Maus by Art Spiegelman

The graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman is an inspiring story of his very own Jewish father who survived the holocaust. The most memorable aspect of this novel is the way the author represents his characters. Art Spiegelman uses the faces of animals instead of human ones as a sort of metaphor. The Jewish people are represented as mice, the Polish are pigs, and the Nazis are cats. The Jewish people of Poland struggled to escape the Nazis like in a cat and mouse chase to survive; back and forth; in and out of danger and fear.

Arts father Vladek is the main character. He and his wife, Anja, lived in Poland during World War II. The story starts with Art asking about how Vladek and Anja met and her battle over depression. This helps the reader understand how Art's mother died and also about his younger brother who didn't come out from the war. The plot gets thicker with every time they were moved and later they had to hide within the many bunkers in which they lived. The story ends with Art mad at his father that he had burned all his mother's dairies.

Different types of people take on the resemblance of the animal with that behavior. The Jewish people were represented as mice trying to escape the cats. The Nazis being the cats are killers and have the most power. The polish people are represented as pigs because of their neutral part in the war. I see it as a metaphor for their selfish and pigheaded nature. Throughout the book, we see several examples of this. The most memorable one is seen when some kids on the street see him and yell to let people know he was a Jew, "The mothers always told so: 'Be careful! A Jew will catch you to a bag and eat you!' ...So they taught to their children." (Pg 149) This shows how selfish most of the Polish people were and how they acted toward he Jews. Although some tried to help hide them mostly when bribed to do so.

This idea of replacing people's faces with those of animals made this story more appealing. Who would want to read a graphic novel about World War II; a war that was the result of the deaths of millions of people. I don't believe too many people would. Art Speigelman was a genius in this way. He made this father's story both insightful and interesting. The fact that the book is in comic form with animals instead of humans, allows you to absorb the story and it's gruesome details until you understand the reality of it. Art Speigelman's