...“When first I came home it looked exactly so as before I went away… (74),” Vladek begins recalling his past experiences to his son Art. In Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art is the son of a Polish Jew who writes and records his father’s memories of the horrendous holocaust. This ability to create multiple perspectives is known as frame narrative, allowing the readers to learn more insight about the characters such as thoughts, feelings, and motivations. Although the comic itself is seen through Art’s eyes, words, and sketches, it is Vladek’s story that is being represented. Art Spiegelman did a wonderful job of incorporating numerous smaller narratives into one graphic novel with his constant use of two very important literary devices. The use of...
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...In Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman presents not only his father’s Holocaust narrative but also his own personal narrative, especially with regards to his relationship with Vladek. Readers learn that Artie and Vladek do not always get along, and there is a palpable tension between them. Vladek seems frugal and argumentative, while Artie appears self-centered and uncaring. In both cases, the characters’ faults are not glossed over. They are portrayed realistically, with positive and negative traits on full display. These portrayals accomplish two different goals for Spiegelman: one, they emphasize Artie’s interest in accuracy as opposed to sentimentality, and two, they allow the audience to discover Artie’s own personal trauma—namely,...
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...Any person of Jewish descent that lived in Germany or Poland in the late 1930’s and 1940’s lived with a constant fear of being discovered, which caused a Jew’s life to consist solely of hiding from the ruthless Nazi campaign. These grim times pressured countless Jews to alter their appearance and lifestyle in order to blend in with the non-Jewish crowd. Acts of concealment were displayed particularly effectively in Art Spiegleman’s Maus: A Survivors Tale. Spiegleman’s 296-page graphic novel got published in 1991 after releasing small pieces of his work through from 1980 to 1991 in the magazine Raw. Through the visual support of a graphic novel, Spiegleman portrayed his father, Vladek’s survival stories of the holocaust using: Jews as mice,...
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...a Comic Book Art Spiegelman’s MAUS: A Survivor’s Tale is uniquely suitable to study the holocaust and literature because of its innovative qualities such as a graphic novel, its detailed biography of a witness of the Holocaust in Poland, and its complex sroey of that witess as a survivor in the United States. MAUS: A Survivor’s Tale gives readers new insight into literature because of its form as a graphic novel. “We don’t need more genteel synonyms. We need to examine and redifine the words we inherit” (Spiegelman “Eyeballs”). Emotion is being assigned to abstract icons, it has become a predicament. The word “retarded” symbolizes a mental disorder, but it has been over used, and now carries a meaning of offensive criticism. “…Working relentlessly to sharpen students’ reading skills…hopes the graphic-novel rage at the school had something to do with it” (Solomon). Schools are hoping that reading comic books will help students in school, and they are preferred due to their illustrations. Also, reading, even comic books, will help improve FCAT scores, which will help the school. Cartoons are especially effective since people can recognize the drawing and characterize it into someone by age, gender, ethnicity, intelligence, and feelings (Spiegelman “Eyeballs”). Comic strips were made from stereotypes. Stereotype means to give a solid form to, and was invented as a way of making relief-printing plates. MAUS: A Survivor’s Tale also serves as an important document...
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...were just bright, colorful magazines with poorly drawn pictures and silly stories of men in their tights. Later on, McCloud became a comic book artist and begun to have a deeper appreciation for the medium(McCloud, 2). In his book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, McCloud gives graphic novels a different definition: Sequential Art. The term was coined by the late graphic novelist, Will Eisner and defined it as an art form that uses images deployed in sequence for graphic storytelling or to convey information (McCloud,5). With regards to this topic, this can also be seen in Art Spiegelman's critically acclaimed graphic novel, Maus....
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...Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale—And Here My Troubles Began The Holocaust was one of the worst epidemics in the entire world. Many people were killed, more importantly the Jewish community, with millions dead. Families were torn and never mended. Among these families were the Spiegleman’s. Art Spiegleman was the son in the family who wrote about his father’s experience in the Holocaust. Maus I and Maus II are his two works of art that share historical information and his personal struggle. Within Maus II, Art talks about the start of his father’s struggles and what will be the beginning of a life changing event. The Holocaust affected victims just as the American Great Depression did its victims. This chapter starts out with Vladek continuously counting his pills, and then Artie and Francoise are staying with him just for a little since Mala left. Vladek keeps everything; he doesn’t want to get rid of anything, even crumbs. In chapter three, page 78 of Maus II, he is trying to give Artie a piece of fruitcake, and Artie refuses, and says he isn’t hungry. Vladek then tells Artie, “So, fine. I can pack the fruitcake in with the cereal for you to take home,” then Artie refuses to let Vladek give him the food because he doesn’t want it. Vladek then says, “I cannot forget it…ever since Hitler I don’t like to throw out even a crumb.” This shows that Vladek is still afraid to get rid of anything, because he is still in fear of the past. They begin talking more about Auschwitz, and how in...
