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Maus Essay - Art Spiegelman

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  • Engels
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This document contains an essay about the novella Maus by Art Spiegelman. The thesis in this essay: Maus is a timeless graphic novel and should be read by every student around the world.

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  • April 9, 2023
  • 2
  • 2022/2023
  • Book review

Subjects

  • maus
  • art spiegelman
  • dystopian
  • totalitaire
  • engels
  • ib
  • international baccalaureate

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  • VWO / Gymnasium
  • Engels
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Maus is a timeless graphic novel and should be read by high schoolers everywhere

Maus by Art Spiegelman is a Holocaust graphic novel, that unfolds the story about Artie’s
father Vladek and his life during The Second World War. Art Spiegelman (Artie) is
interviewing his father (Vladek) who is a polish-Jewish survivor from the Auschwitz
concentration camp. With this information he wants to write a book, Maus. Maus provides a
painfully honest account of family life during the Holocaust and uses storytelling to assist the
author in choosing sensitive and complex topics in a relatable way. As the son of a
Holocaust survivor, Art Spiegelman witnesses the horror as well as the audience in his
artwork. In this essay I will give three arguments on why Maus is a timeless novel and why it
should be read by high schoolers everywhere.

Firstly, the book is very well written. The graphic novel genre is one of the aspects of
postmodernism. This graphic novel, in particular, shows that a controversial topic such as
the Holocaust, which has been written about plenty of times, can be seen from a different
perspective and a different approach. This different approach does not only come from the
genre of the work but also the symbolism of the characters. The characters are depicted as
anthropomorphic animals and their faces are determined by race. For instance, Germans
are depicted as cats, Jewish people as mice and Polish are depicted as pigs. This is coming
from the Nazi ideology that categorizes different races as superior. Therefore, these animal
faces symbolize the race issue and the life of different ethnic backgrounds in Nazi-Germany.
Furthermore, Maus uses the ideology and a portrayal of the people by the Nazi’s during the
1940s. But at the same time using individual aspects of the characters and genre of the
graphic novel to show a completely different perspective. Maus is an experience and is
considered a masterpiece that is not only about the story itself but in terms of literature in
general as well.

Secondly, Maus is a great example of a canary in the coalmine story. The Holocaust has led
to the death of six million Jewish people and the total death of more than sixty million people.
Present-day Uyghur Muslims are held in concentration camps and are forced to drink alcohol
and eat pork. What does this situation differ from that one back in 1940 where Jews were
taken to Auschwitz? There is no difference. Tragically this behaviour is perpetual, it
happened in history, it happens now and will happen in the future. Maus indicates as a
warning on what could possibly happen and is happening in the world. The story shows us
that if a certain group or person gains an extreme amount of power and influence it can ruin
and end people their lives. To prevent this from happening, the world sometimes needs a
wake-up call or a reminder. This work of art by Art Spiegelman is perfect to serve as such a
reminder.

Finally, Art Spiegelman’s Maus discusses the topic of survivor’s guilt. Survivor's guilt is a
kind of guilt that develops in people who have survived a life-threatening situation. Some of
the survivors feel guilty for surviving while others died. Sometimes they feel they could have
done more to save someone or feel guilty for the ones that saved them by paying the price
with their life. This guilt especially occurs in this story. Since the Holocaust has left so many
physical and mental scars for every country, family or person that was involved. This story
explores the devastating impact that the Holocaust had on survivors and families of
survivors. From the perspective of Vladek Spiegelman’s past experiences and their present-
day relationship, Art Spiegelman highlights this depressive and obsessive behaviour that

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