Art Spiegleman's comic book within the comic book Maus is titled "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History." This text within a text describes, in horrific detail through pictures, Artie's failed effort to get through the painful loss of his mother due to suicide. This text also in a way, represents a part of Artie's mind where he expresses his feelings of loneliness, doubt, fear, anger, and blame through the form of a dark, gloomy, depressing cartoon. In the first frame on page 100 nest to the title "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History," including this picture of Artie and his mother at Trojan Lake in 1958 (ten years before his mother killed herself). Adding this picture of Artie and his mother brings a more personal touch to reader as they continue reading the comic strip. This strip is not just some cartoon Artie drew up, it's an abstract memory that he has of his mother's suicide. The next two frames in the strip portray Artie explaining that his mother killed herself, left no note, and how Artie's father found her dead in the bathtub. Seeing how Artie created his own character transmits to the reader how dark and tragic the impact this event has had on both himself and his father. They both have extremely dark eyes and faces, and are seriously thin; his father looks as if he is a skeleton in clothes. Seeing his father drawn this way illustrates the harsh life he lived. As the strip continues to illustrate how Artie discovers his mother's suicide, subsequence of the next three frames of the strip give the reader a hint of what Artie's past and present lifestyles may have been like. The third frame of the strip Artie states "I was living with my parents, as I agreed to do on my release fro... ... middle of paper ... ...s own wounded self, unaware of the unconscious connection to the depression of his mother and the unconscious recognition with the danger of his father. This text within a text is another chapter in Art Spiegleman's life that ends in tragedy from the death of a loved one and a piece of him. Artie's emphasis in this section of Maus is illustrated through the creation of a gloomy illusion when he outlined the four pages of the comic in black and illustrated the characters in a darker, more realistic manner from the mice and cats throughout the rest of the book. The purpose of this text within a text was to inform the reader that there was more to Art's story than what his father had to say. The death of Art's mother had a horrific impact on his father and himself, and this small cartoon was a way for Art to tell the story while coping with his memory of the incident.
Each literary work portrays something different, leaving a unique impression on all who read that piece of writing. Some poems or stories make one feel happy, while others are more solemn. This has very much to do with what the author is talking about in his or her writing, leaving a bit of their heart and soul in the work. F. Scott Fitzgerald, when writing The Great Gatsby, wrote about the real world, yet he didn’t paint a rosy picture for the reader. The same can be said about T.S. Eliot, whose poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” presents his interpretation of hell. Both pieces of writing have many similarities, but the most similar of them all is the tone of each one.
In the beginning of Maus the reader is thrown into a scenario of the Author, Art's, many visits to his
In the history of this world, there have been many important events that have changed how we see things. In the novels Maus written by Art Spiegalman and How It Feels to Be Colored Me written by Zora Neale Hurston discuss some of these events. Both authors use their experiences from the past to show racial differences, the mistreatment of humans, and injustices. While being a college dropout Art Spiegalman found himself to be very creative in making graphic comics. Art Spiegalman is the son of a Polish Jew who survived the holocaust, his mother survived as well but committed suicide when Art was twenty years old. Maus I and II is more of a personal story with events that occurred before and after the holocaust and is being
The story "Maus" is written in a rather unconventional way because it is written in a graphical novel format. This format tends to grasp the attention of those from a younger audience. However, since the story is about the Holocaust many critics think that it may have not been written in the right format. The author Art Spiegelman wrote it in this form not to make light of the situation but also not to make it seem like any other kind of Holocaust format. Which is sometimes considered boring and the viewers it draws attention too are those of an older age.
In the story if Maus, written by Art Spiegelman, is not only a story about a father’s story of his life in the Holocaust, but one of a father who has horrific problems relating to his son. These issues are shown from beginning to end and in many instances show the complexity of the...
The Maus series of books tell a very powerful story about one man’s experience in the Holocaust. They do not tell the story in the conventional novel fashion. Instead, the books take on an approach that uses comic windows as a method of conveying the story. One of the most controversial aspects of this method was the use of animals to portray different races of people. The use of animals as human races shows the reader the ideas of the Holocaust a lot more forcefully than simply using humans as the characters.
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the audience is led through a very emotional story of a Holocaust survivor’s life and the present day consequences that the event has placed on his relationship with the author, who is his son, and his wife. Throughout this novel, the audience constantly is reminded of how horrific the Holocaust was to the Jewish people. Nevertheless, the novel finds very effective ways to insert forms of humor in the inner story and outer story of Maus. Although the Holocaust has a heart wrenching effect on the novel as a whole, the effective use of humor allows for the story to become slightly less severe and a more tolerable read.
• AW has had some problems of her own; she was very depressed after an abortion in senior year at college. She slept with a razor under her pillow for three nights as she wanted to commit suicide. Instead she turned to writing and in a week she wrote the story “To Hell with Dying”. She only stopped writing to eat and sleep.
