Analysis Of Maus A Survivors Tale By Art Spiegelman

The graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (1994) is about Spiegelman’s interpretation of his father’s stories about surviving the Holocaust. The story starts with the Spiegelman’s family current life in New York. The father Vladek, a Polish-Jewish man is unhappy with his marriage to his second wife Mala after his first wife Anja committed suicide. Vladek starts the story in Nazi-occupied Poland in the year of 1939, speaking about his experience of being a solider that was captured by the Germans as war prisoner. Spiegelman visits him often to hear the continuation of the story, which covers escaping prison; losing his business, family, home, and son; and struggling to find the basic survival necessities for who was left†¦show more content†¦By leaving the panel borders open, this vague image leaves the reader to freely imagine different spaces of the current drawn image. For example, personally I imagine individuals of the commun ity having humours and embarrassing stomach problems. However, an even greater humours part is Vladek admitting it was a mistake, which may indicate Pesach himself was unaware of the laundry soap. Pesach consuming the cake and having stomach issues can be seen as a humours way of how karma served him for trying to rob people of their money in a devastating time. The use of closure within the panels is also discussed in the comic book guide, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud (1993). McCloud (1993) addresses â€Å"observing the parts and perceiving the whole† is closure, which is what gives the laundry soap scene, life and freedom to the imagination of each individual reader. Comic relief is greatly supported by the use of closure as it allows individual readers to freely imagine as what they interpret as humours. The second use of comic relief is involved with Anja’s death. Spiegelman dedicated the graphic novel to his mother Anja at the beginning of the book, who plays a significant role in his life. The audience is well aware of Anja’s maternal depression and post-depression after the Holocaust, which may have been the result of her death. From all of the deaths that occurred in the Holocaust (including otherShow MoreRelatedMaus1385 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis of Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman Maus, by Art Spiegelman, shows the trials and tribulations that the main character, Vladek, and his companions suffered during the Holocaust. No matter the situation, Vladek rises up to the challenge, and does the only thing he can do: live. For the Jewish people during that time surviving was a challenge and for those that actually survived was pure luck. Throughout Maus we find this survival in the portrayal of Vladek Spiegelman; father of the authorRead MoreAdvancing the Individuals Knowledge of the Holocaust Essay2289 Words   |  10 PagesBy comparing, analyzing and questioning the validity of Maus I and II, Night, Night and Fog, nonfictional historical accounts and a poem, called Already Embraced by the Arm of Heavenly Solace, found in Europe in the Contemporary World, Schindler’s List and the Return to Auschwitz we may determine to what degree these sources serve to advance humanity’s understanding of the holocaust. The holocaust can be explained as the histori cal event in which the Nazi’s, who came to power in Germany in JanuaryRead MoreCauses of Genocide Essay1675 Words   |  7 Pagestremendous influences at work, such as justification through denial and mitigation, established racism and discrimination, group polarization and the psychological effect of schadenfreude. These influences can be observed in Art Spiegelman’s comic book, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, which portrays the experiences of Art’s father, Vladek, through the prototypical example of genocide, the Holocaust. The history of genocides, and especially complete genocides, carries an inherent subjectivity due to the