The Importance of Imagery in Maus

The use of graphics in the novel Maus gives the reader a visual image of what the author is trying to say rather than the reader simply reading and creating their own mental image. Portraying the Nazi’s as cats and the Jews as mice was the most obvious symbolism Maus uses as that is how he wants us to view the Nazi’s preying on the Jew’s throughout his book. Without this particular symbolism and imagery we might just view the Nazi’s as people who were cold blooded killers. With Maus’ symbolism as the Nazi’s as cats and the Jews as mice it gives us more of an insight on his thoughts toward the matter and how he sees it thus giving the reader a more detailed description of how the author is trying to tell his story rather than a reader creating their own mental imagery when reading a story.

The struggles and expectations of a creative

In Maus we are presented a very real/dark aspect that I feel many creatives eventually face. Being the questioning the of importance/worthiness of ones own work. We see a very real depiction of Art struggling to accept the new-found fame and attention gained. Art feels like he is essentially profiting of the suffering of many, including Vladek. On vol. 2, pg. 41, we see a very morbid scene of Art at his desk, which sits on top a mountain of dead mice. It's a very relatable scenario as we see Art questioning his creativity and worth. If you turn towards the inward jackets of both volumes, we also get a profile image of Art and how see chooses to depict himself... smoking a cigarette with a saddened mouse mask. I find this piece of imagery super meaningful because before the reader even has a chance to dive into the novel, they get a sense that Spiegelman might not be the most jolly illustrator out there. To be fair, I can't think of many that are! Being a creative comes with its own set of problems. For one, a great artist never tends to settle. They are constantly questioning their work and being super critical so we always have room to grow. With that being said, creatives often tend to be their worst critics, and even self destructive at times. I believe this often stems the struggle many creatives have with separating themselves from their work. On pg. 46, of the second volume, we see Art talking to his therapist and clearly stating that he doesn't believe he can fully capture the embodiment/spirit of Auschwitz through a visual medium. Which is a bold statement seeing as he's already gained notoriety from the success of his first volume. However, Art does not really have much of a choice if he wishes to not be labeled as a "failure" since he's already come so far. One can only imagine the amount of stress and hours that we're put into making such a memorable novel.

How Spiegelman Shows the Meaning Behind Humanity

While it is easy to read Maus and Maus II and only see the characters for what they are drawn as: mice/cats/etc, Spiegelman makes a strong statement through the usage of these animals. While a mouse is inferior to a cat in wildlife, Spiegelman gives these "animals" enough characterization and depth to where they are looked at as humans.
In the holocaust, Jews were Jews. It didn't matter what was on the inside; it didn't matter that their heart beat the same as every other human--they were so dehumanized to the point where Nazis (Cats) viewed them as nothing; as less worthy than animals (mice). By bringing human life into the characters of Artie, his dad, and many of the other jews (mice), Spiegelman is able to emphasize that there was no justification behind the acts of Nazi Germany. Sending people off to their death bed; torturing them, can never be justified by the beliefs of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Most Nazi's didn't care one bit about anything a Jew had to say (or the other prisoners). When someone stops caring; when someone starts hurting you and taking away everything you love simply because of the blood you're born into, you lose hope. You become fearful of every move you make because it could reflect who you are, and apparently who you are is something very very horrible. Spiegelman shows that the exterior of these characters (who represent real people) have absolutely nothing to do with who they are inside. A cat's physical attributes when compared to a mouse are much more superior, but when it comes to humans, Spiegelman shows that we all beat the same heart, and exterior means nothing.

The Symbol of the Mouse

The use of animals as symbols for nationality is something which Maus has been hugely praised for. There are various reasons for this, two of which will be explored in this blog post: firstly, the artist’s assigning of mice to the role of the Jewish people is often considered a kind of reclamation of sinister Nazi propaganda at the time of the Holocaust, and secondly, the choice of animal for each nationality act as metaphors for perceptions of that nation’s or social group’s role during the second world war.

It’s a relatively well-known fact that much Nazi propaganda in the 1940s painted the Jewish community as a kind of vermin; artwork and the written word alike characterised Jews as rats and mice in order to spread the idea of them being a dirty, plague-like race in need of extermination, which of course ties in disturbingly with their later slaughter and imprisonment in concentration camps. In Maus, Art Spiegelman anthropomorphises Jews as mice in a very intentional manner – they are not rats, but something smaller, more delicate, and much less capable of defending themselves. The fact that the Nazi members are depicted as cats further emphasises this suggested vulnerability, and the Americans being represented by dogs completes the totem-pole of power, essentially putting the Jews at the bottom of the proverbial food-chain through no fault of their own. Thus, the creator of Maus uses the symbol of the mouse to do something entirely different than showing the Jews as a threatening presence - instead, he makes the argument to the reader that they were and are the very opposite. 

Fight, Flight and Strife

In Maus, the Holocaust is illustrated as, we would assume, a very demanding experience. Meaning, Vladek's life during the Holocaust causes his own personality, motives, and basic character traits to evolve for survivability. Vladek has to become more manipulative and cunning in order to ensure that he was what he needs to make it out of the camps alive. For example, Vladek seeks out shoe repair for the "large shop" in the camp in order to learn the expertise to do it himself. As a result, he then steals business from the "large shop," so he will receive food and commodities as form of payment for his services. Additionally, Vladek befriends as many people as possible. Because of his intellect and ability to speak multiple languages, Vladek is successful in befriending Jewish guards and Nazi guards at the camps. These friendships yield extra food and clothing for survival. 

