MAUS
Please leave your comments about the style of MAUS. What was your reaction to hearing an holocaust survivor’s story told in a graphic novel? How did you feel about the use of animal heads (mice, cats, pigs, etc) for the different characters?
Please leave your comments about the style of MAUS. What was your reaction to hearing an holocaust survivor’s story told in a graphic novel? How did you feel about the use of animal heads (mice, cats, pigs, etc) for the different characters?
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:28 am
I enjoyed reading Maus even though I was curious as to why Spiegelman chose to write it as a graphic novel. I think it worked though and really was interesting read. The animal heads were very interesting because they were so symbolic of the way that people were living at the time. The Jews (mice) had to hide and live in fear of their predators, the Germans (cats). This cat and mouse game was the easiest way to show the fear that the Jews must have been living with, without making the book so intense that it was difficult to read.
March 23rd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I think the graphic novel was an interesting medium to tell Vladek’s story. At first I didn’t see how it could work, how someone could turn something as horrific as the holocaust into more or less a comic book, but illustrating the characters this way I think made it more real. In seeing the Jews as mice, the nazis as cats, the polish as pigs, etc it really breaks it down that we’re all essentially animals in the way that we humans can call ourselves civilized all we like, but we all have animalistic tendencies. The notion of survival is apparent in the animal kingdom and it’s at the heart of most holocaust stories. The cat eats the mouse, the Jews are devoured and must scurry to find shelter, morsels to eat, the basic necessities.
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I think the graphic novel form to convey his story was good and bad. It was good in that it makes it easier for the younger audience to learn more about the holocaust. On the other hand, I think it made his story more impersonal and less realistic. I feel like it did not convey the horrific aspect of the holocaust that are essential for understanding the impact this experience had on the rest of his life. I think the use of animal heads was a good way to distinguish people from each other. It shows you that if they did not have the animal heads on you would not be able to tell them apart since we are all human beings. Plus, it allowed the reader to distinguish who is doing the punishing at different times; for example, the punishments were much more severe when the cats (Germans) were there, rather then a high ranking mouse (Jew) or Pig (Polish). This was important to show that it was not always the Germans carrying out their solution, in fact it was usually people they hired.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:49 pm
At first, I thought that I wouldn’t take it serious since it was a graphic novel. Also, I thought I wouldn’t like it because it was such a serious subject but when you think of comic books you think of superheros,etc. I think that the use of the different animal heads is a little ironic. They are talking about how horrible the prejudice was against the Jews but then they are showing their prejudice against the Germans, Polish, etc. Although they might be accurately portrayed it just does not seem right.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I felt that the use of animals being used instead of real people in both volumes of Maus made it a lot easier for me to understand this terrible ordeal the Jews had gone through. Also, I can really understand how those Jews must had felt while going through all of those unnecessary changes that occurred in Germany and beyond. It provided me a detailed description of the different aspects occurred during the Holocaust.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Maus I was definitely an interesting story, it was different from anything I have ever read before in regards to the Holocaust. It was unusual to see him portray such a serious story in such a light manner. The use a comic strip writing was different, putting something tragic into a comic like writing. His images were also interesting how the different races were portrayed as different animals, the poles were pigs and the Jews were mice. Whenever his father went out in the last chapter he would put on a Pig’s mask to make himself appear more German, I thought this was interesting. Overall the book was a good story and even though it was very different I liked the way it read it was easy to understand, it was like you were actually there when he was gathering the information from his father and that made it more real.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
