What do you think?
Rate this book
Maus #1-2
The Complete Maus
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker).
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust” (The New York Times).
Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust” (The New York Times).
Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Art Spiegelman
80 books2,893 followersArt Spiegelman (born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev) is New-York-based comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic memoir, Maus.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 14,203 reviews
January 11, 2012
oh my god.
This burrowed it's way deep into my heart. This made me feel so much. This was an experience, not just a "read". This was real and I can't even explain how this affected me because it was the most emotional thing I've ever read. Not made-up emotion. This was REAL and it affected me.
Vladek. He reminded me of my Grandfather, a little. I loved my Grandfather and I loved Vladek. His story, as told to his son Art Spiegelman, was one of the most powerful stories I've ever experienced.
This was a story about survival and deep love. The love shown between Vladek and Anja mesmerized me and broke my heart seeing them go through so much cruelty and suffering.
The Complete Maus are two graphic novels combined to form the story of Vladek Spiegelman's life during World War 2. It is drawn masterfully in beautiful black and white. Jewish people are drawn as mice, German people are drawn as cats, Polish people are drawn as pigs and people from the U.S are drawn as dogs.
From Wikipedia:
"In making people of a single nationality look "all alike", Spiegelman hoped to show the absurdity of dividing people by these lines. In a 1991 interview, Spiegelman noted that "these metaphors... are meant to self-destruct in my book — and I think they do self-destruct."
One of my favourite parts of Maus was the relationship between Art and Vladek. Art has a lot of guilt over having such an easy life when his parents went through a hell he couldn't even imagine. Even so, Art and Vladek have a pretty normal father/son relationship. I felt so bad for Vladek at times with the way Art would treat him but it was a normal father/son relationship in the way that sons don't always treat their fathers the best.
Despite this, you could feel the love radiating from the pages. The love Art and Vladek had for each other. I loved the little funny moments in the novel, like when Vladek throws out Art's coat and gives him a "warm" coat, which Art hates because it isn't fashionable. Or when Vladek goes to the supermarket to return an open box of cereal, along with other used/opened groceries.
Just the way Art draws his disapproving father made me smile. It was done with such warmth and love. Art's father was definitely a very funny man, even if he didn't mean to be. I loved Vladek so much and in the last few pages, you are shown a picture of Vladek during World War 2. At that moment, I had to stop myself from crying because after reading his incredible story, I saw a picture of the actual Vladek. And it instantly broke my heart. I felt so much love for him, it was unreal.
This story is not a pleasant one but it is incredible. It's not easy to read at times but it's essential. It's about so many things. If you read this and it doesn't affect you, you are heartless.
I recommend it to everyone. Seriously. Even if graphic novels aren't usually your thing. This is my favourite graphic novel now. There is no way that can change now. This was unforgettable and deeply moving. I LOVED it with all my heart and can't even properly express the love.
Read it. Don't miss out on something so emotional and powerful. I hope you love it like I do.
This burrowed it's way deep into my heart. This made me feel so much. This was an experience, not just a "read". This was real and I can't even explain how this affected me because it was the most emotional thing I've ever read. Not made-up emotion. This was REAL and it affected me.
Vladek. He reminded me of my Grandfather, a little. I loved my Grandfather and I loved Vladek. His story, as told to his son Art Spiegelman, was one of the most powerful stories I've ever experienced.
This was a story about survival and deep love. The love shown between Vladek and Anja mesmerized me and broke my heart seeing them go through so much cruelty and suffering.
The Complete Maus are two graphic novels combined to form the story of Vladek Spiegelman's life during World War 2. It is drawn masterfully in beautiful black and white. Jewish people are drawn as mice, German people are drawn as cats, Polish people are drawn as pigs and people from the U.S are drawn as dogs.
From Wikipedia:
"In making people of a single nationality look "all alike", Spiegelman hoped to show the absurdity of dividing people by these lines. In a 1991 interview, Spiegelman noted that "these metaphors... are meant to self-destruct in my book — and I think they do self-destruct."
One of my favourite parts of Maus was the relationship between Art and Vladek. Art has a lot of guilt over having such an easy life when his parents went through a hell he couldn't even imagine. Even so, Art and Vladek have a pretty normal father/son relationship. I felt so bad for Vladek at times with the way Art would treat him but it was a normal father/son relationship in the way that sons don't always treat their fathers the best.
Despite this, you could feel the love radiating from the pages. The love Art and Vladek had for each other. I loved the little funny moments in the novel, like when Vladek throws out Art's coat and gives him a "warm" coat, which Art hates because it isn't fashionable. Or when Vladek goes to the supermarket to return an open box of cereal, along with other used/opened groceries.
Just the way Art draws his disapproving father made me smile. It was done with such warmth and love. Art's father was definitely a very funny man, even if he didn't mean to be. I loved Vladek so much and in the last few pages, you are shown a picture of Vladek during World War 2. At that moment, I had to stop myself from crying because after reading his incredible story, I saw a picture of the actual Vladek. And it instantly broke my heart. I felt so much love for him, it was unreal.
This story is not a pleasant one but it is incredible. It's not easy to read at times but it's essential. It's about so many things. If you read this and it doesn't affect you, you are heartless.
I recommend it to everyone. Seriously. Even if graphic novels aren't usually your thing. This is my favourite graphic novel now. There is no way that can change now. This was unforgettable and deeply moving. I LOVED it with all my heart and can't even properly express the love.
Read it. Don't miss out on something so emotional and powerful. I hope you love it like I do.
April 24, 2021
The young Adolf Hitler applied twice for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and each time was rejected. One may dream, though: had he been successful, he might have had a different fate, and, as a result, Europe’s history might have taken some other shape… Sixty years later, on another continent, the young Art Spiegelman applied to the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan and passed the exam. His parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, were two Jews from Poland who survived through the Nazi ghetto of Sosnowiec and the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Maus, a massive graphic novel, thirteen years in the making, depicts the complicated relationship between Art and his father, the very process of creating Maus, and, in an interlocked way, Vladek’s experience, living in Poland during the rise and fall of the Third Reich.
In those days, Hollywood was producing some of its most celebrated films, and Mickey Mouse was quickly becoming the cutest little mascot on the silver screen. At that very same moment, the Allied troops carried movie cameras into the concentration camps. The films that remain from that time —the ones shown during the Nuremberg trial — are tough to watch, haunting, almost impossible to put into words. Art Spiegelman has managed to blend both pictures (Disney and the Red Army file footage) poetically, through flat, condensed and straightforward drawings. His old father, a bit soft in the head and speaking in a funny broken English, provides a deeply personal, honest, at times slightly Kafkaesque or Chaplinesque account of these dreadful years, of that constant fear and deprivation, such that we could make some sense of this inhuman, world-changing experience.
There’s a quote by Samuel Beckett somewhere in this book: “Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness”. This visual masterpiece is a refutation of this sentence. And it has left me both moved and dumbfounded.
Edit: Watched Roman Polanski's film The Pianist, based on Wladyslaw Szpilman’s harrowing experience, during the war, in the Warsaw Ghetto. Both Maus and Polanski’s movie share this sense of gradually rising horror and convey the same utter stupefaction.
In those days, Hollywood was producing some of its most celebrated films, and Mickey Mouse was quickly becoming the cutest little mascot on the silver screen. At that very same moment, the Allied troops carried movie cameras into the concentration camps. The films that remain from that time —the ones shown during the Nuremberg trial — are tough to watch, haunting, almost impossible to put into words. Art Spiegelman has managed to blend both pictures (Disney and the Red Army file footage) poetically, through flat, condensed and straightforward drawings. His old father, a bit soft in the head and speaking in a funny broken English, provides a deeply personal, honest, at times slightly Kafkaesque or Chaplinesque account of these dreadful years, of that constant fear and deprivation, such that we could make some sense of this inhuman, world-changing experience.