In essence, Vladek morphing his character into "survival mode," or "fight or flight" during the Holocaust, changed his character after the war as well. This effected Art's upbringing, as we was raised by a father who exhibited traits of life during wartime. Vladek attempts to pass on ideologies to his son, Art, that would seem only necessary in a concentration camp. However, as Art ages, he rejects the actions of his father, and this causes an excess of turmoil in their relationship. For Vladek, it seems impossible to revert back to the mentality he presumably had before the war, but Art, although separate in time from the war, is raised as if the war is still continuing. Art finds this troublesome. 

Maus is successful at illustrating the relationship between Art and Vladek because the scenes in the novel change from Vladek's war stories to the present day when Art and Vladek are communicating. Because of this, the reader is able to visually see the struggle and strife that exists in Art and Vladek's relationship. Moreover, one can trace the correlation between Vladek's life during the Holocaust and the turmoil between Art and Vladek. 

Generational Guilt in Maus

Maus offers a vivid illustration of the gruesome experience of a Holocaust survivor. The Nazi regime and its virulently anti-semitic agenda wrench Vladek Spiegelman from a comfortable lifestyle as a factory owner, and into the nightmare of the death camps Auschwitz and Dachau. Despite Vladek's relative wealth, he exhibits resourcefulness and savvy throughout his trials. Through bribery, charisma and his sheer utility, he forms strategic relationships with the Jewish police officers of the ghetto, the kapo of his camp bunker, and even a few Nazi guards in the camp.

Artie's present-day therapist Pavel urges him to consider that many who survived the Holocaust owe their fortunes primarily to luck. In Vladek's case, however, his luck is certainly augmented by his other assets: In pursuing essential occupations in the camp as a tinman and shoemaker, he simultaneously reduces his vulnerability to execution. Similarly, in placating the kapo, Yidl and many others with bribes and services, he preserves his security. Thus, he is certainly "lucky" to have survived typhus (twice!), but his greater feat was surviving up until that point.

Nevertheless, Pavel's sentiments do have resonance. When Artie recounts how his father seems to insist on Artie's inadequacy, Pavel responds that this might be a manifestation of Vladek's guilt of surviving. Maus reveals a number of instances in which Artie's survival seems to come at the expense of another: His bribe of a Jewish policeman leaves his father-in-law prone; his occupation of tinman leaves others without work (and therefore dispensable); in his absence, others must necessarily occupy the gas chambers or gasoline-filled ditches. As Pavel points out, the victims of the Holocaust were not contemptible because they lacked Vladek's assets and luck. Rather, they were gravely unfortunate. It is with good reason that Vladek might find his life to be ultimately guilt-ridden - he may construe the deaths of others to have allowed his own survival.

These gruesome experiences ultimately cause Vladek to pathologically perpetuate the habits and instincts that allowed him to survive the Holocaust. Artie cites a number of times his frustration and disdain for his father's obsessive frugality, aggressive bartering, and heavy-handed "tutelage." Of course, Vladek's actions are not unmotivated. He considers his instincts essential in a world where the horrors of the Holocaust are an all-too-real possibility (and a not-so-distant memory). Despite Artie's generational detachment from the war, his father has indeed never truly moved on. Perhaps, then, he is not so much taking his guilt out on Artie as he is living in the perpetual possibility of another genocide, forever a victim.

His lessons are lost on Artie, who does not understand their urgency. Divorced from the context, Artie interprets his father's antics as neuroses, and construes their urgent intention as unwanted degradation. Confronted constantly with reminders of a past he never knew, it is understandable why Artie develops an obsession with the Holocaust. Vladek makes it tangible, and offers himself as a surrogate for Artie to experience its horror. Yet unlike Vladek, Artie is wholly unscathed - even psychologically. Pavel even observes Artie as "the REAL survivor" (44), which perhaps Artie owes to Vladek's psychological torment in the same way that Vladek owes his physical survival to the physical torment of other victims.

Finally, Artie's guilt is reinforced through the very nature of his project. Maus ultimately was a significant commercial success, and Artie experiences tremendous guilt over monetizing the stories he collects. Page 41 offers a striking visual of his easel being supported by the corpses of the Holocaust's many victims. On one level, he is exploiting a tragedy for his own gain. On another level, however, I see an echo to the subversion of the Jewish businesses in Poland in which some of the Polish population plundered the vacant businesses and enriched themselves on their spoils. Perhaps in his ultimate profit, Artie feels culpable for the very same plunder.

Symbolism in Maus

As a graphic novel, Maus uses imagery, metaphors, and symbolism to convey its overall message. The Jews are depicted as mice, the Germans as cats, the Poles as pigs, the French as frogs, Americans as dogs, and British as fish. Using animals gives the reader a deeper understanding of how people related to each other at the time. The Jews depicted as mice symbolizes how they felt innocent, weak, and quiet. They were viewed as dirty and were forced to run and hide. The Germans as cats symbolizes their cunning and lack of emotion. The word catty in the dictionary is defined as nasty or malicious for a reason (for all the cat lovers out there). The cats hunted the mice. They did so in a calculated, malicious, and cold-blooded way. As cats, they were afraid of dogs (Americans). The imagery in the book gives the reader a basic understanding of relations between people of different nationalities at the time. 

