Maus Theme Essay

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 author. Vladek resourcefulness helps him survive because of his knowledge of different languages, skills to work on anything, and initiative to make trades with others allows him to survive the years that he was trap in the Holocaust.

Luck seems to influence many parts of people’s lives. However, without making smart choices at the right time, luck does not happen just by chance. A graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman, Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale, is about the author’s father as a Holocaust survivor in the twentieth century. Throughout the whole story of Maus II, the role of resourcefulness in survival is presented repeatedly. When the author’s father, Vladek, was in Auschwitz, there were several moments where he was about to be killed. In such circumstances, resourcefulness played much larger role than luck, and it helped him to stay alive. Specifically, Vladek’s ability to save for future, to find work and to trade kept him alive in Holocaust. Therefore, people who survived were mostly the resourceful ones, not the ones who were randomly chosen.

Vladek Spiegelman was a soldier of WWII, a prisoner of war, a Jew living in Poland during the Holocaust, a civilian and a survivor. Vladek Spiegelman had a son named Richieu with his first wife, Anja - the love of his life- and another son: Artie, the author and illustrator of Maus which details the story of Vladek’s survival. Unfortunately, Richieu passed away during the Holocaust; Anja committed suicide when Artie Spiegelman was in his early twenties. Due to these events and what he’s been through, throughout the Holocaust, Vladek’s views on life and how he makes relationships with people changed.

The novel “Maus” is a story based on Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. In the Maus, it goes back and forth between two first person narrators, which is Valdek and Art. Art Spiegelman is the author of the graphic novel Maus and the co-narrator. Artie Spiegelman tell his story in first perspective about his conflicted relationship with his father. Art Spiegelman tape records his father testament, takes notes, and researches his parents past experiences during the Holocaust. In addition, Vladek Speigeleman is a first person narrator that tells his story about his life during the Holocausts. However, Maus is a strange combination of memoir and non-fiction told through a comic. Consequently, Vladek and Artie are two unreliable

After the Holocaust on May 8th, 1945, a book called Maus was released which is revolved around survival. The author, Art Spiegelman intended the story was to reflect upon his past and express his feelings world how he had to deal life was at the time.The book is a story of Art’s father named Vladek, he tells his point-of-view to the world to show multiple struggles he had to withstand. The theme of Art Spiegelman’s book Maus is survival; Art Spiegelman shows the theme of survival by using tone, mood, and point-of-view throughout the graphic novel. Vladek is the main character of Maus and shares his point of view. Vladek tells a true story about how he survived the Holocaust and the things he had to accomplish to make it through alive. This book is based on a true story of what had happened during the Holocaust.

Maus A Survivor’s Tale, written by Art Spiegelman. Both graphic novels are about drastic changes upon Vladek Spiegelmans Family going through the Hitler’s Era. Vladek Spiegelman talks about how World War II affected his family being Polish. Artie Spiegelman is writing a book on how most polish families suffered the exact pain as Jewish people. The story begins in Czestochowa, Poland as Vladek Spiegelman and Anja Zylberberg got married.

In a struggle for survival, nearly all human beings will gladly pawn their pain and hardships off onto other, struggling human beings. Therefore, Ivan and his gang act only as any other humans would act in such a situation. The symbolism is apparent when it is understood that humans, even those who are not in such extreme positions of survival as a Russian work camp, act in this manner. Ivan and his gang, in their time of desperate struggle, reflect the actions of average human beings in simple, day-to-day struggles.

Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a graphic novel which portrays the horror of the Holocaust through the use of animals. The mice are the narrators, representing the oppressed Jews while the cats represent the Nazis. This story is told as a first-person narrative, explaining in depth the horrors lived by Vladek, a Polish Jew reliving his tale by sharing his story with his son, Artie. Spiegelman uses this novel to tell his own life story as a Holocaust survivor. Unlike his father, he may not have lived through the horrors the Nazis have brought to the Jews, but he had to grow up and live with the psychological effects and the trauma this had on his father. Indeed, the novel begins with a prologue which is a memory Artie recounts from