i enjoyed reading maus. It somehow seemed really interesting readin a holocaust survivor’s tale in the form of a graphic novel. I thought that when the author portrayed the Jews as mice which made them seem as small, unpowerful, dirty, worthless, and something that everyone hates and avoids, which is what everyone thought of the Jews at that time. The Nazis of course were seen as cats, which is the regular household pet that are cute and harmless which everyone liked, and they could kill the mice(Jews) at any time and it was okay because that is what they were expected to do. The polish people were pigs because sometimes they ided with the jews so they were seen as dirty and unwanted at times too but still they weren’t scared of the cats as much as the mice. the americans or dogs however were the strongest one of all these animals it was “mans best friend” they saved everyone and were liked by everyone. The way this story was told made me understand the holocaust much better than anything else I have read so far, it made it more interesting. overall it is a good book, a good way to understand the holocaust for anyone who wants to find out the truth of what happened.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Maus was a very interesting portrayal of a Holocaust survivor’s story and the fact that it was written as a graphic novel completely added a whole other dimension to the story. I really enjoyed the style that Maus was written in because as I was reading through the comic squares and looking at the pictures, I was able to get a real firm grip of the actual dialogue that was taking place between this father and son. For me, the comic strip style of the dialogue accompanied by the drawings really added a realistic aspect to the authors writing. Also, I realize the background to these novels is the author’s way of interpreting his father’s struggle of being a Holocaust survivor and also his way of dealing with his fathers’ struggles. Knowing this, as I read the strips and looked at the accompanying drawings, the novel came alive to me and really provided a vivid medium of story telling that took on its own reality. I was very moved by this portrayal of the Holocaust survivor’s story. For some reason, most likely the style of the novel, I was really able to make a connection with the characters and felt that each of them were very genuine. I was really able to sympathize with both Art and Vladec as I watched their story unfold. Lastly, I really enjoyed how each set of characters a different animal represented. This really impacted me on several levels. One way was that it really came across to me as the author’s way to portray the mentality and actions of mankind, that being as uncivilized animals. Even though we as humans have the capability to reason and freely think, we still resort to actions no different than wild animals; the novel depicts the hunter, the hunted, and the bystanders. Also, the use of separate animal heads for each group allowed for me to get the feeling that during this time everyone really felt that were not the same and those whom they lived with and moreover those whom they were sending to gas chambers. It also added the aspect of the inner feelings of a survivor and how he viewed those around him in the Holocaust via the use of different animal heads.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Art Spiegelman’s first volume of Maus had me anticipating the second volume. I think that portraying the holocaust in a graphic novel was a good idea. I’ve read other books about the holocaust, but none were so personal as Maus. I feel that it was more personal because in the comic you are able to get everyone’s point of view and really see how they felt and reacted to situations. In regular books there is usually only one point of view which makes it harder to understand everyone else’s opinions. Because of the comic style used in these books, I felt that it was much easier to read and actually understand what these people were going through and how the holocaust affected their every day lives, and their future. With the pictures Spiegleman uses and how he depicted the Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs; I feel that it’s ironic, yes, but it was such a different way to break things down for people of all ages to understand the roles people played during the holocaust. Altogether, I think that this is a great book to read in order to learn more about the holocaust.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
At first I was really unsure how a ‘comic book’ could really grasp the vastness of the Holocaust. After all, millions of Jews were innocently executed under an infamous ruthless dictator. I always have associated graphic novels with the idea of superheros with capes flying around. However, Spiegelman really surprised me and really blew my mind. The story is absolutely amazing and is something completly different that another memoir, movie, or book I have read about the Holocaust. This story is told from the point of view of Holocaust survior’s child and how he has dealt living in the shadow of his father’s life during this time. His relationship with his father is really non-existent. It had been several years since he last spoke to his father, and he is only talking to him now because he wants to know what happened to his father. There is still so much undealt with pain and it really comes out in the book. Maus really shows a different side of the Holocaust. Another thing is how it really depicts what happened. Most of the time, we see the Surviors sitting in chair in their living room retelling the story. In Maus, we really SEE how Vladek survivored. We see dead bodies, guards killing prisoners, the trains coming into the camps, the layout of the gas chambers (Not just the floor plans, the actual look of the chambers and changing rooms.) THis book was very emotional for me. The symbolizism of cats, mice, dogs, etc were brillant in my opinion. It is really a simple and almost child like depiction of the ‘differences’ between the Jews, Germans, Poles, and Americans which seems the fit the stupidity of the actual purpose behind the Holocaust. I was angry at some points, sad, anxious, and for the first time I really did not all together sympathize with Vladek, a survivor of one the worst events in human history. Speigelmen really has done an outstanding job making an original side of the Holocaust that I have never seen done before.