Pillow Talk: The Importance of Where You Lay Your Head

In the discussion panel, "Pillow Talk: The Importance of Where You Lay Your Head", four panelists discussed the importance of home ownership by every citizen in the country - not just those who can afford it. The discussion started with one of the panelists saying that high mortgage affects what a family's children can do. They grow up under the stress of living in a house that's almost unaffordable, especially in homes that aren't being taken care of properly by the landlord. Some homes are in poor conditions. For example, some homes have poor floor structures, causing the floor to break or some homes don't have proper working smoke detectors. The panelists argued that those who are in houses or living comfortably in a home have added benefits than just a home. One panelist said that people who are adequately housed reduces the amount of people that are served in emergency rooms by 25%. Another panelist said that a good home results in proper healthcare, substance abuse care, and provide a chance for those people to give back. In all, housing comes first because it's a basic need. Locally, the panelists argue that most people who work at minimum wage in post-Katrina New Orleans have trouble affording housing. For a person earning the minimum wage, 22 work days in a month, of those 22 days they would have to work 16 of those 22 days to afford the medium amount. Their final argument was that housing is not just about the poor living in public housing, everyone deserves a good place to live. Post-Katrina, everyone was in the same boat so what's changed now?

Trauma passed down

  By recounting his horrific experiences from the Holocaust, Vladek "passes down" his traumas to Art. This is to say that even though Art did not physically experience the Holocaust, he has a clear mental picture of what his father experienced. Due to his father's first hand accounts, Art possesses an understanding for the Holocaust far greater than the typical textbook version that the majority of people have come to understand. The Holocaust is much more personal for Art as its tragedies hit close to home. Thus he can actually feel the trauma of the Holocaust.
The choice of using a graphic novel assists Art's storytelling in that it give the reader a visual representation of the story. The flow of conversation makes the story easy to follow along with, while giving it a "down to earth" feel for an event as traumatic as the Holocaust. Had the story been written in the normal context of a novel, the reader would surely take away a vastly different feel for the story. The "feel" ascertained from a  graphic novel is different in that it focuses more on the actual story, if you will, in that the reader is able to see the representation of who is talking. This negates the reader from visualizing characters in his/her head, which allows them to concentrate solely on the story itself.

Animal Symbolism

            Maus II has the most interesting feature of the animal allegory, in which the text uses different species of animal to represent different races or nationalities of people. The Jews are represented as mice which symbolize their prey like nature and meekness in relation to the Nazi Party who are represented as cats who are the predator. In the real animal world cats prey on mice who typically try and escape from the cat through hiding. This predator to prey relationship is actually symbolic of the situation having to do with the holocaust. Americans are represented as dogs, those who save the Jewish mice from the Jewish cats. This could be symbolic of the American personality as the loyal, trustworthy companions to their allies, much like how a dog is to their households or adopted families. Meanwhile the French are represented as frogs, and the poles as pigs. It is especially interesting to note how the mice are the only ones in the story who can pass for other animals by wearing different masks, such as a pig or cat mask. This detail is meant to represent how the Jewish people though both a culture and religion, can easily identify with other nationalities. For example a Jewish individual can also be German or American. As a result of this fact of life the mice are often drawn in Maus with different animal masks, as opposed to Americans or Germans not of the Jewish faith who cannot simply assimilate into a different culture because of their German or American nationality. Therefore the mice are only given this special privilege. The mice as Jews may also symbolize the German point of view of them as vermin or pests and therefore the cats are meant to hunt these mice and exterminate them, once again a genius idea to symbolize the holocaust through animal allegories or symbols. 

Relationship Strains

Trauma from war can be passed through from one generation to the next. This passing of trauma is sort of similar to the passing of tradition. Oftentimes, children are a reflection of their parents and the way they were raised. For example, in a normal household setting a parent may not allow their children to have dessert before dinner. Consequently enough, once those children are older they may not allow their children dessert before dinner either.  In both Maus I and II the reader can see the effects of war on both Vladek and Artie, especially when it comes to their relationship with one another. 

From the war, it seems that Vladek has adopted a short temper and a sort of worry for things that are unnecessary. This worry and temper reflect into his relationship with his son. For example, in both books there is never really a moment when the two of them share an emotional experience except front those relating to the war. Never does Vladek or Artie tell the other that they love them, or show any signs that they truly care for one another. They often, especially Artie, show a sort of disdain for one another. Vladek often asks for Artie to stay with him but fails to consider that he may not want to, or may have a life outside of taking care of his father and for this Vladek is selfish. Artie, on the other hand is very short with his father. All Artie seems to care about is hearing his fathers stories for his book, not taking care of him or helping him with the various favors Vladek asks of him. This strained relationship between the two of them may be because Vladek is emotionally scared front the war. Vladek may not be able to show the emotion the normal parent would because he is suffering from the trauma of war, including the loss of majority of his family members. This strain on Vladek transpires into his relationship with Artie causing a sort of distant relationship between them. What seems to be a lack of a normal father-son relationship can be considered one of traumas of the Holocaust being passed through their family. 

Passing Down Trauma

The traumas of the Holocaust are passed from Vladek to Artie in the way of storytelling. Vladek shares the horrific events that happened to him during the Holocaust, putting images in his son's head that might be difficult to think about. This might create a feeling of guilt; Artie wished that he could save his father from all these hardships despite him not being born yet. By knowing what happened to Vladek, Artie feels some kind of distress. Based on his father's experiences, Artie now sees certain things the way Vladek did, which may alter his perspective.
Graphic novel telling is effective because it puts an image with the story, especially something as serious and hard to imagine such as the Holocaust. To tell a story like Vladek's put the reader in a better perspective and understanding of what he and other survivors had to do to get through the Holocaust alive. By portraying each character a certain way, the reader can better see what the author was trying to express with his storytelling.

