Maus : My Father Bleeds History And Maus

It is a very powerful tool even to this day in combating the sentiments that led to the Holocaust. Maus also serves as an active warning to all of its readers about how groups of people are treated as scapegoats. This scapegoating can lead to the horrific atrocities the Nazis committed. Maus portrays both of these things happening and effectively discourages them through its imagery and

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.

During World War 2 the Führer advocated the killings of Jews. As a result, they were excluded from society particularly in Molching and Munich where the story is set. This is clarified in the novel through the character of Max, who must hide in the Hubermann’s house to avoid being sent to Dachau as he is Jewish. Max sleeps in Liesel’s bedroom at night before returning to the basement in the morning. Using the technique of metaphor in the line “The Jewish rat, back to his hole.” Zusak further validates this notion. The metaphor suggests that the Nazis viewed Jews as filthy disease-carrying rats who should be cleared from Germany. This is further evident as Zusak writes “He lived in the best part of Molching, high up in a villa which had been fumigated when the Jews were driven out.” Additionally, the metaphor shows the intensity of anti-Semitism at the time as Max being Jewish had to hide in a dirty basement to avoid death even though his father gave his life for Germany in WW1. This is an obvious example of the great extent to which racism is portrayed throughout the

Vladek is depicted as a hero who shows countless acts of selflessness and generosity and a villain who is, “opinionated, tight-fisted, and self-involved”. (Brown 6) Art Spiegelman’s book Maus, tells the story of how Vladek and Anja Spiegelman survived the Holocaust. Spiegelman illustrates Vladek as a man who single-handily saved his family from starvation and Auschwitz in World War I. During Spiegelman’s interviews, we get an idea of Vladek’s darker side since the war ended. Mala to speak of her astonishment and disgust in Vladek’s character. Which leaves us to question how truthfully these stories are being told. In the end, Vladek’s unsuccessful heroism is a constant reminder of his failure; survival with Anja was always easier, after her death, Vladek pushes everyone away with his “guilt and manipulation” (Brown 7)

Throughout Maus, Spiegelman symbolically depicts the different nationalities involved in the Holocaust as various animals. The most striking is Jews

Certain relationships cannot be fixed because of irreconcilable differences. Art Spiegelman's graphic novels Maus I and Maus II retell the stories of the Holocaust through the eyes of Art’s father, Vladek. However, the novel includes a subplot of Art’s poor relationship with his father, and how they never seem to come to coincide. Vladek and Art misunderstand each other because they have had very different experiences. In addition, their relationship is distant and contentious because they cannot cope with one another. Vladek and Art’s relationship is inadequate because they cannot be of one mind.

When you hear " Holocaust Survivor" you think of a new beginning, a better future, victory at last." But what happens when parents bring a child into this world and their priority is to love and protect their baby In a better and safe place have been traumatized of the past with incredible amount of horrifying memories and experiences? In Art Spiegelman's graphic novels, MAUS 1 and MAUS 2, he exposes the true story of his father, Vladek, and his experience as a Jew throughout the Holocaust through pictures and sketchy storytelling. The relationship between Art and his father is the essential description in the book as Art has no other way to escape from being victimized by his own father's

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.

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

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.

Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman, tells the story of his father's survival in Auschwitz during the Holocaust, as well as about Art's relationship with his father, brought out through the interview process and writing the two books. The subject matter of the two books is starkly juxtaposed with the style in which it was written, that is, it is a graphic novel. In most simple terms, the story is told in a sort of comic, with characters represented as animals based on their race or nationality (Jews are presented as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, and Americans as dogs). While the cartoon had once been reserved for rather childish and light subject matter, Spiegelman has brought it to a whole new level as a medium capable

“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.

The Jews were the enemy, and many men justified this by dehumanizing the Jews and distancing themselves psychologically which enabled the continued killing.

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.