There’s a quote by Samuel Beckett somewhere in this book: “Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness”. This visual masterpiece is a refutation of this sentence. And it has left me both moved and dumbfounded.
Edit: Watched Roman Polanski's film The Pianist, based on Wladyslaw Szpilman’s harrowing experience, during the war, in the Warsaw Ghetto. Both Maus and Polanski’s movie share this sense of gradually rising horror and convey the same utter stupefaction.
February 2, 2018
Wonderful example of the power of a graphic novel!
This is the “Complete” edition of “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” collecting both parts: “My Father Bleeds History” and “And Here My Troubles Began”.
OF MAUS AND MEN
But these damn bugs are eating me alive!
While it took long time of finally reading Maus,...
...I knew that it was a graphic novel referring about the Jew Holocaust, but using mice (Jews) and cats (Nazis) as the characters,...
...and even while I was sure that it will be a crude telling, I didn’t expect that the only difference between “reality” and this graphic novel would be the choice of using ���animals” as the characters in the story.
I mean, while I agree that Jew Holocaust isn’t a humorous matter, I supposed that it would be some “imaginative” use of places, tools, terms, etc… taking in account that the story was full of mice, cats and even pigs (with some frog or dog, here and there).
Actually, I don’t know why using “animals” as characters if everything else in the story will be keep as it happened. Even there are some odd moments of a “female mouse person” scared due the presence of regular rats.
Again, the Jew Holocaust is not a matter to take in comical way, but then, I think that the graphic novel could plainly use human beings (not necessarily too realistic, some cartoon style could work) and the graphic novel will be the same as good, the same as relevant.
You know, as in the movie Life is Beautiful where the horrors of the Holocaust are there, but still there is space for some humorous moments, that they help as tension relief without meaning any disrespect to the tragic historic event.
However, definitely the graphic format of this story makes possible for readers to be witness from the begining until the end (and even further) of the whole tragic and cruel process of what Jews endured (and not many were able to get out alive from it) during the World War II.
A titanic graphic story constructed during years of artistic effort to show, with detail and authenticity, one of the darkest episodes of human history.
LET MAUS WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...
Friends? Your friends?... If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week… then you could see what it is, friends!
The success of Maus obviously can tied to the reason of being a Jew Holocaust’s story, and almost any suc story receive a wide positive acceptance, but I think that what makes different Maus from many of similar stories is its bold honesty.
Here, you won’t have a partial view of the tragic event or spotless characters.
Obviously Nazis and Polish collaborators/sympathizers are shown doing their evil stuff, BUT also you will watch how Jews behaved with their own, robbing food from their fellow people, not doing any favor unless get paid with something (gold, food, cigarrettes, etc…), true, it was an extreme situation, but usually movies and other books don’t hesitate to show Nazi’s inhuman actions, but you have to realize that those were prisons, and life in prisons is tough and people will lose any humanity from them in the urge to survive.
Also, Art Spiegelman, the author, was bold showing how hard was to live with his father, Vladek Spielgelman (the main character in the Holocaust parts), Vladek wasn’t a saint (and after all, how many of us really is?) with not only crazy habits but even racist thinking against afro-american people. Art Spiegelman is a character in the story too, and while he is a whole better as person than his father, he doesn’t portrait himself as a saint and you can appreciate how even at some moments, he does some kinda unfair actions, since after all, he is human too. His family is as disfunctional as others, being Holocaust’s survivors didn’t turn it magically into “Norman Rockwell paintings”.
Anybody can create perfect heroes, only true writers are able to show the dark moments of his/her own family, in the middle of the storytelling of a book.
In this way, with boldness and courage, Maus exposes us with a harsh truth: Survivors from a war aren’t necessarily good people, saved by their faith or spared due the purity of their souls. No. Survivors from a war (in most cases) is just because plain luck. Even some survivors got such bad luck of dying after the war ended and by non-military personnel.
War is a crazy thing (any war) and if you try to get some logic out of it,...
...you will end as crazy as it.
This is the “Complete” edition of “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” collecting both parts: “My Father Bleeds History” and “And Here My Troubles Began”.
OF MAUS AND MEN
But these damn bugs are eating me alive!
While it took long time of finally reading Maus,...
...I knew that it was a graphic novel referring about the Jew Holocaust, but using mice (Jews) and cats (Nazis) as the characters,...
...and even while I was sure that it will be a crude telling, I didn’t expect that the only difference between “reality” and this graphic novel would be the choice of using ���animals” as the characters in the story.
I mean, while I agree that Jew Holocaust isn’t a humorous matter, I supposed that it would be some “imaginative” use of places, tools, terms, etc… taking in account that the story was full of mice, cats and even pigs (with some frog or dog, here and there).
Actually, I don’t know why using “animals” as characters if everything else in the story will be keep as it happened. Even there are some odd moments of a “female mouse person” scared due the presence of regular rats.
Again, the Jew Holocaust is not a matter to take in comical way, but then, I think that the graphic novel could plainly use human beings (not necessarily too realistic, some cartoon style could work) and the graphic novel will be the same as good, the same as relevant.
You know, as in the movie Life is Beautiful where the horrors of the Holocaust are there, but still there is space for some humorous moments, that they help as tension relief without meaning any disrespect to the tragic historic event.
However, definitely the graphic format of this story makes possible for readers to be witness from the begining until the end (and even further) of the whole tragic and cruel process of what Jews endured (and not many were able to get out alive from it) during the World War II.
A titanic graphic story constructed during years of artistic effort to show, with detail and authenticity, one of the darkest episodes of human history.
LET MAUS WHO IS WITHOUT SIN...
Friends? Your friends?... If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week… then you could see what it is, friends!
The success of Maus obviously can tied to the reason of being a Jew Holocaust’s story, and almost any suc story receive a wide positive acceptance, but I think that what makes different Maus from many of similar stories is its bold honesty.
Here, you won’t have a partial view of the tragic event or spotless characters.
Obviously Nazis and Polish collaborators/sympathizers are shown doing their evil stuff, BUT also you will watch how Jews behaved with their own, robbing food from their fellow people, not doing any favor unless get paid with something (gold, food, cigarrettes, etc…), true, it was an extreme situation, but usually movies and other books don’t hesitate to show Nazi’s inhuman actions, but you have to realize that those were prisons, and life in prisons is tough and people will lose any humanity from them in the urge to survive.
Also, Art Spiegelman, the author, was bold showing how hard was to live with his father, Vladek Spielgelman (the main character in the Holocaust parts), Vladek wasn’t a saint (and after all, how many of us really is?) with not only crazy habits but even racist thinking against afro-american people. Art Spiegelman is a character in the story too, and while he is a whole better as person than his father, he doesn’t portrait himself as a saint and you can appreciate how even at some moments, he does some kinda unfair actions, since after all, he is human too. His family is as disfunctional as others, being Holocaust’s survivors didn’t turn it magically into “Norman Rockwell paintings”.
Anybody can create perfect heroes, only true writers are able to show the dark moments of his/her own family, in the middle of the storytelling of a book.
In this way, with boldness and courage, Maus exposes us with a harsh truth: Survivors from a war aren’t necessarily good people, saved by their faith or spared due the purity of their souls. No. Survivors from a war (in most cases) is just because plain luck. Even some survivors got such bad luck of dying after the war ended and by non-military personnel.
War is a crazy thing (any war) and if you try to get some logic out of it,...
...you will end as crazy as it.
December 26, 2022
MAI PIÙ JAMAIS PLUS NEVER AGAIN
Un bellissimo fumetto?
Uno splendido romanzo?
E perché non un ottimo film?