Vladeks Personality

Vladek has been affected by the war and it is even stated that some parts of him did not live through the war. What is not talked about is what parts did live through and fundamentally changed. Many of Vladek's character traits that we see in the first book, such as frugality, resourcefulness, and logical nature, are extenuated here. Surviving the death camps has a very similar effect that surviving a war has. The experience is traumatic and trains people to live a certain way that doesn't work anywhere else. The death camps kill some of the less prominent character traits and amplify the most dominant ones. This explains why Vladek is the way he is today. Why also, like what we talked about in class, he expects the world to be a world of favors. It is because he lived a certain way for a very long period of time and the way to survive were ingrained in his brain forever. Vladek is naturally a survivor and since this is seen as the best way to survive in the world he continues to be the way he is. Vladek is a product of his environment like most people are.

Trauma

The traumas of the Holocaust are passed down from father to son through their interactions.  Art is concerned and bothered by his father’s war stories.  He is affected deeply, as anyone should be.  Vladek tells his son these stories in hopes to enlighten him, and to open his understanding of what Jews had to go through during the Holocaust.  Because of the stories, Art experiences certain feelings of distress and guilt, both of which are hard for him to get rid of.  Art’s outlook on certain people and places are forever changed because of his father’s detailed stories. 

The graphic novel is such an effective way to tell this tale because through the pictures, the reader is able to get better insight into what is actually occurring.  From the art, the reader can see important details like facial expressions, or how the background of the scene appeared to be.  Facial expressions in the story are important because they show how distressed, angered and somber some of the characters were.  Each character’s emotions can be expressed in one picture. This is so effective because normally each character’s emotions or actions must be described by separate sentences. Sometimes, as showed in Maus, it is easy to portray how an action occurs through a picture rather than through words.

Maus: A Graphic Oral Tradition

Graphic novels seem to effectively translate the stories told between generations. Studies on ancient cultures like the Greeks and Romans, whose poets and bards memorized and recited exceptionally long passages for public entertainment, used a pictorial method of memorization. We see in our everyday lives how the use of pictures can help us to understand and remember events which took place before our birth or beyond personal experience. It is for this reason Maus has become a much lauded account of the Holocaust despite the depiction of humans as various animals.

Perhaps another reason Spiegleman's work is so effective may be from the primitive intuitiveness in the way it reads. There are no rules as to which square precedes the next, making the reader put the story together using his or her own understanding of the way the book should read. Vladek too, does not exactly speak in perfect chronological fashion. Often times he must venture in reverse to capture details he missed in the first telling of an event. As a result, the feeling of oral tradition is preserved both through Vladek's narration and in the way the book is pieced together by the reader. I'm sure a careful analysis of the way each person reads and interprets Spiegleman's story would likely yield a different result each time due to the work the reader does in receiving the ideas from the book.

Maus as a graphic novel

In both Maus novels it is evident that Art's life is greatly influenced by his fathers traumatic experiences throughout the Holocaust. Many of Speigelman's abrupt words and actions toward his son are rooted from his time in the Holocaust. For example in Maus I, Speigelman makes a comment to Art about how  he wouldn't know who his true friends are until he's trapped in a room with them for a week without food. An other example of Speigelman's abrupt behavior is when he throws away Art's coat without Art's permission and gives Art his old coat in replace of it. 

A graphic novel is an effective way to tell this story for a variety of reasons. The first reason is the way the images are drawn are symbolic and make the story easy to follow. Drawing the Nazi's as cats and the Jew's as mice symbolizes how the Nazi's prey on the Jews. An other reason why the novel is effective as a graphic novel is because it removes the reader from the events and makes the topic of the Holocaust lighter and easier to read. 

Guilty for Existing

I think Maus I and Maus II both show how the effects of the Holocaust can carry down from one generation to the next. The one scene in Maus II when Art is at the therapist is a good example of this. Art in some ways feels guilty for even living because he knows that nothing he's ever gone through (even his mother's suicide), or will ever go through could be anything like what Vladek went through. Art will also most likely always feel inadequate compared to Richeu--the "picture perfect" child that he can't compete with. Just from the fact that Vladek and Anja's first son died in the Holocaust will always place an unfair pressure on Art to live up to a brother that never even set standards and expectations. Even the last page of the book, Vladek refers to Art as Richeu.

On another note, Vladek still mimics the behavior of the Holocaust; always saving everything (matches), always bargaining (cereal), always preparing for if "Hitler comes back", etc. And if Vladek won't ever let the Holocaust go, or at the very least is always preparing for another one, how can Art ever live a normal life? He can't. He almost lives vicariously through his dad, and for that reason will always feel shame and guilt for his book and for his very existence.

The graphic novel like Art Spieglman's comic is an amazing way to tell a Holocaust story because it's so visual; even though it's tiny frames, it's tiny, very powerful frames. Seeing the feet of some of the mice hanging in one frame, and the pile of dead bodies in the next. The comic paints a grotesque event, and brutal images in a non-grotesque way that makes it great for readers of all ages in my opinion. And it adds needed comedic relief to the whole situation. I thought it was really excellent and very brilliant especially with every race being a different animal. It also helps to separate the characters' voices very easily just by looking at their animal.

