The Complete Maus: Prisoner On The Hell Planet

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.

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

Art Spiegleman's comic book within the comic book Maus is titled "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History." This text within a text describes, in horrific detail through pictures, Artie's failed effort to get through the painful loss of his mother due to suicide. This text also in a way, represents a part of Artie's mind where he expresses his feelings of loneliness, doubt, fear, anger, and blame through the form of a dark, gloomy, depressing cartoon.

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.

The book Maus is written by Artie Spiegelman. Artie’s father is a Holocaust survivor, and a prisoner of war; this is the main event of the story. Artie uses imagery in the form of animals to display race in the graphic novel of Maus. The survivors of the Holocaust are burdened with mental disorders; Artie acknowledges the trauma and the effect it has on the survivors as well as the people around them. Artie uses figurative language and imagery to demonstrate relationships and mental health issues.

The curiosity of Artie about Vladek saying that Anja was not pretty, during the fight between Vladek and Lucia, incites Artie to interrupt Vladek’s story of the past. The interruptions that Art Spiegelman writes into his comic, Maus My Father Bleed History, breaks up Vladek’s story about surviving the Holocaust, which is what happens in the scene with Vladek and Lucia’s fight. Spiegelman uses the interruptions of Vladek’s story to lead out of it and then back into Maus to assist in clarifying information for the reader, to show the father-son relationship between Artie and Vladek, and also to explain how Maus was written.

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

(pg. 39, The Perversion of Loss) He feels guilty about having been born after the Holocaust, and that his parents had to live through it, while his life has been easy. This strains Art and pushes him further away from his father, when he asks himself which of his parents he would save from a concentration camp he tends to pick his mother. This guilt is visible when Art is talking to his wife and tells her that he “somehow wishes he could have be in Auschwitz with his parents, so he could really know what they lived through.”

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

While on its surface Maus, a novel written by Art Spiegelman, looks like the story of Vladek Spiegelman and his experiences during the Holocaust, it is also much more than that. Vladek’s experiences have taken influence in Art’s life. In some ways, the relationship between Vladek and his son is the primary narrative of the Maus and this narrative deals significantly on the feelings of guilt. The major causes of Art’s guilt are about him not being a good son to his father and his sense of guilt over the death of his mother.

Maus is a Comic that displays Art Spiegelman interviewing his father, Vladek, about what his life was like during the Holocaust and what it took to survive. Both Night and Maus share the Tone of Survival and Grim odds, Art and Elie share different relationships with their fathers throughout the text because both went through

A powerful and provocative graphic novel, Maus, generates a Jewish individual’s life of grotesque and horror. With its ability of perception and interpretation, it tackles the main points of the ominous Holocaust and delivers a spooky aura to the absorbed audience. In comparison to Schindler’s List, the graphic novel shines brightly than the pale movie due to its realism and humor that is constantly present throughout the storyline. The novel has the ability to connect to the audience; thus, it gives an in-depth look and overall comprehension of the massacre that Spiegelman is trying to communicate. The graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman, brings an honest account of the Holocaust to a wide audience because of its historical truth and intriguing viewpoints and characters that shows the effect and process of the genocide.

Although Art can’t feel exactly the same guilt his father felt, Art still feels guilt for not having suffered as his parents did. Art never had to live through what his parents did; therefore he does not know what the Holocuast was like. Sitting at his desk, Art proclaims “At least fifteen foreign editions are coming out. I’ve gotten 4 serious offers to turn my book into a T.V. special or movie. In May 1968 my mother killed herself. (She left no note)” (5, p 41). The disjointed nature of Art’s statement portrays his guilt in the sense that no matter what he accomplishes, his life will be insignificant in comparison to his parents’. Because he cannot accept that he will never experience what his parents have, Art has difficulty ever feeling accomplished and instead just feels more guilt. Both Vladek and Art struggle to let go of their pasts as they both find themselves consumed with what has happened rather than what is yet to come.

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.

This report is based on the best-selling graphic novel Maus, written by renowned American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. The book was originally published in 1986 by Pantheon Books. The anomalous novel depicts the life and story of Art Speigelman’s Polish born parents - Vladek and Anja Speigelman and how they survived the Holocaust. In his novel, the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Poles as pigs, and Germans as cats. The story alternates between the parents’ struggles and the present day strained relationship between Vladek Speigelman and his son, including the suicide of Art’s mother when he was 20 years old and its effect on them.