(In fondo le dimensioni delle vignette di Spiegelman fanno davvero venire in mente i fotogrammi di un film 35 mm).
I nazisti descrivevano gli ebrei come immondi parassiti, portatori di peste e corruzione, che invadono l’Europa (qualcuno adesso prova a usare la stessa immagine per chi arriva d’oltremare): Spiegelman disegna gli ebrei come topi, i nazisti come gatti, i polacchi come maiali.
Animali parlanti per esprimere condizioni umane profonde difficili da esprimere altrimenti (Esopo, Fedro, La Fontaine). E perché no, anche il Mickey Mouse disneyano.
Spiegelman figlio intervista Spiegelman padre sulla Shoah (la madre è morta suicida, il fratello maggiore è morto avvelenato dalla zia, anche lei suicida, per evitargli l’orrore del campo di sterminio).
Il racconto del padre è storia nota e stranota?
A me sembra di sentirla per la prima volta, l'approccio di Spiegelman è unico e irripetibile.
Una storia straziante?
Sì, ma anche tanto tenera, romantica.
Uomini topi più umani degli umani.
In ogni caso, è una storia che bisogna continuare a raccontare, che non bisogna dimenticare.
Che sorpresa la parte moderna, che regalo.
Un rapporto padre e figlio che nella sua peculiarità è tuttavia paradigmatico.
A Spiegelman è stato chiesto se non gli sembrava di cattivo gusto mettere in fumetti la tragedia dell’Olocausto. La sua risposta è stata: Di cattivo gusto è Auschwitz.
Un bellissimo fumetto?
Uno splendido romanzo?
E perché non un ottimo film?
(In fondo le dimensioni delle vignette di Spiegelman fanno davvero venire in mente i fotogrammi di un film 35 mm).
I nazisti descrivevano gli ebrei come immondi parassiti, portatori di peste e corruzione, che invadono l’Europa (qualcuno adesso prova a usare la stessa immagine per chi arriva d’oltremare): Spiegelman disegna gli ebrei come topi, i nazisti come gatti, i polacchi come maiali.
Animali parlanti per esprimere condizioni umane profonde difficili da esprimere altrimenti (Esopo, Fedro, La Fontaine). E perché no, anche il Mickey Mouse disneyano.
Spiegelman figlio intervista Spiegelman padre sulla Shoah (la madre è morta suicida, il fratello maggiore è morto avvelenato dalla zia, anche lei suicida, per evitargli l’orrore del campo di sterminio).
Il racconto del padre è storia nota e stranota?
A me sembra di sentirla per la prima volta, l'approccio di Spiegelman è unico e irripetibile.
Una storia straziante?
Sì, ma anche tanto tenera, romantica.
Uomini topi più umani degli umani.
In ogni caso, è una storia che bisogna continuare a raccontare, che non bisogna dimenticare.
Che sorpresa la parte moderna, che regalo.
Un rapporto padre e figlio che nella sua peculiarità è tuttavia paradigmatico.
A Spiegelman è stato chiesto se non gli sembrava di cattivo gusto mettere in fumetti la tragedia dell’Olocausto. La sua risposta è stata: Di cattivo gusto è Auschwitz.
February 12, 2023
A way to deal with the unspeakable that makes it even more disturbing and weird.
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Using animals for certain nations is a balancing act
It´s still a great work, but maybe all the same animals of one species would have been an even better choice. Not just because it would have been ideal to show that they´re all the same, just different, let's say with dogs or cats and many breeds, but because it´s just an unnecessary point of criticism that could have easily been avoided. It's petty and art is free, but some nations might not find it that great to be associated with certain animals.
Definitively nothing for kids or even some adults
It´s just too hardcore, by using anthropomorphized animals and the art of painting, it gets even worse and kind of more graphic. But the impact and mind blowing factor are amazing, because it´s
Much more memorable that way than in general anti war productions
Because people are used to war movies, games, satires, pictures, etc., which creates a kind of habituation effect and deadening, but this is something different and more tangible. Each page screams out the terror, the underlying themes are the sickest possible for even the most murderous apes on the planet, and one will never forget the associations between the pictures and reality itself.
It could be used for visualizing other atrocities too
There have been other genocides in colonial history without numbers of the people killed, starved to death, or infected with plagues and no real interest in redemption by giving back land to Native Americans of both Americas or historical revisionism. Let´s say removing statues and street names of mass murderers in the US, just imagine this in Germany with nazi leaders and the swastika instead of slave trading warmongerers and the confederate flag. Impossible and unthinkable in Europe after WW2, but in the bible belt, it´s totally fine more than 150 years after the American civil war.
Even more disturbing is the 20th century history of Russia and China with numbers between dozens of millions up to 100 million people killed per country. Especially adapted to one country and its history, the Maus concept would have immense potential for opening minds and maybe even something like redemption and a real reappraisal of history besides political correct drivel, bigotry, and empty promises. The crazy and disturbing thing is that it would mean imprisonment or even death for the artists creating such works in many countries that are still developing or already full scale dictatorships, with advanced surveillance technologies making the police states seem too perfectly developed to ever fall. Because resistance and rebellion have become impossible.
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
Total escalation towards genocide and holocaust
And some of the most disturbing depictions of it
People tend to be shocked, avoid such topics, or pretend that such things can´t happen again, but nothing shows better how dangerous and mad the human animal is than the ultimate consequence of hate, generated because of greed and megalomania. Especially regarding how it happened, could have happened elsewhere, and has the potential to happen again during and after global catastrophes, political crises, or future world wars.
It won the Pulitzer Prize for very good reasons
Like many great graphic novel masterpieces with important messages, it has some postmodernist elements even questioning the seemingly positive elements, besides the detailed descriptions of atrocities. That´s especially exemplified by
The reaction of the other animals
Just as in real history, there have been actions and politics before, during, and after the war that had big influences on what happened. To just blame the Germans would be far too superficial, one has to look at the fascist tendencies in many other countries that could have easily led to Man in the High Castle scenarios without WW2.
Who financed it and wrote the propaganda pamphlet.
Again, not just the Krauts. Both are not wanted questions that will still take much time to be answered, because no company, government, or religion wants to have anything to do with mass murder and war. But today, with big history and more and more facts coming up, it´s quite clear to see who gave money, not just to the Nazi party, but to all the varieties of it in the UK, US, France, etc. It´s just that nobody talks about that, just as slavery and colonialism tend to be avoided as unwanted elephants in the room, no matter how omnipresent their consequences are. So the biggest bigotry lies in the fact that
Until today there has been no real analysis of how big the impact of those forces in other countries and institutions was and is
For instance the different US approach, just as with its own American Civil War, making it impossible to ever heal these wounds decades and centuries after wars happened. As long as there is no questioning, revision, and especially prevention against what happened in conglomerates, governments, and the Vatican, it's just a question of when history will repeat itself. The fact that just mentioning companies, the church, and the politics of other countries still trigger many people to shoot the messenger, to not get their country or faith contaminated with the blood of millions, is disturbing too.
The authors' intention to include himself and his father
This one isn´t as essential as the terrifying big story itself. It could have easily been a full autobiography without Spiegelman and his complicated relationship with his father, but this personal, subjective note maybe gives it some extra identification points and makes it somehow even more memorable. Because it shows the possibility that it could have happened to everyone better than with fictional characters.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Using animals for certain nations is a balancing act
It´s still a great work, but maybe all the same animals of one species would have been an even better choice. Not just because it would have been ideal to show that they´re all the same, just different, let's say with dogs or cats and many breeds, but because it´s just an unnecessary point of criticism that could have easily been avoided. It's petty and art is free, but some nations might not find it that great to be associated with certain animals.