Passing on the Trauma

Living through a traumatic experience affects people differently and Maus really demonstrates that with the differences in personalities of Valdek juxtaposed to other survivors like Mala or their neighbors. I think that it is very understandable that an atrocity that has been lived through could very well alter the personality of a person. Unfortunately for Art, Vladek’s shift in personality became a burden upon his life and negatively affected his childhood into his adult years. A parent transfers their traumatic life experiences onto their children through their daily interactions. In many cases, the parent is only trying to teach their child how to survive, should their child ever find himself in a traumatic experience similar to what the parent went through. In Art’s case, whenever a sign of weakness was shown, like when he cried as a child because his friends skated off without him, Vladek reproached him. That would have been hard on any child. Art reveals in his therapy sessions that his father made him feel that nothing he did was ever good enough. This was probably because Vladek had to give his all just to stay alive, and Art was not in this same dire situation. I think that Vladek was trying to toughen up his son and not realized that he was being hurtful. Knowing that his father has survived one of history’s most horrific events plays a role on the trauma that gets passed down to Art. Art has survivor’s guilt and this affects his childhood. He has sibling rivalry with his dead and unknown brother. The traumatic loss of Richieu tailored how Vladek and Anja raised and reacted to Art. He could never live up to the imagined image of what Richieu could have been.  

Parallels

It seems to me that the father's experience during the holocaust was so insurmountably traumatic that it forever altered his personality, not unlike much of the material we have already covered in this class.  As such, the man's son was always destined to grow up in a household where the effects of the holocaust continually resonate.  The graphic novel format is useful in depicting a parallel between the father's experiences, and similar, albeit much less stressful, experiences imposed on the son by the father.  In Maus 1 and 2, we see in the father echos of behavior which proved necessary at the time of the holocaust: a general sense of distrust, holding on to scraps, excessive bargaining.  We see in Maus 2 much bartering and bribing between Jewish and Polish prisoners.  In agreement with such behavior, the father continues to try to save every penny possible into his late life.  He also imposes such an attitude toward money on his family.

Maus II

Maus II has many instances in which Art obviously adopts some of Vladek traumas from the holocaust. Hearing his father retell the story allows Art to envision the events his father experienced. In one instance Art talks about feeling inferior to Richieu. Art believes that his parents picture Richieu as growing up to be everything they wanted and Artie could never live up to that. There is also one part where Vladek tell Francoise Artie inherited the Anja's depression and nervous behavior. A graphic novel allows for the story to be told in a different light.

Whose Memories?

In Maus II, Spiegelman discusses how his father's memories of the Holocaust have become so linked with his own that at times it appears as if Spiegelman is also a survivor. Since the traumas of the Holocaust have become so prevalent in Vladek's mind, it is impossible for those traumas not to be relived over everyday of his life. The author presents this to the reader through countless memories Spiegelman has of his childhood. He remembers his father frugality, how he had to beg his father for everything, how his father would save his leftovers and would not let him eat a new meal until the leftovers were finished, etc. These memories cause a great deal of anxiety in Spiegelman's life and he finds himself unable to distinguish his father experiences from his own.

The graphic novel is an effective way to tell this tale because it allows the reader to delve deeper into the primal emotions of all involved in the Holocaust and its aftermath. The graphic novel also eloquently shows not only how the Holocaust affected the survivors, but the survivors's children more deeply than most have ever imagined. The children of Holocaust survivors also become trapped in their parents's memories.

Holocaust stories

         I found Maus II to be more interesting than Maus I.  Maus I described Vladek's experience at the beginning in the war, in the ghettos.  However, Maus II took place while Vladek was sent to the concentration camps.  At first, I thought it was just that I had visited Auschwitz and Dachau that intrigued me (which was life changing and I recommend visiting at some point in your lives), but when I began to think more I realized that it was the suspense that I loved so much.  I never knew what was going to happen to him, even though I knew he would live.  Over about a year of my life, I checked out every book at my high school library that I could find about the Holocaust.  When thinking about this, I wondered why these stories intrigued me so much, and I am wondering if anyone feels the same.  Is it the cruel circumstances people were put in that made it almost fairy-tale like? Or is it that I feel empathetic towards these people, even though I will (hopefully) never know what it is like to live through such a hardship?

The Weight of the Holocaust

One scene we could use to discuss how Vladek’s story affects Art is in Maus II, pages 41-46, when the reporters swarm Art with questions right before he goes to see his therapist, Pavel. Art explains to Pavel that he wants his book to be accurate, but it has become too scary to think about. He also feels some guilt for portraying his father as a frustrating man. This reminds me of Tim O’Brien’s quote in The Things They Carried, “You can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you.” In this case, Art shows his father acting embarrassingly possibly as an effect of surviving the Holocaust. Pavel suggest that Vladek perhaps felt survivor’s guilt and took it out on Art when he was younger, as if Art should feel guilty that he never had to fight to survive.

When Art thinks about writing his book, he shrinks to the size of a child. It’s as if he doesn’t feel worthy or prepared to write it. He goes so far as to yell for his mommy on page 42. This is to show that Art’s father is still looming over him even after he is gone. More than that, the whole Holocaust is looming over him, as he is tasked with the impossible mission to illustrate what it was like to survive Auschwitz. In that way, the weight of Vladek's story is transferred to Art. 