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I have read Maus before when I was a freshman in high school. I didn’t remember much about it but I remember thinking that it was boring. But however now that I have a higher learning and understanding of the Holocaust opposed to the sugar coated version, I liked it this time. I thought it Art was very clever in portraying the characters as animals. Of course the mice are the Jews who are always being chased by the Germans who are cats. This was interesting because in real like people go out to but cats to sometimes rid their house of rodents such as mice. I also thought it was interesting how it showed the attitudes of the survivors and how the war changed them. Vladek is a survivor who is a pack rat, saves everything and also who is very cheap. We understand that he is like that because he got used to living in such a way in the concentration camps to survive. The only thing I didn’t like was that it sometimes gets off track of the real purpose. Vladek often goes off on tangents about his current life which shows in a way how he has changed since then, however he began to get on my nerves. There was something about him that bothered me. Maus 2 I liked better because it got more into the real aspects of the war and the steps he took to survive and the risks he also took knowing how bad the consequences could have been. I thought it was a little more straight foward.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
“The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” -Adolf Hitler
Art Spiegelamn obviously found inspiration from this quote in his writing of Maus because of his choice to use different animal heads for each character. I thought using mice to represent the Jews, pigs to represent the Poles, and cats to represent the Nazi Germans was an innovating way to put a twist on the story of a survivor. Considering Hitler did not believe the Jews were humans, using mice was the perfect way to portray the Jews. The idea of the Nazi’s being depicted as cats was also a good choice because of the well known cat and mouse quarrels. Upon beginning the book I immediately thought of the way in which my cat would devourer his play toy mice and understood why cats and mice were used to portray the Nazi’s, who so easily overpowered the defenseless Jews.
Commonly students read tedious books on topics regarding Jews survival of the Germans that may loose the readers interest; therefore, a graphic novel is a different means of making such a tale a great read. Although I was skeptic of how a graphic novel would suffice in telling the story of a survivor, I think Spiegelman did an excellent job. It shed a different light on this serious subject and provided an alternative way of learning about the events that took place. I didn’t think I would really find great emotion in this book, but I did have empathy for the mice. Despite the feelings of sadness for the mice/Jews that I felt as Vladek told his heart wrenching survivor tale, I still find personal interviews of real life survivors the best way to reveal the true terror and heart break of the incident.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
At first, I was worried that by writing a graphic novel about the Holocaust maybe to childish and not taken as serious. But the way Art Spiegelman wrote it this book, it didnt come across like a usual comic. I thought it was a very good, descriptive novel about the Holocaust. With the use of his father story he is able to go into great detail about the actual events that went on from the beginning to the end. I am looking forward to reading the second volume.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This style of writing was definitely a different account or approach to telling the Holocaust and his survival. It was clever by telling his story in comic strip form as though it was not really real but it was very real, very graphic…his testimony will not be forgotten because of his unique way of telling how the terror began to the bitter end…I was glad to see that his love of his life survived and so did he…they lost a child but gained another who was recording and listening to his father tell the gruesome facts. The odd part was the people in the story being described as certain animals which showed the views of how he and others thought of people and how they were stereotyped…how small and insignificant the Jews were. Vladek was able to tell his story through his talent…art/writing…to express emotion of a survivors account in a way noone else has done…I liked reading it but at times I did not. I was anxious if he would ever meet up with Anja ever again, they gave each other hope in order to survive even through the many tragedies and choiceless choices made.This was a real account of the war only in comic strip form…even though it was a cat and mouse game…the mouse survived the many traps, being a pack rat was a way of not losing ones memory of the past since he had lost so much during 1933-1945…its amazing how a human being can turn tragedy into ones duty to tell the story of how…even when God seemed to be absent…ones inner faith and blessed shoemaking skills kept him from death.