Maus Analysis

In this article, Daniel Wise and Dr. Weinstein present interesting ideas on several things presented througout this piece of literature.  For one, they suggest that the reason for Spiegelman choosing to use animals to represent the characters was a very important choice.  By using animals to represent each race, he not only helped exemplify certain stereotypes through the animal that each race was represented by, but by using animals it helped readers with a visual aid.  Because the jews were represented as somewhat helpless mice, this added to the effect as he illustrated the nazis and ferocious cats that were the persecuters of the mice (Jews).  The two also sugggest the fact that through the use of animals and a comic, this helps ease tension to the topic since it is a very serious and dismal part of our world's history.  Also, they state that the form that the literature was written in "offers a unique perspective that simply would not work in any other form of non-visual story telling."  By writing the novel in a comic form, Spiegelman was able to use more than just words in order to help convey his message. In a "regular" novel, an author would only be able to use powerful language in able to illustrate the seriousness of this time or help create an image of what things would have been like.  But through the use of comics, Spiegelman was able to give visual example that help the reader create a visual image of what things may have been like during this time and what the people had gone through.  In addition, because the book was written in a very unique way, we, the readers, were able to see how the holocaust had affected Spiegleman's father Vlad.  Because of how the story was written, we were able to see who Vlad was during the camps, and how the camps affected him through everyday activities and taking care of his own family.

http://wiseportfolio.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/a-critical-analysis-of-maus-i-my-father-bleeds-history/