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Maus Father

Decent Essays

Art refers to his work as “realistic fiction” as a way to convey that this is his interpretation of his father’s history. Maus and Maus II aren’t necessarily the exact way that his father experienced things, but rather Arts way of piecing together his father’s story as it was told to him which he must then morph so that it adheres to a comic-book representation. The clearest example of this is in the early pages of Maus II when Art appears to break the fourth wall. “See what I mean… In real life you’d never have let me talk like this without interrupting” (16 Spiegelman). Art realizes that he has had to adjust certain aspects of his father’s story in order to deliver a better comic-book, but ultimately the message and heaviness of his father’s …show more content…

To him, this faithful representation of his relationship with his father served to represent the after effects of the holocaust. Clearly, the Holocaust had damaging effects on not only those directly affected, but the offspring of those survivors as well. I think since comic books were what he was already familiar with, he knew he would have the ability to portray his and his father’s experiences in the truest manner using another comic. I think the visual representations of Maus served as a great way to represent Arts relationship with his dad. If he had ventured into other mediums, who knows how much of the story he wanted to tell would have been …show more content…

To play into his ironic usage of mice as Jews and cats as Nazi’s, he incorporates frogs, pigs, and dogs to represent the various peoples of the story. In a way, he too is stereotyping nations based on their position during WWII. When Francoise ask to be drawn as a rabbit, Art states “But you’re French! Nah, too sweet and gentle. I mean the French in general. Let’s not forget the centuries of anti-semitism” (11 Spiegelman). I think he’s trying to tell the reader about the various countries involved and furthermore label them by their role in the holocaust, as according to Vladek. In chapter two when Art represents the various people with mask on as opposed to animals, he is taking a moment to remind the reader that everyone in the story is indeed a person. This is complemented by the fact that we see Art struggling with a very human problem as he struggles with depression while making

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