SLIS 5420 - Maus

Week Ten: Graphic Novels – Maus

Book Summary:

            Art Spiegelman always wanted to write his father’s story, despite the differences between them.  Maus is a two part graphic novel beginning with his parent’s life in Poland, showing his father’s life in concentration camps, then concluding with the freedom he finally saw.  Unlike many others who perished during the Holocaust, both of Spiegelman’s parents survived, and eventually moved to the United States to live near her brother. 

            Maus shows not only the story of Vladek Spiegelman during WWII, but the relationship between him and his son, the writer and artist of the story, Art.  Panels of small conversations, that don’t seem to matter except for to give a basis of Vladek’s personality as he aged, are mixed into the story of the Holocaust flawlessly.  The black and white images of Jewish mice and Nazi cats give a new look to the Holocaust that will be difficult to forget.  These two graphic novel volumes teach the Holocaust like no one has seen it before.  It is no wonder Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. 

APA Reference: 

Spiegelman, A. (1986). Maus: A survivor’s tale my father bleeds history. New York, NY: Patheon Books.

Spiegelman, A. (1991). Maus: A survivors tale and here my troubles began. New York, NY: Patheon Books.

 My Impressions:

            This may be the most insightful and well-told story of the Holocaust I have ever read.  The juxtaposition of Art Spiegelman’s talks with his father, Vladek, and images of WWII in Poland in volume one then concentration camps in volume two make the story real in a way that many Holocaust tales don’t quite get.  Just when I thought I was safe in the modern world, I was thrown back into hiding or Auschwitz before I even realized what happened.  The story flows seamlessly from one time into the next and back again. 

            There are details of the Holocaust everyone knows now.  There were gas chambers.  There was little food.  People starved.  People died.  But the few times Spiegelman’s father recites something he had never heard before, such as the living Jews who had gasoline poured on them before they were burned along with those who had been gassed, the images of shock drawn on his face are that of pure horror.  This isn’t just any Holocaust story.  This is what his parents (his mother was at the same camp) saw on a daily basis.  And even though Spiegelman and his father never got along, he felt this story, among the thousands, needed to be told.  Vladek Spiegelman is not portrayed as very likable, but I have a certain caring for him because my father acts in much the same ways, just not so extreme.  I can’t help but think if my father had been Jewish, being born in 1939, he would not have survived.  And if he had, he would have been just as careful with money, even taking opened groceries back like Spiegelman did.

            The illustrations of Jewish mice, Nazi cats, Polish pigs, American dogs, French frogs, and others make this story different from every other Holocaust story in one major way.  Readers can see how the Nazis could tell the Jewish people were Jews.  They were mice.  They did look different, and that makes all the difference.  When teaching 8^th graders The Diary of Anne Frank (We read the play.), the kids always want to know why the Jews just didn’t wear the Star of David.  No one would know.  They could survive.  I’ve never had a 100% perfect answer for them other than the Nazis would just find out somehow anyway.  Now, I feel like I can use a couple panels of Maus to show them the feelings behind “why.”  If the Jews felt they looked so different, then it makes sense that they wouldn’t try to hide in plain sight.  The few times Spiegelman’s father goes out, he wears a Polish pig mask to cover his identity.  It works a few times.  If only it had been that simple in real life. 

            I absolutely loved this story, and know I will be recommending it for years to come.  It is definitely not a “feel good” story, Spiegelman and his father do not have a good relationship. His father never really recovered from his years in hiding and concentration camps.  His mother took her own life.  His older brother (only a toddler at the time of WWII) did not make it out of the war alive.  The second volume is dedicated to his brother, Richieu, and the most heartbreaking line of the books is the last when Vladek Spiegelman, dying with his memory falling away each day, calls Art by Richieu’s name.  How could a father ever forget a child lost so young and under such circumstances?  Vladek seemed to rarely speak of Richieu, but when he finally did, it was touching.  Despite all of this, I loved this story of courage, loss, hatred and love. 

Professional Review:

            These Pulitzer Prize-winning books use the seemingly innocent art form of the comic strip to underscore the horror and depravity of the Jewish Holocaust as well as examine Spiegelman's tenuous relationship with his father, a survivor of the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps. To great effect, the artist symbolically uses cats to characterize the Nazis who imprison and annihilate the Jewish "mice." A powerful companion to any World War II curriculum.

Fazioli, C. (2003, November). Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History/Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began [Review of the
          books Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by A. Spiegelman]. School 
          Library Journal, 49(11), 84. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/

Library Uses:

            Of course, Maus would be a wonderful addition to a book talk or display of graphic novels.  It could also be used in conjunction with Holocaust awareness or WWII groupings.  Maus would also be a good way to show students how to write their own story in graphic form.