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I thought that the comic style added a more innocent view to the pain and suffering that the holocaust incurred. The depictions of the races as different animals fit perfectly; it simplified their dynamic racial differences such as making the Jewish population the prey and the Germans as the predators. He uses great detail allowing you to absorb the story without the shock of brutality that the holocaust normally has stapled to it.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
i enjoyed reading the volumes. i think the author did an awesome job telling his father’s story. not only was it pretty amazing that his father was able to remember everything, but spiegelman put together the story in a way that readers of all ages would be able to understand and be interested in reading. personally, i wanted to read the whole thing through because i wanted to know what happened to spiegelman’s father and mother. also, the cat and mouse aspect was a very clever way to portray the relationship b/w the Jews and the Nazis…mice hide from cats as the Jews had to hide from the Nazis.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
The way Spiegelman portrayed his view of the Holocaust was genius. I didn’t think it was possible to get such a good grasp of such a horific time through a ‘comic book’ way. Maus lead me to look at the Holocaust in a persepctive that I never knew before. His way of distiguishing the different people by using animals made it easier to understand the struggle between these different people. These books illustrated the true struggles that people have in life as animals do in the wild, as Art presents.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
The style of maus is almost like a children’s book. You have the animals that are symbolic of the different nationalities and races for a number of reasons and serving as people telling a story. It is very easy to read and understand. Art Spiegelman did a wonderful job relating such a terrible event into a easier way of people to get a clearer look at it. Must be why it won a lot of awards.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Although I enjoyed the style of the book I thought at times it didn’t serve enough of its purpose to merit its style. If the comic style was suppose to be a grand supplement to the brilliant writing then surely it would have done more then to add pictures to the book, rather, it would help to emphasize the point Spiegelamn was trying to make about the Holocaust. I found many of the panes to be absolutely fitting and beautiful in their cause for the book but there are also times when they didn’t seem to do anything, nothing was going on in them. They served no emphasize to the differentiation of animal characters or to the characters themselves as individuals.
As far as hearing about a specific survivors tale, I thought he wrote a compelling story with great detail about the frequent activities that these people had to put up with. I especially enjoyed the time he spent on what it actually took and how much cleverness it required to stay alive amidst all the chaos.
If part of his goal was to leave you with more questions and wanting to know more about what occurred then he was successful.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Many would not expect the Holocaust to be told in the form of a graphic novel, nor from the point of view of animals. Charme pointed out in lecture that the way Spigelman portrays his tale was viewed as controversial by many. Furthermore, I thought it was interesting how the author uses animals to differentiate between races (i.e. Jews were portrayed as mice; the Polish were portrayed as pigs; Germans were portrayed as cats; Americans were portrayed as dogs). I think his use of different animals illustrate his views on the characteristics of each race. For instance, I believe he used mice to portray Jews because they were “small” and insignificant at the time of the Holocaust, and they were believed to be “disease carriers”. Overall, I enjoyed both volumes, and I felt that it was a heart-wrenching tale of the Holocaust and its effects on the lives of survivors.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Can the holocaust be captured within the pages of a graphic novel? Well there is no one to stop you from trying, however I think Spigelman’s rendition falls short of truly capturing the feeling and horrors of humanity’s darkest moment. The morbid tale incorporates too much of the artist himself instead of the dynamics of Vlad’s story making it a reflection of Spigelman’s life instead of a window into the Holocaust. MAUS never captured my gut-wrenching reflex nor my sense of pity for Vlad. Spigelman’s continued cynicism reduced the horrors and pains by the middle of MAUS II right when it was supposed to be at it’s worse.