In the book Maus, by Art Spiegelman, Spiegelman’s images and dark artistic style have a strong connection to the past based on how he has drawn himself, especially in his short story, “Prisoner on the Hell Planet.” In Spiegelman’s short story, he depicts himself as a guilt-ridden, deformed being, and these depictions intertwine with his past emotions, which correlate strongly to his mother’s suicide. Spiegelman portrays himself as a person with droopy eyes, an altered perspective, and an uneven visage. These particular characteristics form his grotesque physical features and disfigured facial expressions. The manner in which Spiegelman depicts himself conveys the message that his mother’s suicide detrimentally affected him, which his grim physical
When reading a traditional book, it is up to the reader to imagine the faces and landscapes that are described within. A well written story will describe the images clearly so that you can easily picture the details. In Art Spiegelman’s The Complete Maus, the use of the animals in place of the humans offers a rather comical view in its simplistic relation to the subject and at the same time develops a cryptic mood within the story. His drawings of living conditions in Auschwitz; expressions on the faces of people enduring torture, starvation, and despair; his experience with the mental institution and his mother’s suicide; and occasional snapshots of certain individuals, create a new dynamic between book and reader. By using the form of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman created a narrative accompanied by pictures instead of needing to use immense worded detail.
Art Spiegelman's Maus II is a book that tells more than the story of one family's struggle to live thought the Holocaust. It gives us a look into the psyche of a survivor's child and how the Holocaust affected him and many other generations of people who were never there at all. Maus II gives the reader a peek into the psyche of Art Spiegelman and the affects of having two parents that survived the Holocaust had on him. Spiegelman demonstrates the affects of being a survivor's child in many ways throughout the book. Examining some of these will give us a better understanding of what it was like to be a part of the Holocaust.
“I'm not talking about YOUR book now, but look at how many books have already been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed... Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust.” These words were spoken by author Art Spielgelman. Many books have been written about the Holocaust; however, only one book comically describes the non-superficial characteristics of it. Art Spiegelman authors a graphic novel titled Maus, a book surrounding the life a Jewish man living in Poland, named Vladek. His son, Art Spielgelman, was primarily focused on writing a book based on his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. While this was his main focus, his book includes unique personal experiences, those of which are not commonly described in other Holocaust books. Art’s book includes the troubles his mother, Anja, and his father, Vladek, conquered during their marriage and with their family; also, how his parents tried to avoid their children being victimized through the troubles. The book includes other main characters, such as: Richieu Spiegelman, Vladek first son; Mala Spiegelman, Vladek second wife; and Françoise, Art’s French wife. Being that this is a graphic novel, it expresses the most significant background of the story. The most significant aspect about the book is how the characters are dehumanized as animals. The Jewish people were portrayed as mice, the Polish as pigs, the Germans (Nazis in particular) as cats, and Americans as dogs. There are many possible reasons why Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans. Spiegelman uses cats, dogs, and mice to express visual interests in relative relationships and common stereotypes among Jews, Germans, and Americans.
There is an old saying that goes: A picture is worth a thousand words. This statement could not be more correct; especially in the case of a book like Art Spiegalman’s, Maus. In his books Spiegalman shares his father’s experiences in surviving the holocaust. Rather than taking the conventional route, Spiegalman chooses the medium of “graphic novels” to tell his father’s story, and by doing so Spiegalman is able to share his father’s story in a way far superior to that of plain old text. He is able to do this by presenting dimensions of time and space in a way that cannot be reproduced through text. Not only this, he also gives the reader perspectives and landscapes that would take far too long to explain through text, but only a couple seconds to comprehend through a picture. The human mind is able to recognize the meaning of a visual much faster than through text because there is no ambiguity, and more room for symbolism both in the literal sense through the illustrations as well as through the dialogue of the characters. By using a comic to present his father’s story, Spiegalman can do far more justice to it, than text would ever be able to do.
What if you were a holocaust survivor and asked to describe your catastrophic experience? What part of the event would you begin with, the struggle, the death of innocent Jews, or the cruel witnessed? When survivors are questioned about their experience they shiver from head to toe, recalling what they have been through. Therefore, they use substitutes such as books and diaries to expose these catastrophic events internationally. Books such as Maus, A survivor’s tale by Art Spiegelman, and Anne Frank by Ann Kramer. Spiegelman presents Maus in a comical format; he integrated the significance of Holocaust while maintaining the comic frame structure format, whereas comic books are theoretically supposed to be entertaining. Also, Maus uses a brilliant technique of integrating real life people as animal figures in the book. Individually, both stories involve conflicts among relationships with parents. Furthermore, Maus jumps back and forth in time. Although, Anne Frank by Ann Kramer, uses a completely different technique. Comparatively, both the books have a lot in common, but each book has their own distinctive alterations.
Lipton’s drawing is about death, as she lost her mother at a young age. Death and the Madien resembles the feelings associated with losing a parent; however, brings out the faith in unconditional love found in afterlife. Lipton uses cross-hating, intensely black and white lines and coloring to resemble dark humor associated with death. Mutu’s drawing is about childbearing and strength that comes with reproduction. Sprout is structured on the living experiences in Mutu’s lifetime by characterizing gender and sexuality through monstrous figures. Mutu uses various mediums such as magazines, pornography, collages, ink, and patterned sheets and paper to bring out the vivid imagery of women and childbearing. In Sprout, the mother is implanted in the ground. The background scheme uses black and gray colors, while the woman’s body and soil has brighter colors. By using these contrasting colors, the audience is forced to recognize the process a woman goes through to reproduce. The background is a symbol of the difficulties and pain associated with child birth. The vivid colors found in the woman and soil are a symbol of the strength and happiness of motherhood. Both drawings have dark colors; however, Sprout has brighter colors to resembles the happiness that comes with