While discussing the miraculous fact the Vladek had even survived the Holocaust, Francoise mentions, “But in some ways he didn’t survive” (Spiegelman 90). Unfortunately, Vladek become stuck in this “saving” mindset for the rest of his life, as seen when he picks up a stray wire from the street in the first novel, his tendency to save “useless” things such as stationary from hotels, the rather embarrassing act of returning half-eaten groceries, and so on and so forth. This act of “saving” anything he could also led to his financial over planning, in which Vladek preferred to save money “just in case” instead of break down and spend it when it was easier to purchase something knew versus fixing it. While this thriftiness that was essential for survival during the Holocaust turned Vladek into a person who was rather hard to deal with after the fact. Due to the fact that Vladek was so engrossed with the idea of “saving,” he was in conflict with those he loved who didn’t see the need for the practice.

Art Spiegelman's Maus is a renowned comic book that won a Pulitzer Prize. The book was published in two parts, Volume I: "My Father Bleeds History," in 1986, and Volume II: "And Here My Troubles Began," in 1991. It was later integrated into one single volume. The book told Spiegelman's desire to write about his father's experiences during the Holocaust, as well as the experiences themselves. There had been numbers of Holocaust books over the decades, but Maus is different among all. After reading numerous Holocaust books, they become repetitive, because most people are aware of the tragic event. Maus offers not only the tale of the Holocaust, but stories about its victims, and the next generation as well. Its distinction was already

Memory can be considered a mixed blessing. On one hand, it allows one to look back at their experiences and learn from them. On the other hand, memories aren’t always happy–they can haunt people, and fill them with regret. The graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman tells the the story of his father, Vladek, during the Holocaust. It is told from the perspective of Art Spiegelman himself; depicting both conversations with his father where Vladek would tell his story, and Spiegelman’s recreation of the scenes Vladek would describe.

The Jewish Holocaust, as is the case with events in which the human spirit has been engaged in a fight for survival, produced great works of literature. Elie Wiesel's Night and Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz are perhaps the best known examples of this literary tradition. Art Spiegelman's MAUS, published in the 1980s, represents a new kind of literary oeuvre inspired and/or based on the Holocaust. Written by a second generation Holocaust survivor, MAUS fuses the story of the terrible historical occurrence with a Jewish American's struggle to forge his own understanding of the brutal extermination of his people by the Nazi regime in the Second World War.

While many might be hesitant of how appropriate the novel is for portraying such a tragic event, this novel can easily be said to be one of the most powerful, moving, and unique interpretations of the Holocaust. The novel is entirely in black and white, which in my opinion shows the darkness, rawness, and despair of those who endured the tragedy. Spiegelman's two-volume graphic novel records the struggles of comic book artist Artie Spiegelman as he interviews his father Vladek, a Polish Jew, about his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust. The work is made up in a graphic novel format of illustrated panels accompanied by narration and dialogue in a perplexed story. The novel consists of two primary accounts; the first account is a series of interviews by Vladek Spiegelman, who tells his story about his experiences during the Holocaust. The second account, and the one I will be examining, is a continuation of Vladek’s experiences in a Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz but also focuses on the author, Art. Within that narrative occurs a second minor narrative, which appears at the beginning of the second chapter of Maus II and takes place shortly after the publication of Maus I. It is a deeply personal and self-reflective story revealing the conflicting emotions of the author with regards to his father and the publication of

The Maus books are award-winning comics written by Art Spiegelman. They are the non-fictional stories of Art and his father, Vladek. In the book, Art Spiegelman is a writer, planning to portray Vladek’s life as a Jewish man during WWII Europe in comic book form. While Art gathers information for his story through visits to his father’s house, much is learned about their relationship and individual personalities. Through this analysis, Maus becomes an example of how the Holocaust has effected the lives of survivors and their children for decades. Survivors suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which impairs their ability to live normal lives and raise their children. By

The book Maus is written by Artie Spiegelman. Artie’s father is a Holocaust survivor, and a prisoner of war; this is the main event of the story. Artie uses imagery in the form of animals to display race in the graphic novel of Maus. The survivors of the Holocaust are burdened with mental disorders; Artie acknowledges the trauma and the effect it has on the survivors as well as the people around them. Artie uses figurative language and imagery to demonstrate relationships and mental health issues.