Maus by Art Spiegelman Essay

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.

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)

The most important distinction between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom is man's ability to understand, reason, and think. The power hungry Nazis are symbolized as cats because of a cat’s constant starvation and tend to be stronger compared to mice and pigs. The Jews are symbolized as mice to show how weak they were and how they were treated during World War II. Spiegelman puts a focus on the mice and the struggle that Valdek went through.

Maus, is a very unique book, normally if the story is non-fiction meaning real they would use human figures, but in this book they use animal figures in the form of cats and mice. The use of cat and mouse holds a very deep meaning in this book. Jews are portrayed as mice, while Germans as cats. In holocaust Germans collected and transported Jews to Concentration camps where they were forced to perform labour work against their will and given little or no food, some were even executed depending on their accessibility to work. So the use of animal figures, cats and mice to be specific stands valid. Since cats have a natural instinct of chasing and hunting down mice, the same scenario can be applied to this book and holocaust, where the Nazis as cats executed Jews as mice. This is completely different from Anne Frank, the technique used in this book is ordinary. In Anne

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.

Many characters’ lives are enveloped by a mental issue and they are a representation for these issues. Art covers these multiple issues. The Holocaust affected millions of people and of these millions, Vladek, Anja, and Mala all were left with

“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

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 is a graphic novel that features Art Spiegelman as he interviews his father, Vladek, about his experience during the Holocaust. His father, Vladek, is elderly and has a troubled marriage. He is a very frugal person and does not like to spend his money. The book goes into detail about Vladek’s life as he goes from being wealthy to living in poverty. He goes through two marriages and raises his son. The author shows the characters in the book as Jewish mice, the Polish people as pigs, and the Nazis as cats. This is to dehumanize the tragic events of the Holocaust. Vladek’s will to live is strong and this allows him to live through the horrors of concentration camps. He was separated from his wife, nearly starves to death, watches his friends

This one review made me question myself about my own opinion because i couldn't have disagreed more with the reviewer. He said “it was difficult to relate to the book and the holocaust because the author made the characters as pigs, cats, mice.”(mouse#1). So basically the reviewer is saying that he couldn’t see the connections that were trying to be made with the use of the animals as the characters throughout the text. I would have to say that i disagree with the point that the reviewer is trying to say, because the author used these animals as characters to show symbolism between the characters and humans. The cover of the book is a great expamle from the book to show how these characters symbolize humans.(spieglemen Cover.) The picture shows a nazi symbol with a cat (germans) in the middle and two mice scared down below, it symbolizes that during the holocaust the jews (mice) were scared and defenseless throughout the book and the germans (cats) were the bigger and more leatheal to bully the

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

I learned that there is multiple layers of meaning in Spiegelman’s Maus, and how people nowadays do not take the time to find the mean to comics. Another thing is that Maus covers multiple different topics like: gender roles, the relationship between Art and artie, and the use of Animals instead of people. Some of the obstacles were analyzing the articles and the text itself. I had to look over the text over and over again to find Examples that would work for my paper. When I listen to the Articles and marked parts of the paper that applied to the topic I was writing about. The part that I am most pleased about is the analyzing the different means of the size of the frame. Something I would do different is spreading out my work more so I do

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.