The Quest for Clarity

     One of the most ironic parts in my opinion of Maus is how effectively Spiegelman portrayed one of the most tragic moments of human history through the use of animals and not through humans.  We would think the best way to engage a reader is to use the realism of “relatable figures”.  However, the use of animals as metaphors add endless possibilities of exploring the plots, themes, and characters of Maus.     Some popular themes in cartoons and fairytales is the antagonism between mice and cats.  Spiegelman’s choice of representing the Jews as mice is the perfect metaphor for describing the Holocaust and the relationship between the Jews and the Nazis. The image of a mouse almost replicates what a real mouse would have to live through.  During the Holocaust, the Jews hid in bunkers to hide from the Nazis and sneak out at night to try to find food, which represents mice living in a small hole in a home trying to find food at night.  I...

    The Holocaust was a brutal and systematic attempt to annihilate the Jewish people, resulting in extreme physical suffering, and loss of life.  However, the psychological trauma inflicted on survivors is equally, if not more devastating.  In "Maus", Art Spiegelman tells the story of his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor who struggles with trauma and horrors in the war.  But perhaps one of the most important and unique part of  "Maus" is when Spiegelman includes his "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" comic, where the art, style, and tone completely stands out from the rest of the book to present the ultimate conflict and theme of trauma of his mother's death.     The first notable shift is from the metaphoric representation of characters as animals to a more realistic approach by using human faces.  Spiegelman used animals to represent different races, ethnicities, and parties in the book to illustrate the context and drive the momentum of th...