Passing Down Knowledge in Maus

In Maus II, Art continues to press his father for information about the Holocaust. However, there is one point where it gets too much for Art and he pleads not to hear anymore. This occurs when Vladek describes the Jews in the gas chambers, “their fingers were broken from trying to climb up the walls… and sometimes their arms were as long as their bodies, pulled for the sockets” (71). Although Art wants to hear as much as he can about his father’s experiences in Auschwitz, learning about them is extremely painful for him. By using a framed story structure and graphic novel form with animals instead of humans, the reader is able to digest Vladek’s story more easily. The graphic novel makes the narrative more accessible, especially to those who would not generally choose to read about the Holocaust. In using cartoons as opposed to photographs, for the most part, Spiegelman removes the shock factor and level of disgust and horror that may turn some readers away. In regards to the traumas of the Holocaust getting passed from father to son; Vladek becomes increasingly dependant on Art and Vladek’s frugal ways irritate Art. Nonetheless, the trauma that Vladek experiences is described to Art and noted by him but not exactly passed down to him. Art is certainly affected by the Holocaust though he cannot experience the same trauma that plagues Vladek as his information is secondhand. 

Maus vs. O'Brien

When examining Art Spiegelman’s Maus to O’Brien’s, The Things They Carried, the writing styles of each appear very different to one another. Maus is a graphic novel where most of the language is in dialogue and the images set the scene and represent the action. In this novel, Spiegelman is telling his father’s story from his point of view, being his son. He express his father’s story about his experience during the horrific Holocaust through the use of pictures and cartoons. A more comfortable way of expressing it is through the use of art because it diminishes the impact of violence. He uses animals to represent humans in order to set a more calm tone to the inhuman actions that occurred during the Holocaust. Making his characters mice is probably also a way for him to take a step back and away so he can write honestly. Nonetheless, his tone still makes it feel like an emotional story. On the contrary, O’Brien does not try to set any calm tone, his writing is very undisguised, shameless, and upfront about the violence. He is very open about the events that happened during the Vietnam war. He tries to focus mainly on the violence and negative aspects of the war.  

Spiegelman's "Maus"

Art Spiegelman creates a new way of storytelling in his graphic novel Maus. Throughout this novel, Spiegelman visually tells the story of his father's experience in the Holocaust. What makes this way interesting is that instead of generally telling these experiences with people, he symbolizes each race group with a specific animal. Jews are mice, Germans are cats, and the Polish are pigs - it's a clever play on stereotypes as well as the cliche relationship between cats and mice. These representation create a better understanding of the relationships between the different race groups during the 1940s. While this story is a graphic novel, it can also be classified as a memoir. However, the approach on this is really interesting because the son is telling the story about his father's experiences. This gives a different kind of perspective and a more direct perspective of what happened during the Holocaust rather than a researcher's perspective.

Spiegelman Takes Understanding the Holocaust to Another Level

In Spiegelman's Maus, which could be considered a unique type of memoir (since it's told by the son of the survivor's POV) depicted through graphic novel-esque artwork, we see the holocaust in a different way than it's usually shown. By making this book a graphic novel, it makes reading much easier, especially since the Holocaust is such a heavy topic, this somehow lightens it while still getting the message across. Spiegelman depicts jews as mice and Nazi's as cats, while I think this tactic helps show how each were looked at during this time, I believe it more importantly shows that there was no way for one to be the other or visa-versa.  No matter how similar a mice and cat might act, they will never appear the same--this is a message Spiegelman wants to get across. He shows his dad's "bad sides" which is very different, since many want to believe the only "bad people" (not saying his father is bad, but he's definitely not that great) were the Nazis and the Jews were always pure-hearted and good. By showing this side of his father, he's emphasizing the fact that no matter what, both Nazi's and Jew's are human; they will have similar characteristics. This representation isn't meant to make the horror's of Nazi Germany and the holocaust any less significant, it's just trying to bring a more unbiased view upon the reality of the situation.

O'Brien vs. Spiegelman

In Maus, Art Spiegelman portrays his father's accounts in almost entertaining fashion. He employs lively dialogue in a matter-of-fact style of storytelling. In doing so, Spiegelman's does not convey a lot of emotion to the reader. This is not due to the nature of events in the story, rather it is a result of Spiegelman's father, Vladek, who recounts his past with a surprising degree of clarity. It is as if Vladek has become numb over the years to the horrors that he faced. Additionally, Art Spiegelman includes positive tales of his father, such as the story of how he met his wife. It is also interesting that Art Spiegelman conveys his father's flaws, such as his money-driven mindset, in the story. This facet is important in that it shows that Art Spiegelman is not trying to romanticize his father, which would not be surprising given that he is a Holocaust survivor. Tim O' Brien, on the other hand, employs a much less engaging method of storytelling. O'Brien's stories have an almost monotone feel to them, as they are centered more around the negative aspects of war. O'Brien's stories feel bleak, as the reader is brought into the barbaric realm of war. O'Brien conveys a much more serious tone than Spiegelman. While Spiegelman includes positive elements in his writing, O'Brien packs punch after punch of war brutality. I prefer O'Brien's method of writing, I feel that his attention to detail and willingness to expose war in its raw reality is more captivating than Spiegelman's narrative.

Storytelling in Maus

Art Speigelman's Maus presents a biographical account of the Holocaust in the form of a graphic novel. It is peculiar in that much of the novel offers a kind of meta-storytelling: In the present, the character of Artie Speigelman collects the stories of his grandfather, and formulates the story he intends to illustrate. This narrative style creates a remarkable dichotomy between Vladek's narration of his history and Art's depiction of it. On the one hand, Vladek's words are matter-of-fact and unemotional, perhaps owing to his inevitable desensitization to the horrors of the Holocaust and the buffer of time. On the other hand, Speigelman's illustrations are at times grotesque and vivid, and the dialogue between characters emotionally charged.

