O'Brien and Spiegelman

 O’Brien and Spiegelman are similar storytellers in the way they both jump from past to present. For example in O’Brien’s story “Speaking of Courage,” the character Bowker goes back and forth from telling his story of war, to his currently situation, driving around the lake in his home town. In Maus, Spiegelman writes in a similar manner, sharing his father’s story, than jumping to his current situation, which is sitting in a room talking to his father. Another similarity both storytellers share is the technique of avoidance. In the story, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien uses the avoidance technique when sharing the story about his comrade dying. He shares the story, then interrupts the story to tell a different story, and then he returns to finishing the original story. Spiegelman does something similar in his story telling when talking about when he was drafted to war. Right after he tells his son about his drafting letter he follows up by saying that’s enough for today, and ends the conversation.

Both novels are different for obvious reasons. Maus is written as a comic strip in and a more creative fashion. Maus uses symbolism by portraying the Nazi’s as cats and the Jew’s as mice. The Things They Carried is written in a more realistic fashion. I enjoy the way Maus is written because it keeps my attention and draws me in with the illustrations and the story line jumping from past to present.