Maus by Art Spiegelman is a comic book about Holocaust. Even though it is hard to relate comics and Holocaust, Maus is widely considered as one of the best and most influential Holocaust-inspired works. Unsurprisingly, with Holocaust as the subject for the whole book, issues of races and classes are traced heavily in the themes and structures of Maus. Racism is drawn and described in all its efficiency. Here is a quote from Adolf Hitler: “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” Children are taught to be racists at the early stage of their lives, and this is happening at their homes. “The mothers always told so: ‘Be careful! A Jew will catch you to a bag and eat you!’ So they taught to their children.” (Spiegelman, p.151) …show more content…
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. With this being said, cats/mice is not the only form of racism exhibited in the book. Vladek was a racist himself as well. When Francoise picked up an African American on the way back from the grocery store, Vladek thought she was unbelievable that she had let a "shvartser" into the car. And he kept his eye on this African American to make sure that his stuff was not stolen. This reminds us that racism of the Holocaust survives in other forms, besides what we discussed above. Although Maus is a comic book, it has much greater impact and complexity than other works in this genre. And I feel that it really does a great job on story telling with the aspect of truth. It does not describe people as good or bad. To me, it is more likely to show those characters as a cat wearing a mask of the mouse, a mouse wearing a mask of pig, or a dog wearing a mask of the cat, etc. Therefore, I think that Maus has done well enough for its reader on one of its
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’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.
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
Historical background of Of Mice and Men is crucial to understanding language, that the characters use. Many people say that the language towards women and African Americans that is used in Of Mice and Men should be censored from teens, yet they don’t understand the historical context of the novel. Many concerned people that challenge books “only see what they wanted to see” (Gallo 2) and that takes away from the fantastic plot. The story takes place in the 1930s during The Great Depression. During the 1930s women and blacks were not treated as they are in the present day. Many women were considered
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.
“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.
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
All i gotta say is, this book is awesome!! I would rate maus a 4.5 out of 5. The book i'm reading is maus by Art, Spiegelman. This book is revolving around the author's father and his family's experiences in the days of the holocaust. The way the author drags you in by introducing you with a little family comedy is amazing i didn't really expect much out this book because for many years i've learned a lot about the holocaust and thought that i knew it all. The author goes his way explaining a different view that i never thought of. The spigelman family are jewish and the way the author goes about telling their story is by through their memories. I would always try to think what it would've been like as a jew during that time but the author opened my eyes as i was reading this book it was like learning every tragedy all over again. I reason i rated this book so high
The two novels: Maus and The Commandant of Lubizec, are two remarkable portraits and classic work of the Holocaust literature. Though these books are vastly different, they have some similar characteristics of the way the camps and jews were organized and treated throughout the war. Maus is a comic strip of the author’s fathers time during the war and the aftermath it had on his life. The Commandant of Lubizec is actually a fiction novel based on historical fact and the testimoney of survivors that actually lived and survived the camps and the war.
“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.
Just because one Jewish person had “ratted” another one out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that others are “rats” as well. Aside, it is quite ironic how the author of The Religious Meaning of Art Spiegelman's Maus used the word rat, as a representation of a Jewish snitch. There are few of those ironic illustration within Maus. First one is on the begging of the first volume, where Vladek start telling Art the story. Vladek says “People always told me I looked just like Rudolph Valentino” (V1.P.13), in which in the background is a huge poster with a writing “The Sheik” on it, and of course the characters on the poster are illustrated with mice faces. Another ironic thing on this picture is the fact of Vladek’s pedaling. Yes, some may thing that its normal for a person to do so, but in this case, Vladek has mouse face, and he is pedaling, this could be compared to just as a pet mouse could run on the running wheel. The irony continues as Vladek and his wife Anja are hidden away from the Nazis in one of the Pole’s storage room, in which are rats in. Anja freaks out, as probably any woman in that situation would do, but Vladek uses an argument, that these are “only
Some could say that racism is humanities greatest problem. Racism is a extremely touchy topic. People try their best not to be racist, but sometimes our words just do not come out the way we attended them to.There is plenty of racism in Maycomb. White people treat black people with disgust. “ I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it- seems that only children weep”(Lee 285). This quote is talking about how a jury let a innocent black man be guilty for a crime not committed. All the white folks are overjoyed that the black man will possibly be put to death. In the quote it mentions that only children weep. This is to bring up the fact that the children of Maycomb