This narrative style also allows for the characters of the present to interrupt, interject, and truncate the storytelling rhythm. Such interjections make the story more intimate, almost conversational, despite their narrative disjointedness. Thus we as readers have a context, not within the nightmarish setting of Vladek's ghetto, but rather within the safe confines of his New York living room. Just as with Art, we are able to immerse ourselves in his trying experience without forfeiting the security of the present. Nevertheless, Speigelman's illustrations reveal that the story has great emotional force despite these comforts.

Artie's interjections also allow the reader to be put in dialogue with the storyteller. Much of Vladek's narration takes for granted the horrors and absurdities that were ubiquitous in Poland during World War II. Therefore, Artie is able to act as a kind of liaison, exploring the elements of his father's experience that may likely surprise the reader as well.

Finally, Maus depicts the reconciliatory power of storytelling. In this case, Artie's dialogue with his father eases their estrangement and fosters empathy between the two. On a larger scale, perhaps Art Speigelman is suggesting that these stories can reconcile even estranged populations. The story depicts every character as belonging to a particular species, indicating irreconcilable perspectives and heritages. Yet just as Artie overcomes a generational discrepency as well as his own familial conflicts through his father's story, such stories may likewise humanize our enemies and endear to us those who are strangers. Maus is certainly about brutality of the Nazi regime and the horrors of the Holocaust. But it is moreso about storytelling, and the universality of humanity.

Maus

I find myself appalled at the fact that I genuinely enjoy reading Maus. I am entranced when I'm reading Art Spiegalman's words. My hunger, thirst, and sleepiness all subside after the first one or two page turns. Does that make me a bad or strange person? 
The voice of Vladek is so real and feels very personal to me. The pain he feels over his past and how it's causing pain to his family many years later speaks to me. Vladek is a very complicated man that no can seem to ever fully understand. The trauma that he endured during Nazi occupied Germany and Poland is enough to turn any sane and normal man into a monster. Even though he comes through the war and begins to lead a somewhat normal life, the love of his life dies without explanation. She was not lost to the cruelty of the Nazis, to starvation, physical illness, or some traumatic accident; she died by her own hand. I feel that Vladek would have an exceptionally hard time coping with her death because of all they had gone through together. He fought diligently for their survival, literally risking his life time and time again to make sure that Anja had food to eat and somewhere to sleep. They survived one of the worst atrocities known to man, started a new family and lived a fairly typical life. Anja gave all of that up. I can imagine that Vladek, in his deep grief, believed Anja felt his earlier sacrifices meant nothing and could have been a reason why she took her life without telling her family goodbye. I really feel for Vladek. I'm not diminishing the pain felt by Art, as his childhood was rough, but his pain is vastly different from the kind his father endures. 

Comparing Art Spiegelman and Tim O'Brien

There are more differences than similarities between the storytelling of Tim O’Brien and Art Spiegelman.

There are several differences between the storytelling of Tim O’Brien and Art Spiegelman. Much of this difference can be rooted in their perspective. O’Brien has firsthand knowledge of the stories he is telling. Despite some aspects of the stories being false, he is in many ways a primary source for the experience he relays to his reader. Spiegelman on the other hand has no firsthand knowledge of the holocaust or of the experiences in Europe that he writes about. He experiences firsthand the parts of the novel where it is him and his father in modern day New York, but not of the experiences his father shares with him. Spiegelman is a secondary source for this reason.

            Another difference between the storytelling of Tim O’Brien and Art Spiegelman is the different writing styles they make use of. O’Brien’s novel is a collection of short stories loosely based on his time in Vietnam. Spiegalman’s novel makes use of visuals and O’Brien’s does not. Maus is a graphic novel, and is almost all dialogue and conversation, as opposed to The Things they Carried, which has much descriptive portions to create a picture in your mind of what O’Brien is describing. In Maus there is no descriptive language about what Art, Vladeck, or any of the other characters are feeling. The reader is forced to interpret Spiegelman’s dialogue, conversations, and actions that occur between the characters in the graphic novel in order to interpret their emotions and motivations.

The similarity comes in that both writers are telling war stories, stories in which the primary characters overcome adversity, hardship and death. In both stories the primary characters deal with the deaths of people close to them as well as being forced to travel to new places. 

Motivation vs. Empathy

One of the most gripping points that I found in Maus is how flawed Art Spiegelman portrays himself. He is not shy about beating around the bush during scenes where he gets pretty fed up, or even aggravated, with his father, Vladek. Vladek is presented as someone who tends to be anal retentive, yet his son is extremely disconnected with his father. I find it interesting because are usually extremely empathetic towards Holocaust victims but for reasons that better explained in the second volume *spoilers* (his mother committing suicide at an early age for Art), we see that Art was never really close his father. Art is easily irritated, and we get that whole my-father-can’t-relate-with-me vibe. Yet Art is still very driven to share his father’s story with the world. It’s not necessarily explained, but it almost feels like Art is driven by personal gain trying to publish his graphic novel.

Karma

One of the most intriguing aspects of Maus is that Spiegelman does not go out of his way to portray the character of his father in any way that could be considered sympathetic. From the very first chapter we see the emotional distance between the father and son, the reasons why become apparent very quickly.  Vladek is not a particularly nice person. He is unpleasant to his new wife and overbearing to his son. He embodies the stereotypical frugal, money obsessed Jew, which is problematic for the author who does not wish to turn his father into a caricature, but is forced to do so. We see the negative aspects of his character early on, in his relationship with Lucia, whom he spurned, mostly due to her lack of money, instead choosing the plainer, shier Anja, who was extremely well to do.  This is depicted early on in the novel, and conveys a great deal about Vladek, and serves to make him extremely dislikeable as a person. Over the course of the story there are further anecdotes and instances that make him seem unpleasant.

