Why are comics not appreciated as much as the dry narratives of novels in the literary world? A comic is composed of symbols to express concepts shared by all people in their own social environment, and provide more tools than conventional art to truly show artistic intention.
Comics exist to expose the ethnic representations that seek to control the development of collective perceptions, memories and emotions and especially fear by investigating the techniques through which this control is maintained. Maus I is a true account of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, and his experiences as a young Jew during the horrors leading up to the confinement in Auschwitz. Maus II is about Vladek recounting his own history to his son Art Spiegelman and the complicated relationship. As the reader delves into the relationship of the two within the story, including those from history books, the reader begins to realize what these relationships did to shape the ideology of a group of people as a whole. People most often would think that the use of comic-images would soften the realizations and accounts of events of Holocaust, but in reality the animated visuals greatly amplify them. In both Maus I and Maus II, the comic panels of drawn images of memories, which are much more horrifying and true to life, than the real photographs of that time in the Holocaust show that comic books have advantages in many aspects.
First, the use of animals in the comic humanizes the tragedy much more than using real humans. Maus recounts the history of Auschwitz through highly detailed drawings and comic panels of animals depicted as humans. The main characters of Maus, Vladek and Frederick struggle everyday to be considered or treated a human. The charac...
... middle of paper ...
...r, hidden message and to be taken seriously. It is a serious account of one’s recollection of the Holocaust to make the world aware of the history not to repeat. In understanding Maus, the reader must take into account the fact that all works of literature are affected by the social and cultural contexts of its author. Spiegelman proves the point that “a picture is worth a million words” with his visual representations, which speak louder than the text, and are a big contribution for close reading and understanding. In Maus, the use of frame stories in comic panels helped to establish personal, social and cultural context of ethnic representation and the education of awareness of younger readers.
Spiegelman, Art (1986). Maus: A Survivor's Tale. New York, Pantheon.
Spiegelman, Art (1991). Maus: A Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began. New York, Pantheon.
The posters appeal to logos is deeply intertwined with an appeal to pathos due to the poignant nature of the subject matter. Spielberg’s decision to not use faces in the poster emphasizes the gravity of the Holocaust. This coupled with his use of color as well as his omission of color make a poignant statement: The black and white portions of the poster represent the masses of people who will remain unknown as they are merely a name on a list; whereas the red sleeve on the child is like a blatant mark signifying importance of one person who might have otherwise been lost in the sea of people. By marking and highlighting the value of one person, Spielberg comments on the immense bloodshed of the Holocaust as well as emphasizes the value of human life. The firm grip that the adult’s hand has on the child’s hand symbolizes hope despite the strife and carnage that the Holocaust produced. It represents the strong will that many Jewish people had who, even in the face of the crisis, still looked to the future with hope.
The story Maus is a graphic novel about a son Artie interviewing his father Vladek because Vladek survived the Holocaust. Vladek is explaining to Artie what his life was like during the Holocaust for him and his family. Vladek was the only one left still alive during this time to tell the story to Artie. The story has many different links to the history of the Holocaust and helps readers understand the horrible facts these families had to face. Since it is from the perspective of someone who lived through it, it helps the reader understand really just what was going on in this time. The graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman offers the modern reader a unique window showing the horrors and the history of the Holocaust and its repercussions by the differences of Vladek’s past and present, the value of luck, guilt that Artie and Vladek felt, and the mice characters being a representation during this time of racism.
Maus is a graphic novel about the Holocaust where all the characters are depicted as animals. Cats are Germans, dogs are Americans, pigs are Polish, and Mice are Jews. The story is told through the eyes of Vladek Spiegelman who is also the author's father. Vladek Spiegelman survived the Holocaust, because of his abundance amount of money and the ability to get on everyone's good side. Maus has many limitations to the story such as point of view, lack of experience, and depiction of characters. Those limitations could be advantages as well as not experiencing the Holocaust means there are no biases towards people or places. Even so, the author wrote his book through the eyes of Vladek Spiegelman.
The format of "Maus" is an effective way of telling a Holocaust narrative because it gives Art Spiegelman the chance to expresses his father's story without disrespecting him at the same time. It shows this through its comic book style drawings on a topic that is difficult to explain. With the illustrations throughout the story, it shows the true meaning of a picture is worth a thousand words. Compared to any other type of Holocaust book, it would be hard for a person who did not go through the Holocaust to understand what was taking place during that time.
An estimated six million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust, and many were thought to have survived due to chance. Vladek in Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus, is one of the few Jewish people to survive the Holocaust. Though Vladek’s luck was an essential factor, his resourcefulness and quick-thinking were the key to his survival. Vladek’s ability to save for the times ahead, to find employment, and to negotiate, all resulted in the Vladek’s remarkable survival of the Holocaust. Therefore, people who survived the Holocaust were primarily the resourceful ones, not the ones who were chosen at random.
From Hitler throughout the Holocaust, Maus the graphic novel has brought a story of a survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew. Vladek has been there when the Swastika was a symbol of well-being and the goods. From the start of World War II and sustained until the war ended. Vladek survived the war because of luckiness, after that, being resourceful was the reason he lived. Lost his first born son in the process, moved to the United States. Lost his wife and lived with a fear it might happen all over again, he is a survivor of the Holocaust.
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.
By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
During 1925, Mein Kampf was published by the Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler. In this autobiography, where Nazi racist ideas originated, he depicted his struggle with the Jews in Germany. These ideas sparked World War 2 and the Genocide of the Jews. The tragedy of the Holocaust inspired authors, such as Art Spiegelman who produced a Graphic novel, where both the text and images helped him convey his own ideas and messages. In fact, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus is an effective medium for telling a Holocaust narrative and specifically his father’s story of survival. Through this medium, he is able to captivate the readers while providing interesting insight into the tragedy of the Holocaust by using the symbols of animals, the contrast between realism and cartoon imagery and the various basic elements of a graphic novel.
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.
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.
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.
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.