Definitively nothing for kids or even some adults
It´s just too hardcore, by using anthropomorphized animals and the art of painting, it gets even worse and kind of more graphic. But the impact and mind blowing factor are amazing, because it´s
Much more memorable that way than in general anti war productions
Because people are used to war movies, games, satires, pictures, etc., which creates a kind of habituation effect and deadening, but this is something different and more tangible. Each page screams out the terror, the underlying themes are the sickest possible for even the most murderous apes on the planet, and one will never forget the associations between the pictures and reality itself.
It could be used for visualizing other atrocities too
There have been other genocides in colonial history without numbers of the people killed, starved to death, or infected with plagues and no real interest in redemption by giving back land to Native Americans of both Americas or historical revisionism. Let´s say removing statues and street names of mass murderers in the US, just imagine this in Germany with nazi leaders and the swastika instead of slave trading warmongerers and the confederate flag. Impossible and unthinkable in Europe after WW2, but in the bible belt, it´s totally fine more than 150 years after the American civil war.
Even more disturbing is the 20th century history of Russia and China with numbers between dozens of millions up to 100 million people killed per country. Especially adapted to one country and its history, the Maus concept would have immense potential for opening minds and maybe even something like redemption and a real reappraisal of history besides political correct drivel, bigotry, and empty promises. The crazy and disturbing thing is that it would mean imprisonment or even death for the artists creating such works in many countries that are still developing or already full scale dictatorships, with advanced surveillance technologies making the police states seem too perfectly developed to ever fall. Because resistance and rebellion have become impossible.
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
Total escalation towards genocide and holocaust
And some of the most disturbing depictions of it
People tend to be shocked, avoid such topics, or pretend that such things can´t happen again, but nothing shows better how dangerous and mad the human animal is than the ultimate consequence of hate, generated because of greed and megalomania. Especially regarding how it happened, could have happened elsewhere, and has the potential to happen again during and after global catastrophes, political crises, or future world wars.
It won the Pulitzer Prize for very good reasons
Like many great graphic novel masterpieces with important messages, it has some postmodernist elements even questioning the seemingly positive elements, besides the detailed descriptions of atrocities. That´s especially exemplified by
The reaction of the other animals
Just as in real history, there have been actions and politics before, during, and after the war that had big influences on what happened. To just blame the Germans would be far too superficial, one has to look at the fascist tendencies in many other countries that could have easily led to Man in the High Castle scenarios without WW2.
Who financed it and wrote the propaganda pamphlet.
Again, not just the Krauts. Both are not wanted questions that will still take much time to be answered, because no company, government, or religion wants to have anything to do with mass murder and war. But today, with big history and more and more facts coming up, it´s quite clear to see who gave money, not just to the Nazi party, but to all the varieties of it in the UK, US, France, etc. It´s just that nobody talks about that, just as slavery and colonialism tend to be avoided as unwanted elephants in the room, no matter how omnipresent their consequences are. So the biggest bigotry lies in the fact that
Until today there has been no real analysis of how big the impact of those forces in other countries and institutions was and is
For instance the different US approach, just as with its own American Civil War, making it impossible to ever heal these wounds decades and centuries after wars happened. As long as there is no questioning, revision, and especially prevention against what happened in conglomerates, governments, and the Vatican, it's just a question of when history will repeat itself. The fact that just mentioning companies, the church, and the politics of other countries still trigger many people to shoot the messenger, to not get their country or faith contaminated with the blood of millions, is disturbing too.
The authors' intention to include himself and his father
This one isn´t as essential as the terrifying big story itself. It could have easily been a full autobiography without Spiegelman and his complicated relationship with his father, but this personal, subjective note maybe gives it some extra identification points and makes it somehow even more memorable. Because it shows the possibility that it could have happened to everyone better than with fictional characters.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
January 21, 2022
Spiegelman winning a Pulitzer Prize (and Guggenheim Fellowship) for this work, was a first for a graphic novel. Spiegelman captures the story of his Polish Jewish father's life before and after the second world war, but it could be said as importantly gives episodic accounts about his relationship with his father as he recorded his history; and as a result gave examples of the reality of how the horrors of occupied Europe and Auschwitz not only impacted on the survivors, but also their children's lives. A powerful book, made strangely with more impact because all the Jews are portrayed as mice, the Germans' cats, Poles' pigs, Americans' as dogs etc. 9 out of 12.
2020 read
2020 read
January 30, 2022
Art Spiegelman is smiling today, after a Tennessee school district banned one of the greatest books of all time (that happens to be a two-volume graphic novel) supposedly because of "inappropriate language" (swearing?! Heaven forfend! They don't swear in Tennessee, bless the gods; certainly children there must not use these vulgar phrases that exist in millions of other books and on the playground, let's be real) and. . . wait for it the presence of nudity--a naked woman--but get this, all the characters are animals in this Holocaust tragedy. The offending naked "woman" is actually a mouse!!--bless their hearts for protecting their children from animal porn!
Oh, and why is Art smiling? Because sales of his banned book are now soaring, of course. Of course! Read banned books! Or maybe I should say: Ban Books! so everyone would read them.
What is this really about? I'm not sure, but I think it is connected to the banning of
"critical race theory" which really means we don't want to upset children by telling them the truth about racist or anti-semitic history.
And trust me, there is no a wave of book banning happening in my country, not just Maus.
Read banned books. Time for me to reread and finally review why it is a masterpiece.
NY Times article on the banning (or shall I call it canceling?):
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/us...
Oh, and why is Art smiling? Because sales of his banned book are now soaring, of course. Of course! Read banned books! Or maybe I should say: Ban Books! so everyone would read them.
What is this really about? I'm not sure, but I think it is connected to the banning of
"critical race theory" which really means we don't want to upset children by telling them the truth about racist or anti-semitic history.
And trust me, there is no a wave of book banning happening in my country, not just Maus.
Read banned books. Time for me to reread and finally review why it is a masterpiece.
NY Times article on the banning (or shall I call it canceling?):
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/us...
September 7, 2022
“Yes, life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are blamed. But it wasn’t the best people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was random!”
Whether you’ve read it or not, I’m sure you’ve heard of Art Spiegelman's Maus. First and foremost, in 1992, Maus became the first graphic novel to ever win a Pulitzer Prize (the Special Award in Letters). Decades later, in 2022, Maus is still in the news, because a school in Tennessee removed the book from its curriculum, deeming it “inappropriate” on account of language and nudity. When a book is controversial/banned, I tend to want to read it more. I hope there are more like me out there (including those kids who are being deprived of the opportunity to learn about it in school! It's the true story of a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust in wartime Europe. This is history. It happened!)
In his brilliantly crafted graphic novel, the author tells the story of his Polish-Jewish parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, both of whom were Holocaust survivors, having been imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The narrative moves back and forth between his parents’ experiences in wartime Europe and his present-day relationship with the aging Vladek. The narrative of The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale is divided into two books: Book 1 (originally published in 1986) ,My Father Bleeds History covers the period preceding Vladek and Anja’s imprisonment and follows their story from the time they met, married, and started a family ( Art’s older brother, Richieu, one of the dedicatees of this book, did not survive the War) to the Nazi occupation and the persecution of Jews. What starts with restrictions, curfews, rationing, and seizure of businesses and personal property, intensifies as Jews are displaced, deported, imprisoned and much worse. Book 1 also includes a short strip titled Prisoner on the Hell Planet (originally written in 1972) in which the author depicts events leading up to his mother's suicide in 1968. Book#2 (published in 1991), And Here My Troubles Began, follows Vladek’s experiences in the concentration and work camps. Though he was separated from his wife in the camps, they managed to communicate with one another. Both of them survived, were liberated separately and were eventually reunited. We also continue to follow the author and his father in the present day.