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...Dehumanization in Art Spiegelman’s Maus War broke out in Europe in September of 1939. Everything went downhill from then, Germans began to take over and minorities such as Jews were quickly forced to go to concentration camps, these horrible camps were stationed all over Europe. One of the main camps in Poland was Auschwitz. Opened in May 1940, it was an extermination camp located in southern Poland in a small town named Oswiecim. The camp consisted of three separate camps not far from one another so that communication could be kept between them. These three camps included: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II–Birkenau and Auschwitz III–Monowitz. Auschwitz I was classified as the base camp where prisoners mainly worked, Auschwitz II–Birkenau was the main extermination camp where prisoners went to die in a variety of ways after being too weak to work, and Auschwitz III–Monowitz another labor camp, which held prisoners who worked at a German chemical factory, IG Farben. The killing methods ranged from being lined up at a wall and shot to being put into ‘showers’ that realized a toxic gas. Once the prisoners were dead, they were then burned in the crematoriums at the camp. Essentially the prisoners of the labor and death camps were treated as objects and not as the humans that they were. Many might even go as far as refer to the Germans as heartless for doing the things that they did to the innocent Jews and other monitories. Art Spiegelman’s Maus shows the effects of the German’s...
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...What it takes to survive a war “Maus” is graphic novel that tells the story of some survivors of the Holocaust, written by Art Spiegelman. It revolves around the main character Vladek (Art’s father) and his journey starting from years before World War II throughout the war and finally the end of the war and his survival. As a Jewish man, Vladek’s survival through the war and the Nazi concentration camps was genuinely a tough and difficult trip. Not only he survived, but Vladek also managed to carry his family away from the face of death. Quite a few factors contributed to his success, some are physical; such as his various skills and abilities that he used to keep himself alive, while the rest are emotional; like his love to his family, his dedication and his resourcefulness. Vladek was a true handyman, he possessed lots of skills before the war which later turned out to be his boat to the shore of life. He started out in the textile business, where it was more management work than hard labor. Later after Anja fell into a state of depression and he was coming back from the sanitarium, he enlisted into the Polish army, where he learned survival and combat skills that would help him in the long run. He was taken as a prisoner soon enough after the war starts, however, he got released. Vladek got into the black market business, dealing in the black market taught him a lot of skills varying from negotiation and communication skills to life lessons such as not trusting everyone...
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...London Bennett Section 11 February 10, 2015 If Humans are Animals, are Animals Humans? The very dramatic and dark, graphic novel, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, by Art Spiegelman invites us readers to a hands on account of a Polish Jew’s horrific journey through the unforgettable Holocaust. Maus is not the ordinary comic that you would typically read, but instead, exemplifies another level of genre that fights the “norms” of a comic. Art Spiegelman takes his audience outside of their comfort zone and creatively imbeds a plot twist. For example, as stated in, Understanding Comics, McCloud simply states, “Comics were those bright, colorful magazines filled with bad art, stupid stories and guys in tights” (McCloud 2). Yet, we observe nothing of this sort of depiction either through imagery or language. Within this graphic novel, there are harsh depictions of Jews, Poles and Germans. The careful detail to language and cruel words are loaded with intense tone. As the readers, we encounter several historical points-of-view that Vladek Spiegelman presents: the pre-Holocaust, the Holocaust, and the post-Holocaust that he unearths, layer by layer. He engages his readers through his vivid traumatic encounters along with the sad misfortunes that took place during the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman’s audience can be directed towards those who are engaged by historical autobiographies and, equally so, an audience who seeks to revel in the pain and suffering of others; also he provides a way...
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...A Graphic Adventure A Graphic Adventure Nathan Reece Herzing University A Graphic Adventure The holocaust is well known as a very tragic event and a first-hand account of such an event is already intriguing enough. However, Art Spiegelman took the intrigue a step further by telling it through an ironic graphic novel. The short adscript, “Prisoner of War” is an ironic graphic representation of the holocaust from a Russian’s perspective. Artie, a secluded boy, visits his father one of many times to ascertain more information about his past experiences in the war. In this instance his father recollects a time of tragic momentums. Artie listens eagerly although seems to take more interest in the recording story’s events than his father’s suffering. Perhaps one of the most ironic aspects of this graphic novel is the decision to use animals to depict race and nationality. Rats and Mice, for example, are used for the male and female Jewish characters. Cats are used for German soldiers and pigs for the Polish, who were very bitter towards the Germans at this time. This allowed him to depict something through picture that he would normally describe in long script. The variation shows the Jews as pests, which is how society saw them at the time. And it also showed the German as their predators and natural oppressors. Cats are viewed as a control factor for rats and mice, which exactly the way they saw themselves. Prior to telling the story, Vladek is demonstrating...
