Maus Reflection

I have read many graphic novels, mostly comic style books when I was younger about superheroes like Spider-Man and Superman that made me think graphic novels were always childish and couldn’t mean anything. But when I read Maus, my opinion changed. I never knew that a graphic novel could have such a deep meaning and could be very powerful. The book revolves around the harrowing narrative of the Holocaust with a complex father-son relationship that depicts the terrors of a Holocaust survivor better than history books or documentaries. Spiegelman achieves that by using a combination of motifs, rhetorical devices, and visual elements. For example, a prominent motif is the use of animals to represent different ethnic groups, with Jews portrayed as mice, nazis as cats, polish as pigs, and Americans as dogs. This motif emphasizes the predator-prey relationship in the Holocaust such as mice getting tortured and killed by cats and the cats being feared by the dogs. Visual elements such as the black and white illustration and the absence of color reflect the bleakness of the Holocaust. The use of real pictures of Spiegelman’s family blurs the lines between fiction and truth reminding the readers that this story is a historical Mortifying true story. Spiegelman also uses rhetorical devices such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and flashbacks to show how traumatizing Vladeck’s present is even though this all happened in the past, also highlighting the Past vs Present themes. He also represents Intergenerational trauma as Artie also struggles with psychological problems even though he wasn’t a Holocaust survivor. Overall these last few weeks of reading and closely analyzing Maus, I now know that graphic novels can represent a lot more than just images if they are written and used in the right way. 



Comments

  1. Arnav Chittiprolu10 December 2023 at 12:09

    I liked how you mentioned how your impression of graphic novels has changed because of "Maus". I also had a similar experience to you because I also thought graphic novels were childish, but after reading "Maus", I started to understand the signficance of them and the deep meaning they can convey.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10 December 2023 at 19:40

    I never thought about the black and white color theme having a deeper meaning, but after reading your blog and your explanation about the color theme I can see how it added to the novel.

    ReplyDelete

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