The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a compelling work of non-fiction. Not only does the author share his father's story, detailing the atrocities faced by his Jewish parents and their families during the Holocaust, but he also talks about the challenges he faced in the process of framing this book - having to coax his father to share his stories, his self-doubt and other obstacles he faced in his creative process and how the stories and publication of the first book affected him personally (The first segment was published in 1986, the second was printed in 1991). The author is brutally honest in how he portrays his own guilt over his inability to truly comprehend what his parents went through and voices his concern over whether his choice of medium/format would be justified. The author combines his brilliantly conceptualized artwork and masterful storytelling to share a part of his family’s story in a unique format. The graphic novel format employs anthropomorphic representation of Germans as cats, Jews as mice, ethnic Poles as pigs and Americans as dogs. Spiegelman does inject a good dose of humor in his present-day narrative. While his aging father’s miserliness , distrust and stubbornness do make for a few lighter moments in this harrowing tale, it is also not too hard to see how the trauma of the past casts a shadow on his present life. This is a heartbreaking story, told in a unique way, which does not make it any less real or any less hard-hitting. I spent hours reading and rereading parts of the book while also admiring the artwork.
Overall, this is an incredible book that is a must-read for those who are interested in reading about WWII and the Holocaust. Even if you don’t usually read graphic novels, I would still suggest picking this one up. You won’t be disappointed.
Whether you’ve read it or not, I’m sure you’ve heard of Art Spiegelman's Maus. First and foremost, in 1992, Maus became the first graphic novel to ever win a Pulitzer Prize (the Special Award in Letters). Decades later, in 2022, Maus is still in the news, because a school in Tennessee removed the book from its curriculum, deeming it “inappropriate” on account of language and nudity. When a book is controversial/banned, I tend to want to read it more. I hope there are more like me out there (including those kids who are being deprived of the opportunity to learn about it in school! It's the true story of a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust in wartime Europe. This is history. It happened!)
In his brilliantly crafted graphic novel, the author tells the story of his Polish-Jewish parents, Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, both of whom were Holocaust survivors, having been imprisoned in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The narrative moves back and forth between his parents’ experiences in wartime Europe and his present-day relationship with the aging Vladek. The narrative of The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale is divided into two books: Book 1 (originally published in 1986) ,My Father Bleeds History covers the period preceding Vladek and Anja’s imprisonment and follows their story from the time they met, married, and started a family ( Art’s older brother, Richieu, one of the dedicatees of this book, did not survive the War) to the Nazi occupation and the persecution of Jews. What starts with restrictions, curfews, rationing, and seizure of businesses and personal property, intensifies as Jews are displaced, deported, imprisoned and much worse. Book 1 also includes a short strip titled Prisoner on the Hell Planet (originally written in 1972) in which the author depicts events leading up to his mother's suicide in 1968. Book#2 (published in 1991), And Here My Troubles Began, follows Vladek’s experiences in the concentration and work camps. Though he was separated from his wife in the camps, they managed to communicate with one another. Both of them survived, were liberated separately and were eventually reunited. We also continue to follow the author and his father in the present day.
The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a compelling work of non-fiction. Not only does the author share his father's story, detailing the atrocities faced by his Jewish parents and their families during the Holocaust, but he also talks about the challenges he faced in the process of framing this book - having to coax his father to share his stories, his self-doubt and other obstacles he faced in his creative process and how the stories and publication of the first book affected him personally (The first segment was published in 1986, the second was printed in 1991). The author is brutally honest in how he portrays his own guilt over his inability to truly comprehend what his parents went through and voices his concern over whether his choice of medium/format would be justified. The author combines his brilliantly conceptualized artwork and masterful storytelling to share a part of his family’s story in a unique format. The graphic novel format employs anthropomorphic representation of Germans as cats, Jews as mice, ethnic Poles as pigs and Americans as dogs. Spiegelman does inject a good dose of humor in his present-day narrative. While his aging father’s miserliness , distrust and stubbornness do make for a few lighter moments in this harrowing tale, it is also not too hard to see how the trauma of the past casts a shadow on his present life. This is a heartbreaking story, told in a unique way, which does not make it any less real or any less hard-hitting. I spent hours reading and rereading parts of the book while also admiring the artwork.
Overall, this is an incredible book that is a must-read for those who are interested in reading about WWII and the Holocaust. Even if you don’t usually read graphic novels, I would still suggest picking this one up. You won’t be disappointed.
August 23, 2013
It didn’t dawn on me until later that this brilliant piece of graphic artistry and fiction is actually a very clever allegory. On the face of it, we’re led to believe that it’s a story of the terrible suffering perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews in Poland and throughout Europe. But if you scratch beneath the surface, I think you’ll find that this particular holocaust story was made to symbolize something more pervasive and endemic. I speak of the horrific violence that persists to this day; that inflicted by cats on defenseless mice. Perhaps the most obvious clue that this is, in truth, the intended theme lies in the title itself: Maus. For those of you unfamiliar with German, this is their word for mouse. Beyond that, when you look carefully at the drawings, you see that the goose-steppers have distinctly feline features, while the persecuted Jews in the ghettos and camps have rodent-like proboscides and disproportionately small eyes.
Cat on mouse violence is so old and pervasive that, in a way, we’ve become desensitized to it. Countless depictions of it in the arts have made it a stale, clichéd topic; almost cartoonish at times. That’s why I thought it was particularly effective to tell the story allegorically. When seen through the lens of the Jewish experience, and with Spiegelman’s masterstroke of personalizing the story by laying bare the difficult relationship he had with his father (the survivor), the residuum of cat brutality that can literally tear mice families apart is brought home to us in a very different way.
Original: Mar 9, 2012
------------------------
Addendum: Aug 23, 2013
This still ranks as my top graphic novel of all time, but I just finished Chris Ware's Building Stories which gives it a pretty good run for the money. The suffering in that one may not be as extreme, but it's every bit as real.
Cat on mouse violence is so old and pervasive that, in a way, we’ve become desensitized to it. Countless depictions of it in the arts have made it a stale, clichéd topic; almost cartoonish at times. That’s why I thought it was particularly effective to tell the story allegorically. When seen through the lens of the Jewish experience, and with Spiegelman’s masterstroke of personalizing the story by laying bare the difficult relationship he had with his father (the survivor), the residuum of cat brutality that can literally tear mice families apart is brought home to us in a very different way.
Original: Mar 9, 2012
------------------------
Addendum: Aug 23, 2013
This still ranks as my top graphic novel of all time, but I just finished Chris Ware's Building Stories which gives it a pretty good run for the money. The suffering in that one may not be as extreme, but it's every bit as real.
February 27, 2022
Spiegelman consigue con este comic dar con una forma distinta de interesarnos una vez más en las atrocidades del holocausto, lo que tiene su mérito pues todo lo contado en Maus lo hemos leído y/o visto muchas veces. Es por ello que durante su lectura acudirán a sus mentes historias de otras novelas, escenas de otras películas.
En mi caso, la novela que aparecía a menudo en mi cabeza era «Sin destino», de Imre Kertész, empezando por el tono frío y distante que comparten ambas historias, doblemente subrayado en el comic al estar los personajes caracterizados por animales —ratones para los judíos, gatos para los alemanes, cerdos para los polacos, perros para los norteamericanos…—, una frialdad que se atenúa considerablemente en los momentos en los que se trata de la relación que el dibujante mantenía con su padre, protagonista y fuente de información, o cuando cuestiona su propio trabajo, estando en ambas situaciones muy presente el sentimiento de culpa, por la distancia que siempre estableció el autor con su padre, por un lado, y por el sentimiento de estar haciendo negocio con el dolor de los judíos, por el otro.
También el sentimiento de culpa es fundamental en la novela de Kertész, aunque en este caso lo fuera por lo común que era en muchos de los que sobrevivieron, y cuya causa Primo Levi resumió en esta demoledora frase: «Sobrevivían los peores, es decir, los más aptos; los mejores han muerto todos».