The depiction of Vladek’s character is not a flattering one. Yet as objectionable as he is, he does not deserve the treatment all Jew’s faced during this period. The oppression, cruelties and eventual incarceration, torture and murder at the hands of the Nazis. Vladek, for all his many faults is a person that did not deserve those atrocities, and I think that is the point Spiegelman is attempting to convey in this graphic novel. In spite of the illustrations depicting the characters as animals, they are all very much human.

Debunking Black and White Morality

                In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the character of Vladek is treated in a manner such that the reader is highly aware of the flaws that make him a well-rounded human, as opposed to a saint-like victim of the Holocaust which Jews are often depicted as in modern World War Two literature. The fact that Spiegelman takes this route with the anthropomorphised avatar of his father has been praised by many critics for its realism: it is not uncommon for children of wartime victims to become exasperated by the traits their parents accumulated as a method of survival years after the fact. As such, it can be argued that the strained relationship which Art and Vladek are shown as having is an incredibly raw, honest reflection of these familial situations.

                Despite Vladek’s anal-retentiveness and impassably high expectations, however, it is shown that the apple does not fall far from the tree. This is to say that while Art does not explicitly share his father’s flaws, he has more than enough of his own. Perhaps the most evident of these faults thus far is his dishonesty, as shown when Vladek asks that his son not record the portion of his story that involved his relationship with Lucia Greenburg, and Art does not honour this wish. It can be theorised that Art does this due to his desire to record the entirety of his father’s story in its purest, truest form – and while this may seem an honourable pursuit, whether it is more honourable than keeping a promise to one’s father is entirely up for debate. Thus far, neither of the narrators of Maus – those being Art and Vladek – have managed to preserve a perfect image of themselves for the reader’s consumption, and I feel that this is incredibly telling of the picture of humanity which the graphic novel’s writer wishes to impart: there is no such thing as someone who is truly evil or truly good, and humanity must instead be viewed in shades of grey. 

Speigelman Vs O' Brien

The one of the main differences int he way these two authors choose to write their stories is the tone they give. Often Speigelman gives a more lighthearted tone, shown not only through panels in his graphic novel but also through the way he tells his stories. Spiegelman often chooses to keep light hearted events along with negative events to give his world a more human feel to his fathers holocaust story. In contrast, O' Brien often latches onto the negative events more than the positive ones, giving a more negative feel overall of war. This could be evidence of PTSD bleeding into his writing but it could also just be an anti-war tone he is trying to get across to the audience.

War Stories

There are a lot of differences between Speigelman and O’Brien’s story telling.  This is because both authors choose an unalike style to present their writing.   Spiegelman writes a story about Jewish struggles during the holocaust in the form of a comic strip book.  Because of this, he is uses more of a direct dialect between his characters throughout the book.  He does not have to describe the situation and background as much as O’Brien because the pictures tell those details.  Another difference is that Speigelman uses animals such as pigs, cats and mice to depict each race in his story. One similarity is both writers have characters that actually tell the story through their own point of view.  In Maus, it is the father, and in O’Brien’s stories, it is usually one of the soldiers. I prefer O'Brien's as an author because of the way he is able to describe his stories so meticulously. 

De-humanization in Maus

In my studies of the Holocaust, class discussion often centered on the Nazi tactics for eradicating the Jewish population. Nazi dehumanization of Jews occurred in order that the rest of the world would view Jews as nothing more than swine or a plague. Never did it occur to me that the Nazis themselves should be de-humanized because they lacked altruistic traits. It is an interesting concept to make all the humans, animals. I have only encountered this type of storytelling before in Animal Farm. In both cases the writing soften the blows of violence that occur throughout the novel. In a way the portrayal of humans as animals can make the story more bearable.

Art's art

Art Spiegelman's Maus is beautiful. It is interesting that he chose to tell this story in the form of a graphic novel. At the time that Spiegelman wrote this book, the majority of book written in this way were comic books. The way he decided to format a story as intense as the holocaust and as personal as his father's story certainly a questionable. However is allows his story to standout. Perhaps he wanted to reader to approach the book in a different light than they would usually take when reading a biography about the holocaust. a thought kept coming into my mind is whether or not this book enjoyed by children. The way that Spiegelman made the characters of the book into different animals and the similarities this book has with a comic makes it almost childlike. I believe that he intended for the reader of this book to be a mature reader, but it is attractive to children. This is interesting to me in that it seems that he wants the reader to read the book innocently as a child. To see the Vladek, a victim of the holocaust, as human.

Emotion and Power

O’Brien uses a very distinct and powerful method of story telling. His narrative is able to draw the reader into the protagonists mind and describe the horrors of the Vietnam War. Each short story captures an aspect of the war and only after reading the total sum of his work is the reader able to understand the full story. O’Brien attempts to tell a story about war that emulates at least a portion of the experiences him and his fellow veterans went through. The disjointed nature of the short stories leaves the reader off guard and makes it difficult for his audience to condense a single meaning or message out of his work.

Speigelman’s method of story telling on the other hand follows a more proper method of story telling. However, I believe the authors have two very different objectives. O’Brien isn’t trying to write about an event. He is trying to describe a feeling. A feeling that is unexplainable by its very nature. Speigelman is trying to recreate an event in time. He uses pictures and an orderly timeline to recreate that event. Both methods of story telling are powerful in their own way. However, I prefer O’Brien’s method of story telling. I feel like in contains more raw and genuine emotion. Because of this it makes it easier for me to get taken in by his stories