Maus By Michael Spiegelman

Spiegelman’s Maus is a graphic novel which explores events of the holocaust and the uniting of a father and son. Though often overlooked the dedications play an integral role in better understanding the text. The dedications do not influence the meaning of the book but do reinforce events in the book. Spiegelman dedicates the first book to his mother as an attempt to rid himself of the guilt associated with his mother’s suicide. In an attempt to not have the same short comings as his father, Art associates his most prized work with the most prized people in his life. Richieu is often disregarded in the book however he is vital in Spiegelman’s eyes. The book in its entirety is highly important as it is a dedication to a whole race.

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

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.

Developing empathy takes a lot, the point “until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes” (American Proverb) is compassion to the opinions of others. Looking through the eyes of another is emotional intelligence, tested in The Complete Maus 1 & 2 by Art Spiegelman, displaying a story of himself, through the mind of Art’s father. The book itself is the result of Art reaching out to Vladek, in hopes of resurrecting his father’s experiences to get a better understanding of who he is. The evasiveness of Vladek leads this book attempting to empathize, resulting in the reader's empathy. Human relationships shown in these types of novels leads to empathy and understanding of who people are.

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

Comics exist to expose the ethnic representations that seek to control the development of collective perceptions, memories and emotions and especially fear by investigating the techniques through which this control is maintained. Maus I is a true account of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, and his experiences as a young Jew during the horrors leading up to the confinement in Auschwitz. Maus II is about Vladek recounting his own history to his son Art

The books Maus I and Maus II are biographical comic books written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. In these books Spiegelman tells his father’s story of survival through the horrors of the Holocaust. Spiegelman simultaneously presents an inner story of the conflict between him and his father, Vladek Spiegelman as both he and his father try to come to terms with the past, and work to have a normal life. This feelings of tension and conflict suffered by Vladek and Art in Maus I and II is caused by a transitional and rebounding feeling of survivor’s guilt caused by Vladek’s passing down of his own guilt, Art’s guilt of neglect, and Art’s attempts to come to terms with his own guilt of survival.

In the book Maus it shows many structures in the way the animals are portrayed. The Jews being drawn as mice; mice are known to be small and dependent. As the Germans being drawn as cats; cats being bigger and more independent tend to eat mice. Nazis haunt torture and kill the weak Jews just like cats. It is an analogy, cats and mouse. The mouse is a symbol for subordinate and the cat is supremacy. Spiegelman’s meaning for drawings the character like that has a totally different approach. His main purpose was to show the different kinds of ethnicities in the book, through the different types of animals in order to tell them apart. His main purpose was also to show the human traits of the animal by drawing them with human bodies.

“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.

In the book  Maus by Art Spiegelman, it tells the story about Valdek Spiegelman who is a mouse, and a  Holocaust survivor, and his son Artie who wrote a book on his father and the horrible things he encountered during the time he was trying to survive the Holocaust.

Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus 1: My Father Bleeds History and Maus 2: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, conveys many messages through his black and white illustrations in his graphic novels. Spiegelman uses a system of representation based on racial identity to portray his characters. The use of the mouse and cat can be seen throughout the novel to represent the characters, enabling Spiegelman to convey the complexity of each character. There is a constant reference to identity shown reoccurring in the novels. The use of masks can be seen to achieve a point of pretending to be someone else. Eyes can tell a lot about one’s characteristic. Spiegelman utilizes the use of eyes through the novel to show feelings. His use of racial identity by the motif of the cats and mice, the eyes, and the masks communicates the horrors of the Holocaust in such way words cannot describe alone.

The graphic novel Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here my Troubles Began, by Art Spiegelman was a story of the life depicting Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, during his plight through the holocaust. His son Art visits his father to get information to write his illustrative graphic novel showcasing the dynamic between different ethnicities during World War II. We are given a visual reenactment of Vladek’s life from meeting his first wife, to losing a son, and to surviving the beast that is the holocaust. Spiegelman uses allegories throughout Maus for human ethnicities by replacing facial features with that of an animal. The primary focuses upon the differentiation in ethnic stereotypes in this graphic novel were: Germans as the big bad tough cats that toy with the mice, Jews as quiet vermin that must be squashed, and great and loyal dogs from America who are portrayed as the saviors too the mice from the cats. Art Spiegelman uses metaphor to describe race and adds in hierarchy/superiority from the Germans, Americans, and Jews. All the stereotyping Spiegelman does, correlates with his recurring theme of racism, which was the primary catalyst to spur the holocaust.

The graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman conveys many varied and powerful themes to the reader. Spiegelman has conveyed the themes Guilt and Survival by using various methods including narration, dialogue and several comic book techniques to show the expressions and feelings of the central characters. Guilt is an especially strong theme in Maus, appearing many times with Art and Vladek. Survival is another primary theme in Maus. Images are used by Spiegelman to display the ways that Vladek survived during the Holocaust.

Spiegelman not only provided accurate historical information, but also incorporated an autobiographical and biographical novel of his own life and his father’s life post holocaust. Using the genre of a comic strip was key to encompassing all three.