Por el contrario, en el comic se remarca mucho más el papel que tuvo la suerte en esa salvación, la infinidad de hechos afortunados que se tuvieron que producir en cada caso para salir con vida de aquel horror, junto a las habilidades, la malicia, la fortaleza, el instinto y la inteligencia necesaria para aprovecharlos. Y así, la frase de Levi se transforma radicalmente en Spiegelman: “no sobrevivieron los mejores, ni murieron los mejores. ¡Fue el azar!”.
Una frase que es un intento por respetar la memoria de las víctimas, de las que sobrevivieron, de las que no se suicidaron después de la guerra, como hizo la propia madre de Spiegelman, pero también una forma de ayudar a sus descendientes (la frase aparece en el comic en la boca del terapeuta de Spiegelman). En cualquier caso, el autor, como también hiciera Kertész en su novela, no evita responsabilizar a los judíos por todo aquello que hicieron y que no hicieron por evitar su exterminio, por el precio que tenía todo acto de ayuda prestada, y no solo por parte de alemanes o polacos, sino también por parte de los propios judíos, y como aquellos que tenían con qué pagar y/o menos escrúpulos tuvieron más posibilidades de salvarse.
Sobre el comic en sí no puedo decir mucho, no soy un consumidor habitual de este formato, el resultado es oscuro, todo él en blanco y negro, como todo el testimonio gráfico que de aquello se tiene, el trazo, basto y, sin embargo, eficaz, los personajes apenas muestras rasgos que los distingan a unos de otros. La estructura del relato es compleja y juega a varios niveles, existen muchos elementos metafóricos, algunos evidentes como la identificación de las nacionalidades con distintos animales o que los judíos, vengan de donde vengan, sean siempre ratones o los cruces de caminos con forma de esvástica… otros son más sutiles.
En fin, un gran trabajo que merece sin duda el premio Pulitzer que recibió.
November 1, 2022
One of the most influential literary works ever...in or out of comics. The fact that there have been calls to ban this book is truly beyond compression: when you look at all the negative influences that our children are exposed to every day - and some people are focused on this book? Can't help but believe Goebbels would be happy to join their group!
October 5, 2020
LOVE
May 25, 2018
Maus was more than I expected. I knew it would be about World War II and the Holocaust with the charaters being anthropomorphic mice, cats, pigs, dogs, etc. What I didn't realize was it would expand even farther in to the specific lives of the Spiegelmans before, during, and after the war.
Throughout the book the artist/author is a featured character struggling with his curmudgeonly father while he tries to document the story of his father's time in 1930s and 40s Poland and Germany. His experiences with his father are as much a part of the book as the stories he is trying to document.
Another viewpoint of life under Nazi oppression is always riviting. I have read and seen both fiction and non-fiction accounts of life during WWII. I have been to the Dachau concentration camp. These stories are important, but are not always easy to read or tell. I applaud Spiegelman for this creative approach that hopefully brings these stories to those who might not be inclined to read a big novel or watch a documentary.
Basically everyone should read this or at least some stories of the war. They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Throughout the book the artist/author is a featured character struggling with his curmudgeonly father while he tries to document the story of his father's time in 1930s and 40s Poland and Germany. His experiences with his father are as much a part of the book as the stories he is trying to document.
Another viewpoint of life under Nazi oppression is always riviting. I have read and seen both fiction and non-fiction accounts of life during WWII. I have been to the Dachau concentration camp. These stories are important, but are not always easy to read or tell. I applaud Spiegelman for this creative approach that hopefully brings these stories to those who might not be inclined to read a big novel or watch a documentary.
Basically everyone should read this or at least some stories of the war. They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
March 21, 2021
Such a creative and innovative way to write a memoir. Loved the animal metaphor with mice and cats but evermore I adored the writer's honesty about his father's personality and its effects on his mental health. Even though his father was a Holocaust survivor, even before such trauma it is very likely he had what we call personality disorder, and the graphic novel does the raw unpacking of emotional pressure that Spiegelman grew up with having the kind a father he had; rigid, adamant, neurotic, demanding, stingy, always deeply unsatisfied. Spiegelman has a clear distinction of what is an aftermath of the trauma and what were his father's personality traits even before tragic events. The reflection on his relationship with his father and the way it affected him in later life I find as being as valuable part of the story as the recollection of his father's memories of the Holocaust. The world isn't black and white and victims in one situation can be the same people that deeply hurt others. This graphic novel shows the transgenerational suffering, of both Arts parents and him as their child, dealing with his mother's mental illness and his father's personality being even more distorted as a consequence of trauma. I applaud Art for his courage to speak about these sensitive subjects and hope that writing his father's memoir with autobiographical elements had a cathartic effect for him.
September 13, 2016
Until just a few weeks ago, the only reason for why I read graphic novels now and then was because of people's constant recommendations about the beauty and the value of those kinds of books. I will be honest; I am guilty of never believing those words. Most likely did I read graphic novels which didn't suit my personal tastes, but Art Spiegelman was capable of shattering my expectations and completely stunning me with the art of his writing and his illustrations.
But let's start at the beginning. Maus is a collection of two graphic novels with autobiographical background about the author, Art Spiegelman, and his father's recollections about his experiences in the Second World War. Spiegelman constantly switches between present and past, between the time when he writes down what his father tells him and the time when all the horrible events in the concentration camps took place. But he doesn't only include information about his father Vladek Spiegelman's tale of survival; the personal and very conflicted relationship between Art and Vladek also turns out to be a central part of the story, including controversy about Vladek's second wife and Art's personal approach to the success he had as an author when the first installment in his series of graphic novels was published.
Obviously, memoirs or autobiographies always include potential to let their author shine in a bright light, to let them appear heroic and exemplary. You have to rely on what the author tells you about himself and the people surrounding him, on which layers of his own character he presents. Art Spiegelman did so in a very convincing way, pointing out not only the horrible crimes which were committed during the Nazi period, but also the flaws he and his father had themselves, as human beings with all their faults and mistakes. Art and his father appear in such a realistic way that you can't help but care for them; something which never happened to me before in a book with autobiographical content. Of course, some parts of the novels were shocking, which you need to expect before reading something about such an important subject. Feelings of despair and fear overshadowed Vladek Spiegelman's recollections of his experiences during the Second World War, from his family's decline and his marriage to his transport to Auschwitz.
Perhaps the most memorable thing about those graphic novels is the way Art Spiegelman used animal heads in the place of recognizable human ones. The completely black-and-white illustrations vividly underline the feelings Spiegelman wanted to express with his books. And still now, almost two months after finishing them, am I stunned.
Do I need to mention that I'd recommend these graphic novels to everyone?
But let's start at the beginning. Maus is a collection of two graphic novels with autobiographical background about the author, Art Spiegelman, and his father's recollections about his experiences in the Second World War. Spiegelman constantly switches between present and past, between the time when he writes down what his father tells him and the time when all the horrible events in the concentration camps took place. But he doesn't only include information about his father Vladek Spiegelman's tale of survival; the personal and very conflicted relationship between Art and Vladek also turns out to be a central part of the story, including controversy about Vladek's second wife and Art's personal approach to the success he had as an author when the first installment in his series of graphic novels was published.
Obviously, memoirs or autobiographies always include potential to let their author shine in a bright light, to let them appear heroic and exemplary. You have to rely on what the author tells you about himself and the people surrounding him, on which layers of his own character he presents. Art Spiegelman did so in a very convincing way, pointing out not only the horrible crimes which were committed during the Nazi period, but also the flaws he and his father had themselves, as human beings with all their faults and mistakes. Art and his father appear in such a realistic way that you can't help but care for them; something which never happened to me before in a book with autobiographical content. Of course, some parts of the novels were shocking, which you need to expect before reading something about such an important subject. Feelings of despair and fear overshadowed Vladek Spiegelman's recollections of his experiences during the Second World War, from his family's decline and his marriage to his transport to Auschwitz.