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...Before the war | 4 | 2.b | During the war | 5 | 2.c | After the war | 6 | 3 | Maus: Graphics and Symbolism | 6 | 4 | Comparative Analysis: Understanding the Characters | | 4.a | Sophie and Vladek | 8 | 4.b | Sophie and Anja | 9 | 4.c | Nathan Landau and Holocaust survivors | 10 | 4.d | Stingo and Art as narrators | 10 | 5 | Bibliography | 11 | Literature from the Holocaust: An Introduction “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” Adolf Hitler Official figures tell that six million Jews, two million Poles, one million Serbs, five million Russians were exterminated during World War II – the actual toll of executions by the Nazi Government, can never be estimated. Holocaust was a period of unspeakable horror and infernal ramifications which were not only felt across Europe but also in places like Laos. When I began this term paper, it was meant to be a study of the literature pertaining to this period of Nazi regime in Poland during World War II. What it turned out to be was a account of implacable and starkly real evil. A subject that has inspired countless movies, novels, real-life accounts, memoirs and poems, the holocaust continues to haunt the imagination of the world even today. It is not history bygone and forgotten, it is a demon that could never be truly obliterated from the lives and minds of the people. The following pages contain an analysis of Maus, the Pulitzer Prize Special Award recipient (1992), and one of the most loved...
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...Running head: DIGITAL FREEDOM FIGHTERS Digital Freedom Fighters: Defending Free Speech in the 21st Century Abstract Many forms of speech have been contested over the course of time with many being banned, but comic books have been the target of many critics over the 75 year time span of publication. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that free speech should not be impeded. Many organizations, including the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, are continuing the legal battle of insuring the right of free speech remains unencumbered. Digital Freedom Fighters: Defending Free Speech in the 21st Century Introduction Comic books have been published for over 75 years with a varied subject matter including superhumans, gods, soldiers, historical events and animals. Originally conceived as a child’s reading fodder, comics have evolved beyond the original audience. A recent study found that over 98% of comic book readers are over the age of 18. (Pantozzi, 2012) No longer an art form exclusively for children, comics have been the target of many censorship attacks. With the advent of 21st century technology, comic books have evolved and the criticisms have evolved with them. Newer challenges to this form of speech can sometimes be overwhelming, but there are many organizations which are focused on protecting these freedoms. These are the digital freedom fighters. They are a safeguard against...
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...Spiegelman’s Maus first and perhaps most forcefully established the connection between archives and comics. His groundbreaking work documenting his father’s experience in WWII Poland, where he survived internment in Auschwitz, is a visual narrative based on oral testimony that consistently heightens our awareness of visual, written, and oral archives, and where they interact, overlap, or get transposed one into the other. Hillary Chute recounts and interprets her collaboration with Spiegelman in the process of assembling MetaMaus, a book compiling interviews and archival materials on the making of Maus. MetaMaus, argues Chute, reflects the tension between different kinds of extant archives—oral, written, photographic—and the cross-discursive work of (re)building new archives that motivates Maus. Its defining feature is that it shows the materiality of Spiegelman’s archive; it is about the embodiment of archives. The subject of Maus is the retrieval of memory and ultimately, the creation of memory…. It’s about choices being made, of finding what one can tell, and what one can reveal, and what one can reveal beyond what one knows one is revealing. Those are the things that give real tensile strength to the work—putting the dead into little boxes. – Art Spiegelman (MetaMaus 73) Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is a book about archives. And the book about making Maus, MetaMaus, is both a process of taking stock of the Maus archive and an active process of creating a new archive.1 Maus is about...
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...Oppression: To Resist or Adapt? Humans have this mysterious conception the one skin tone, religion, region, or ideology is superior than another human beings. From the beginning of mankind to our world today, groups of like minded people have degraded or oppressed groups that do not categorize under their idea of who is equal to them. The groups that are degraded or oppressed have historically shown that they either resist and fight against the oppressor or adapt and strive to continue living peacefully to the best of their abilities. This can be shown through the examples from the 19 century when African Americans were freed and struggled on whether to resist or adapt to post Reconstruction era America; in World War II between how people of the Jewish faith tried to adapt without resisting to Nazi occupation, imprisonment, and even murder; and finally today, how women in the Middle East, who are going against culture and trying to gain basic rights as human beings. It would be beneficial to begin describing the situation that African Americans faced during the 19th century. After 1877, slavery ceased to exist in the United States and former slaves had constitutional protection against oppression, yet African Americans continued to be oppressed in the South. During the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century Democrats, who at that time supported the Confederacy and slavery, started to implement a series of laws called the Jim Crow laws. The primary...
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