. The novel Night by: Elie Wiesel explains the perspective of what he suffered going through this situation. Elie Wiesel uses animal imagery, when explaining his point of view. They were treated as animals, significant use of the imagery helped his story and the purpose of it. Elie Wiesel uses animal imagery to paint an image to us of how they were treated, spoke to and used as if they were wild or barn animals, through the novel.

Jews suffered countless amounts of atrocities throughout the history of time. Both stories have themes in which man is evil to man, the will of the main character to survive and overcome evil is present, and the ability of some people to still be compassionate to each other during these times of evil. The book Maus, and the movie “The Pianist,” share many thematic similarities.

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

After the Holocaust on May 8th, 1945, a book called Maus was released which is revolved around survival. The author, Art Spiegelman intended the story was to reflect upon his past and express his feelings world how he had to deal life was at the time.The book is a story of Art’s father named Vladek, he tells his point-of-view to the world to show multiple struggles he had to withstand. The theme of Art Spiegelman’s book Maus is survival; Art Spiegelman shows the theme of survival by using tone, mood, and point-of-view throughout the graphic novel. Vladek is the main character of Maus and shares his point of view. Vladek tells a true story about how he survived the Holocaust and the things he had to accomplish to make it through alive. This book is based on a true story of what had happened during the Holocaust.

“Maus: A Survivor’s Tale”, and “Maus: And Here My Troubles Began”, are hit graphic novels about World War II, and tell the fictional stories of a soldier who survived the Holocaust. These two books are both purely about survival, but not in the way that you may think. Maus I and Maus II are both essentially telling us that survival may mean that you live through something horrific, but you may be a different person by the end of it.

Throughout modern history, various historical texts, personal accounts, and books have been published regarding the devastating events of World War 2 and the Holocaust. Two of the most prominent novels written about the Holocaust are Maus and The Hiding Place. Maus is a graphic novel illustrated by Arthur Spiegelman in 1980 and details the catastrophic effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish survivors of it. Another notable book similar to Maus is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. The Hiding Place is a biography written and published in 1937 and details the story of a young Christian family during World War 1. Throughout these accounts, contrasting themes are explored such as love, anger, forgiveness, and guilt. Although there are various similarities, there are also extreme differences in the characters responses to the Holocaust as well as the themes present within both novels.

Does any human actually want to take responsibilities for the mistakes they made? Doesn’t every human want to feel bad for themselves when they make what the consider a mistake? Many people were traumatized by a horrific event that they were forced into, while their friends and family were all being killed and forced to work against their will for the Nazi’s. While many people were affected, not all of them were able to fully explain how hurt they were as it was something that was not easy to talk about for them. In a graphic novel called Maus, the author Art Spiegelman is trying to connect to his father and understand the hardships he went through during a hard time called the Holocaust. The author starts to talk about the Holocaust with his father and starts to learn how hard it was for his father, Vladek and his now deceased mother, Anja. His father and mother fought to not go into the camps until the last second, doing anything possible to stay away from them whether it meant lying or hiding with the rest of their family. When discussing this with his father he wanted to be able to tell his father’s story for him, as he was never able to do it himself. Not only does Spiegelman just tell his story with words, he tells it with pictures through a graphic novel, using unique techniques with the illustrations in order to explain how broken human relationships were at this time period. Art Spiegelman represents humans as being accustomed to animalistic behaviors as he

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.

One aspect that sets this biography apart from others is the medium used. While most biographies are purely written and tell the story of the subject’s life, Maus is (or could be considered) a graphic biography, if there is such a thing. It is both written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman, who happens to be the subject’s son. By using a mixture of drawings, dialogue and commentary, Spiegelman is able to tell the story of his father’s experiences during World War II. This is another factor that sets it apart from other biographies; it doesn’t follow Spiegelman’s father, Vladek Spiegelman’s life in its entirety, but instead focuses primarily on his life during World War II. By using drawings to depict scenes certain scenes, it allows the reader to visualize exactly what Spiegelman wants them to see. It allows his creative expression and freedom to run wild and create a unique way to tell the story of his father.

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