Maus, by Art Spiegelman was an
interesting book. It is a graphic novel thatI found very straight foreword and
telling. I found it is interesting to see the images of animals used to
represent different races of people. It shows how people used to see each other
as different species and people would segregate themselves into groups. Also
the ways the mice are represented tell a lot about the character of the Jewish
people during the holocaust.
When
reading a New York Times interview with Spieglman I found an interesting tid
bit that he used to work for Zap comix under Robert Crumb and he originally
wanted to draw the mice to represent black people being oppressed by the Ku
Klux Klan. The use of mice to symbolize the oppressed seems to be common theme
throughout history. This may be due to how the oppressors depict the oppressed.
I know during World War 2 that there was a lot of Nazi propaganda that depicted
Jews as rats and vermin. This maybe where the significance draws from. What I do not completely understand though is
the depiction of the Polish as pigs. I guess pigs are neutral when it comes to
the battle between cats and mice, but it just seems a little bit of a negative
way to portray a group of people. Although that may be my own western biased
view towards pigs and symbolism.
Another
thing I noticed was that there is very little mouth movement in most of the
characters. I am not sure if this is what the author intended, but when the
mice talk to each other, you rarely see their mouth open to show that they are
talking. This may represent the Jewish people’s ability to vocalize their
problems to the world, or maybe it is simply an aesthetic choice.
All in all,
the story was very realistic and the characters where extremely personable. Sometimes
I have a hard time connecting with characters in certain novels and comics, but
in Maus every character seemed to be like a fully rounded human being, but
while looking like animals. The writing was amazing and the graphics are great.
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