Perhaps the most memorable thing about those graphic novels is the way Art Spiegelman used animal heads in the place of recognizable human ones. The completely black-and-white illustrations vividly underline the feelings Spiegelman wanted to express with his books. And still now, almost two months after finishing them, am I stunned.
Do I need to mention that I'd recommend these graphic novels to everyone?
February 4, 2022
"There's only one kind of people who would vote to ban Maus, whatever they are calling themselves these days." - Neil Gaiman.
"I don't care for these new Nazis, and you may quote me on that!" - John Mulaney
Fucking Hell.
--
This is not an easy graphic novel to read. The illustrations are beautiful, but the simple black and white style reminds the reader that the subject matter is one of the darkest periods of modern history. This very personal glimpse into the horrors of the Holocaust touch on many complex emotions: loyalty, fear, survivor’s guilt, anger…
Art Spiegelman’s father Vladek is a Holocaust survivor, who grew up and lived in Poland, was drafted into the Polish army, lived in a P.O.W. camp, the Jewish ghettos, was eventually sent to Auschwitz and saw countless family members and friends die before the end of the war and his eventual relocation in America. The graphic novel tells the story of Art getting his father to open up about his life and tell him what he went through, as he himself tries to understand why he struggles to connect with Vladek.
I hadn’t expected that roughly half of this book is actually about Art coming to terms with what his parents endured, with his issues making art about the Holocaust and making money (not to mention getting famous) off this work he feels incredibly uneasy about. There was a history of depression and possible mental illness in his family (you learn early on that this mother was depressive and committed suicide) that their history probably amplified. He uses an interesting meta approach to discuss this, illustrating conversations with his wife and therapist, to illustrate that the experience of creating this graphic novel was a struggle on many different levels. This harrowing portrait of the multi-generational consequences of war is probably what gutted me most as I read this: even long after the bombs stopped dropping, damage continues to be inflicted on people who weren’t even born during the war because of the unimaginable reality their parents had to survive.
This book has historical significance both from its subject, but also because it was one of the first graphic novels that got serious academic interest, and the first to ever win a Pulitzer Prize: the medium had often been dismissed as comic strips before, but Spiegelman’s use of metaphor and the very intimate story he chose to tell showed that graphic novels were not limited to Superman and Archie stories. This makes “Maus” an important and seminal work that’s worth a read if only on that basis (and yes, I am aware that underground comics had touched non-traditional topics before and used a post-modernist approach, but I am strictly talking about more mainstream publications).
The representations of different groups of people as different animals bothered me at first, because it felt like an easy generalization. But I read an interview with Spiegelman where he discusses where the idea comes from (old German propaganda films that depicted Jews as vermin, for instance) and also that he wanted to underline the absurdity of dividing people by assuming that each ethnicity has a uniform look or set of physical traits that defines them as human beings. I get the point he is trying to make: the anthropomorphic animals also make the incredibly difficult subject a little easier to absorb. I’m not sure I could have read the whole book in a couple of sittings had the drawings been more realistic.
Imperfect but highly recommended.
"I don't care for these new Nazis, and you may quote me on that!" - John Mulaney
Fucking Hell.
--
This is not an easy graphic novel to read. The illustrations are beautiful, but the simple black and white style reminds the reader that the subject matter is one of the darkest periods of modern history. This very personal glimpse into the horrors of the Holocaust touch on many complex emotions: loyalty, fear, survivor’s guilt, anger…
Art Spiegelman’s father Vladek is a Holocaust survivor, who grew up and lived in Poland, was drafted into the Polish army, lived in a P.O.W. camp, the Jewish ghettos, was eventually sent to Auschwitz and saw countless family members and friends die before the end of the war and his eventual relocation in America. The graphic novel tells the story of Art getting his father to open up about his life and tell him what he went through, as he himself tries to understand why he struggles to connect with Vladek.
I hadn’t expected that roughly half of this book is actually about Art coming to terms with what his parents endured, with his issues making art about the Holocaust and making money (not to mention getting famous) off this work he feels incredibly uneasy about. There was a history of depression and possible mental illness in his family (you learn early on that this mother was depressive and committed suicide) that their history probably amplified. He uses an interesting meta approach to discuss this, illustrating conversations with his wife and therapist, to illustrate that the experience of creating this graphic novel was a struggle on many different levels. This harrowing portrait of the multi-generational consequences of war is probably what gutted me most as I read this: even long after the bombs stopped dropping, damage continues to be inflicted on people who weren’t even born during the war because of the unimaginable reality their parents had to survive.
This book has historical significance both from its subject, but also because it was one of the first graphic novels that got serious academic interest, and the first to ever win a Pulitzer Prize: the medium had often been dismissed as comic strips before, but Spiegelman’s use of metaphor and the very intimate story he chose to tell showed that graphic novels were not limited to Superman and Archie stories. This makes “Maus” an important and seminal work that’s worth a read if only on that basis (and yes, I am aware that underground comics had touched non-traditional topics before and used a post-modernist approach, but I am strictly talking about more mainstream publications).
The representations of different groups of people as different animals bothered me at first, because it felt like an easy generalization. But I read an interview with Spiegelman where he discusses where the idea comes from (old German propaganda films that depicted Jews as vermin, for instance) and also that he wanted to underline the absurdity of dividing people by assuming that each ethnicity has a uniform look or set of physical traits that defines them as human beings. I get the point he is trying to make: the anthropomorphic animals also make the incredibly difficult subject a little easier to absorb. I’m not sure I could have read the whole book in a couple of sittings had the drawings been more realistic.
Imperfect but highly recommended.
February 10, 2020
Una trágica historia de supervivencia que arroja una nueva luz a un periodo tan oscuro.
El concepto de Maus es confuso al principio. ¿Quién es Art? ¿Por qué los personajes son ratones, ranas, cerdos y gatos? Es con las páginas que comienzas a comprender la increíble metáfora que se ha montado el autor, y sobre todo, la manera tan inteligente de contar esta historia a través de duna doble narración.
Nunca había leído una novela gráfica meta y me ha gustado mucho la experiencia. Es interesante ver en las propias páginas el proceso de creación de estas mismas, descubriendo no solo el pasado del padre de Art, sino la vida del propio Art y lo que le costó dibujar y guionizar toda la obra. La introspección que hay del autor en las páginas hace que Maus sea lo que es, hablando de culpabilidad por vivir en la época post-Holocausto con tantas facilidades, sobre familia y relaciones personales, sobre dinero, sobre inspiración... Son pequeños detalles que otorgan a la obra de un valor mucho mayor.
Lo que es en sí la historia de Vladek, el padre de Art, me ha dejado sin palabras. Conocemos muchas historias del Holocausto, pero ya os digo que ninguna como esta... No solo vemos las consecuencias de este suceso en un envejecido Vladek, sino que vemos cómo vivió paso a paso la invasión de los nazis. Recuerda detalles TAN increíblemente concretos que se me erizaba la piel. De hecho, hay hasta mapas de cómo eran las cámaras de gas, o datos sobre cómo asesinaban los nazis a los judíos en los campos que me dejaron de piedra.
Maus es de esos libros que te cambian. Lo recordaré siempre y espero volver a sus páginas de vez en cuando, porque ha sido un viaje único.
El concepto de Maus es confuso al principio. ¿Quién es Art? ¿Por qué los personajes son ratones, ranas, cerdos y gatos? Es con las páginas que comienzas a comprender la increíble metáfora que se ha montado el autor, y sobre todo, la manera tan inteligente de contar esta historia a través de duna doble narración.
