Maus I

Personal Response

As any Holocaust book, this was a difficult book to read. I teach the Holocaust each year in 8th grade. They read Anne Frank and one other Holocaust novel of their choice. To end our unit, they write a research paper on a Holocaust topic. I have found that the students really are interested in the history of this time, and they are specifically touched by the true Holocaust stories. I think that Maus would be a great addition to my Holocaust unit.

I am always fascinated to hear and understand the stories of Holocaust survivors. I think that we often connect Anne Frank with the Holocaust, but we forget that there are so many other survivors with equally amazing stories. I actually had the opportunity to hear a survivor speak last year at a conference, and it was very powerful to hear her story. It is something that most of us cannot understand on any level.

I enjoyed this book, but I do find graphic novel difficult to read. I find myself reading the words, but forgetting to take the time to look at the pictures. In this genre, the pictures really tell so much of the story. I found that if I didn’t look at the pictures, I wouldn’t always know who was speaking. I found the images in this book more difficult to view than in American Born Chinese. They aren’t as crisp, and they are in black and white. However, I felt that the black and white images really worked considering the darkness of the topic.

The graphics themselves were very powerful. I felt that it was very effective to have the mice representing the Jewish people and the cats, the Nazis. This simple variation in the images sent a very powerful message.

I found the dialogue in the present to be effective. I enjoyed the conversations between Artie and his father. His father reminded me of my grandfather, and his marriage reflected that of my grandparents. These details allowed the reader to understand the humanness of the characters.

Critical Response

Art Spiegelman successfully captures his father’s story in his graphic novel Maus I. His story follows the plotline and provides a well-thought out story of his father’s life. He uses many different literary and graphic techniques in his graphic novel.

The use of black and white pictures provides a dark feeling, which is very appropriate for the content of this book. As I mentioned before, he uses mice for the Jewish people and cats for the Nazis. This provides the contrast in the personalities or roles of the Nazi’s in relation to the Jews. When he inserts the comic strip of his mother’s death, the reader sees the characters become actual people. This transition allows the reader to understand that they were damaged humans after the Holocaust.

Spiegelman’s use of flashback allows the reader to understand Art’s father as a character after the Holocaust ended. This is important because it allows the reader to understand the role this tragedy still plays in his current life. It brings to life how this experience has molded him, how it has affected his relationship with his son, and how he manages his relationship with his current wife. The back and forth dialogue in the present provides a vivid image of these relationships.

Additionally, the use of the inserted comic strip about Art’s mother was very effective. It was used to educate the reader of their family’s past. In those short few pages, we learned that Artie’s mother committed suicide (this was mentioned one other time) and that Art himself was in a mental institution. This information helps us understand more the long-term effect that the Holocaust had on them.

Lastly, the cliffhanger at the end of this book is a technique used to transition the reader into the next book. Spiegelman leaves the reader wanting to know what will happen between his father and him. I definitely plan to read the second Maus.