Maus

This is the second time I've had the opportunity to read and analyze Art Spiegelman's Maus in class. I don't mind though. If it wasn't for the fact that the process is incredibly depressing, for obvious reasons, I'd read it over and over. I have actually read it multiple times, and each time I find something in the images that I had noticed before that adds to the impact of the story. The first time I learned of this graphic novel and picked it up, I was startled by the concept of a telling of a Holocaust story in a "comic," ( a medium that I was, as I've said, quite unfamiliar with). However, I was immediately drawn in to the story and stopped questioning the format. Spiegelman's use of animals to differentiate between the nationalities of the characters was interesting. We know when we are reading the story, that the pigs (Poles), mice (Jews), cats (Germans), etc. are really actually people, all members of the human race, during a time when some people (somehow) believed that the Jews were not human. Depicting them as animals reminds us how each group saw each other as different. The choices for the animals to represent the groups is interesting as well, particularly the choice of mice for Jews and an intimidating looking cat image for Germans. In public statements Hitler described Jews as vermin and being carriers of disease, and also, as mentioned, as being a different species than other people. The choice of using this image of the mice to depict the Jews, reinforces the fact that others saw them as vermin, as lowly mice, and because of this, a horrible tragedy was allowed to take place. The choice of the cat, since the Jews are mice, is appropriate for the Germans. The image is not that of the cuddly lap cat of course, a more sinister version is found here, but the cat still pursues the mouse relentlessly. The story itself is one that never stops shocking us, mostly because it is so hard to believe it could happen, that it is true. Every time I have to study the Holocaust it is depressing enough to make me want to avoid the subject ever again, but in spite of that, I may consider writing my research paper on Maus after all. Reading it again reminded me how much more there is to see.