Had Vlad and Anja’s fates been unknown from the outset perhaps the story would have been more moving. But talking about the fates of the victims of the Holocaust in passing with occasional showings of dead mice gave MAUS a lack of passion and disconnected itself from anything I could really hold on to. This would be a good introduction to the Holocaust for a younger audience, but for those of us with stronger stomach’s and a wider knowledge base having viewed the archives of Holocaust films, MAUS left me feeling less then furious and furious is exactly where I want to be when I study, view, read, or talk about the Holocaust.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:37 am
I really did like Maus a lot and i think it was smart to make it a graphic novel. It’s a story that you dont hear or see often. I also love how Spiegelman wrote the fathers words in broken english, as if he was speaking directly to you. I feel that the story of Spiegelman’s father was so powerful because we were about to read and see and truely understand not only what went on in the time of the Holocaust, but also the feelings that the jews were feeling at the time. It was an enjoyable and educational read.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:13 am
I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I am in awe of the horrific treatment of these people. I am so saddened of this true life tail of the life that the Jews had to live through. The median in which Spiegelman choose to write his graphic novel was outstanding. I did not want to but either of them down Maus I, II. I talked so much about them, that my thirteen year old son is now reading them for school. The characters in which he also used, was well chosen. The cat as the German Nazi’s and the mice as the Jews was an excellent choice of characterization. The Jews really did have to run and hide from the devouring cat. I watch my own cats play with a fake mouse and how they through it in the air, run after it, bite on it and hide it in a special place for later play, this type play is exactly what these Nazi pricks did to the Jews. As long as I live I will never, never understand the horrific treatment in which humans can treat other human beings with. the amount of starvation, belittling, and malicious murdering of millions of lives is more then I can bare as an individual. The Poles as pigs was perfect depiction of these people; they truly where trash eating people in which they back stabbed their neighbors and friends. the way in which they got rich off the Jews and turned them in as soon as they paid or ran out of money they are truly “PIGS.” The writing style and median use of comic style will allow this one story of the family survival through the Holocaust to live on so that they are not forgotten people. Spiegelman has given a gift not only to his family but to the Jewish nation through out the world to elaborate on the horrendous ordeal of survival from the coniferous eating feline”Nazi” on an innocent timid but very strong mouse “The Jews.” the most important message is that the Jews are much stronger people then anyone has ever given them credit for.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I was surprised of how powerful this book was even though it was written in a comic book format. I think that it was not only a great tool for learning for undergrads but also for high school students. I especially liked how we were hearing a survivors story, I think that when you hear from someone who has actually been through this experience and are not just simply reading through a book it makes everything more powerful. I thought that the author using animal faces was just an interesting twist and nothing more. I do not understand why everyone thinks that this is a fantastic thing, the story would have stilll been the same if they were regular people.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:43 am
i like the use of the graphic novel medium in maus because i feel that it makes the story accessible to a wide audience that may not have a strong interest in holocaust history. this may only be due to the novel nature of such a story written as a comic book, but i don’t think it matters as long as people are taking an interest in some way. the animal heads were a useful treatment of the different national groups represented in the book. i agree with some of the other comments here in saying that the use of the particular animal heads was logical for the thinking at the time of the holocaust. hopefully, these no longer represent widely held stereotypes. the problem that i had with the use of the graphic novel form was that in reading it, i did tend to take the story less seriously. i found that i was much more emotionally impacted in watching the documentary in class and in reading night. i was also concerned, as was art speigelman, with the depiction of his father in his old age. though he was remaining true to life, his father ended up playing the role of a cultural stereotype. i understand his desire to portray every aspect as accurately as possible, but i also don’t feel that some omissions would have been detrimental to the credibility of the story as a whole.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am
At first, I thought reading a comic book would be very distracting since I would be looking at pictures and bubble thoughts. Yet, once I picked up Maus I could not put it down. I loved the way Spiegelman created his characters in such a way, that each has a personality. A younger person could read this novel and understand a very personal and intense story of the Holocaust. The animals he chose to portray the Jews, Germans, and Polish were also very interesting. A mouse has always had a annoying characteristic placed on it, and usually, humans try to get rid of the “pestilence”. Another irony is that mice are used for other biological functions such as medicinal and product testing. Spiegelman used these animals to portray the negative attitudes that exist against mice in real life. Cats are also interesting because of their sly presence. In using animals instead of humans he was able to emphasize the differences that exist between those involved in the story. This reminds me of the tactic used in “Animal Farm” where the story is no longer forced to the idea of human capabilities, yet in the end the effect is retrospective.