The panel I have chosen from Maus Volume 1 by Art Spiegelman is located on page 33. I chose this panel because I think that it is a strong representation of how Spiegelman uses imagery when telling his story, of trying to survive as a Jew in Hitler’s Europe. This panel depicts a story being told to Vladek while on the train with some other fellow Jews. One of the fellow Jews is telling the adventure that his cousin endured while living in Germany. While he is telling his story we can strongly focus on the cartoons being shown behind the words in each scene.
We first see Spiegelman’s detailed cartoon when Vladek’s friend beings to say his story. He says, “It was very hard there for the Jews-terrible!” Although we can picture a lot from this statement being made, Spiegelman does not want us to do that. He shows us an exact picture of what he wants you, as the reader, to imagine. The background has a swastika while a mouse is holding a sign saying “I am a filthy Jew” as two cats who are known to be the Nazis, grin at him. The panel then goes on to other graphic images being shown. He then says, “Another fellow told us of a relative in Brandenberg- the police came to his house and no one heard again from him.” A reoccurring background that we see again is the swastika. In this scene we see a Jew being beaten by a Nazi and another Jew being captured by a Nazi. This cartoon shows the severity
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He begins and ends the scene by showing Vladek with other Jews. When the story is being told the background is consistently of a swastika and has very violent images. By Spiegleman doing this it is not allowing for our senses to wonder and create our own images. Spiegleman does this so that the story that he is trying to tell is not only detailed through its wording, but also by its images. It allows for us to grasp on to the concept stronger and truly relate with Vladek and the journey that he
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: a Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon Books,
The graphic novels Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman possess the power to make the reader understand the pain and suffering that takes place during the Holocaust. Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans in his graphic novels to represent the different races of people. The use of visual mediums in Art Spiegelman’s Maus enhances the reading of the narrative. The graphics throughout the novel help the reader fully understand everything that is happening.
Basically, Maus tells us the story of Art Spiegelman’s father, Vladek and his experience as a Jewish man in Poland during the time of World War Two and the Holocaust. The setting of the story goes back and forth between present day, where Art is speaking with his father, writing down his memories to back in the past, into Valdek’s memories on a young man.
In the foreground, the route that Anja and Vladek are following is illustrated. The path is in the shape of a swastika, which symbolizes the Nazi’s power. It can also imply the fact that no matter where Vladek and Anja travel, they will always be in danger due to their Jewish faith. Shading is being used as well to emphasize the swastika shape and highlight the severity of the Nazi regime.
In conclusion, the book Pawels Briefe utilises photography to create an image of a family torn apart by the Holocaust, offering us a glimpse into their personalities and the opinions of the narrator. Photographs are used to reflect the wider social issues of the time and to raise important questions about coping with the past. The images in the book create a dialogue between the narrator and her deceased relatives, and connect the reader to the narrator’s experiences and memories.
The author illustrated his characters as different types of animals where in the Jews are represented as mice and the Germans as cats. This representation proposes how the Jews facing the Nazis are as helpless as a mouse caught by a cat. The first part for instance, is introduced by a quotation from Hitler in which he deprives the Jewish race of human qualities by reducing them to a mere vermin: “The Jews are undoubtedly a race but they are not human: (Spiegelman I, 4).
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began. New York City:
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.
Does the blame of the Holocaust fall on more than just the Nazis? Could the mass genocide of the Jews be the world’s fault? Art Spiegelman develops a message of guilt on both a personal and collective level. In his graphic novel, Maus, children cannot connect with their parents, holocaust survivors, because they have not experienced the same type of hardship. Similarly, the communal problem is that people in the world should have done more internationally to help the Jews. Spiegelman continually shows the reader guilt through syntax while describing the relation between Vladek, Art’s father, and Art.
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.
Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus unfolds the story about his father Vladek Spiegleman, and his life during the WWII. Since Vladek and Art are both the narrators of the story, the story not only focuses on Vladek's survival, but also the writing process and the organization of the book itself. Through these two narrators, the book explores various themes such as identity, perspective, survival and guilt. More specifically, Maus suggests that surviving an atrocity results in survivor’s guilt, which wrecks one’s everyday life and their relationships with those around them. It accomplishes this through symbolism and through characterization of Vladek and Anja.
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.
The books Maus I and Maus II, written by Art Spiegelman over a thirteen-year period from 1978-1991, are books that on the surface are written about the Holocaust. The books specifically relate to the author’s father’s experiences pre and post-war as well as his experiences in Auschwitz. The book also explores the author’s very complex relationship between himself and his father, and how the Holocaust further complicates this relationship. On a deeper level the book also dances around the idea of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. The two books are presented in a very interesting way; they are shown in comic form, which provides the ability for Spiegelman to incorporate numerous ideas and complexities to his work.
“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.