Maus

Spiegelman uses irregular styles of writing to describe the difficulties his father faced during the holocaust. The comic book style of writing allows Spiegelman to transition from past and present very easily and smoothly. The different pictures make it easy to see what point in time the story is being told. The use of animals to portray the different characters further supports the stereotypical qualities of each race. The Germans are cats, but they are not nice and gentle house cats, they are dark and dominant figures. The Jews are illustrated as mice because they were seen as the inferior race during by the Germans during this time period.  The pictures in the comic book also help to explain the atrocities faced in the Nazi death camps. The novel could be pointing out that humans can be really hypocritical at times. This is shown when Vladek makes a racist comment about a black man on the side of the street. Franciose, another characters, points out to Vladek that he is treating the black man just like the Nazis treat the Jews, and Vladek says these two instances cannot be compared. Vladek calls Art by the name of his dead brother. Vladek is deeply affected by this and maybe will never overcome this tragedy. The holocaust scarred millions of people indefinitely and most of these people never recovered mentally. Spiegelman's comic book attempts to explain the tragedies of the holocaust, but he tries to avoid the notion that his novel is complete truth. His comic book allows him to depict the emotions of the characters very easily, and he can make the events of the holocaust more vivid. Even though Speigelman uses a non-traditional way to tell a serious topic in history he is still able to explain some of the horrific events that took place in the holocaust.


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