Nunca había leído una novela gráfica meta y me ha gustado mucho la experiencia. Es interesante ver en las propias páginas el proceso de creación de estas mismas, descubriendo no solo el pasado del padre de Art, sino la vida del propio Art y lo que le costó dibujar y guionizar toda la obra. La introspección que hay del autor en las páginas hace que Maus sea lo que es, hablando de culpabilidad por vivir en la época post-Holocausto con tantas facilidades, sobre familia y relaciones personales, sobre dinero, sobre inspiración... Son pequeños detalles que otorgan a la obra de un valor mucho mayor.
Lo que es en sí la historia de Vladek, el padre de Art, me ha dejado sin palabras. Conocemos muchas historias del Holocausto, pero ya os digo que ninguna como esta... No solo vemos las consecuencias de este suceso en un envejecido Vladek, sino que vemos cómo vivió paso a paso la invasión de los nazis. Recuerda detalles TAN increíblemente concretos que se me erizaba la piel. De hecho, hay hasta mapas de cómo eran las cámaras de gas, o datos sobre cómo asesinaban los nazis a los judíos en los campos que me dejaron de piedra.
Maus es de esos libros que te cambian. Lo recordaré siempre y espero volver a sus páginas de vez en cuando, porque ha sido un viaje único.
January 2, 2024
I would like to to thank the school board of McMinn County Tennessee for inspiring me to purchase and read this masterpiece of graphic literature. Without their well publicized unanimous vote to ban Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning accounting of the Holocaust who knows what mischievous and vacuous activities would have otherwise occupied my time. So here’s to you, you bible-belted brownshirts of the volunteer state, carry on and sieg heil…
January 26, 2022
this is probably the best graphic novel of all time, and definitely the best one i've ever read, and that's my review.
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago
part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago
April 5, 2022
#Maus
You will find in the media a county in my home state of TN has decided to ban the curriculum of this graphic novel from their school on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan 27, 2022.
I read this a couple years ago, but still recall the nature of the book as a brilliant depiction of the Holocaust. Some people would say that part of history is too disturbing and should never be taught, as well as slavery to be hidden away and forgotten. If we decide to ban the truth, then we are no better than the people who killed 6 million Jews. It is vital to teach the past so we can learn from it and make sure it is not repeated.
The author, Art Spiegelman, was brilliant to capture this horrific event in a graphic novel. It is hard to imagine the survival of his father, Vladek Spiegelman, as a Jew in the concentration camp Auschwitz. He was one of the few survivors that lived to tell his story how he worked at the gas chambers to help the Nazis eradicate the Jews. His survival would haunt him forever after hearing the screams of men, women, and children in these chambers and later transported to be burned. No... it isn't easy to accept, but vital to keep his story alive so this generation will learn the truth from survivors.
The graphic novel depicts the Jews as mice, the German Nazis as cats and the Americans as Dogs that eliminate the Nazis Regime. The story was told to reveal the disturbing events of history, so students can understand it.
America, Please Recall that The Empty Library in Germany is a symbol of the Nazis book burning in 1933.
You will find in the media a county in my home state of TN has decided to ban the curriculum of this graphic novel from their school on International Holocaust Remembrance Day Jan 27, 2022.
I read this a couple years ago, but still recall the nature of the book as a brilliant depiction of the Holocaust. Some people would say that part of history is too disturbing and should never be taught, as well as slavery to be hidden away and forgotten. If we decide to ban the truth, then we are no better than the people who killed 6 million Jews. It is vital to teach the past so we can learn from it and make sure it is not repeated.
The author, Art Spiegelman, was brilliant to capture this horrific event in a graphic novel. It is hard to imagine the survival of his father, Vladek Spiegelman, as a Jew in the concentration camp Auschwitz. He was one of the few survivors that lived to tell his story how he worked at the gas chambers to help the Nazis eradicate the Jews. His survival would haunt him forever after hearing the screams of men, women, and children in these chambers and later transported to be burned. No... it isn't easy to accept, but vital to keep his story alive so this generation will learn the truth from survivors.
The graphic novel depicts the Jews as mice, the German Nazis as cats and the Americans as Dogs that eliminate the Nazis Regime. The story was told to reveal the disturbing events of history, so students can understand it.
America, Please Recall that The Empty Library in Germany is a symbol of the Nazis book burning in 1933.
February 7, 2024
5/5
🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭
Leído en enero de 2023.
No suelo leer muchas novelas sobre el nazismo y la vida en los campos de concentración alemanes. Considero que las tramas son repetitivas, ya que una ingente parte de lo escrito gravita sobre los aspectos más escabrosos y mórbidos, cuando no sobre el dramatismo, lo que no es difícil teniendo en cuenta las condiciones a las que fueron sometidos los prisioneros y, muy en particular, los judíos. Además, mi visita reciente al campo de concentración de Terezin ha exacerbado y horrorizado mis sentidos, al comprobar in situ cómo todo esto que tanto hemos leído y visto en documentales y películas, pudo existir realmente en toda su crudeza. Así las cosas, intento seleccionar mucho las obras que leo de esta temática de un tiempo a esta parte.
Por otra parte, tampoco soy lector habitual de obras en cómic, más allá de alguna historieta gráfica de cuando en cuando, que ni siquiera reseño por estos lares.
Dicho esto, quedan claras las pocas posibilidades que esta obra tenía de que yo la abordara. Sin embargo, la insistencia de varios buenos amigos lectores, así como la constatación de ser la única obra de este género que, hasta la fecha, ha recibido el premio Pulitzer, concretamente en 1992, terminó por despertar mi curiosidad.
Y debo decir que ha sido un acierto completo, por cuanto he disfrutado mucho leyendo esta obra y, además, el estilo cómic hace que se lea con avidez y presteza, manteniendo un estilo tenebroso y oscuro, pero poco propenso al efectismo fácil y a las descripciones crueles intensas. ¿Por qué el autor elige ratones para presentar a los judíos?; tal vez la siguiente cita nos puede dar una pista:
Mickey Mouse es el ideal más lamentable que jamás haya visto la luz… Un sentimiento sano indica a cualquier joven independiente y a toda juventud honorable que esa alimaña sucia e inmunda, el mayor portador de bacterias del mundo animal, no puede ser el tipo ideal de animal… ¡Fuera la animalización judía del pueblo! ¡Abajo con Mickey Mouse! ¡Lucid la cruz gamada! (Artículo de periódico, Pomerania, Alemania, mediados de la década de 1930).
Como encontramos en la solapa del libro, la novela es la biografía de Vladek Spiegelman, un judío polaco superviviente de los campos de exterminio nazis, contada a través de su hijo Art, un dibujante de cómics que quiere dejar memoria de la aterradora persecución que sufrieron millones de personas en la Europa sometida por Hitler y de las consecuencias de este sufrimiento en la vida cotidiana de las generaciones posteriores .
Y esto lo hace usando una forma de memoria gráfica tremendamente original y contando la historia de un modo tranquilo y sosegado. En efecto, en la obra, es el padre del protagonista (que es el autor de la novela) quien va contando a su hijo, a lo largo de sus visitas, la historia de sus vicisitudes vitales desde 1932 hasta 1945, intercalando retazos de su vida actual, donde pueden apreciarse las consecuencias de las penalidades sufridas. Aparte de sucesos dramáticos por supuesto, cabe también destacar la descripción de cómo los prisioneros trapicheaban con la escasez para conseguir sobrevivir.
Por todo ello, mi calificación no puede ser otra que 5 estrellas, junto con la recomendación de que la leáis, y así contribuir a que el conocimiento de lo sucedido logre evitar que vuelva a producirse.
Sin duda los judíos son una raza, pero no humana (Adolf Hitler)
🐭🐭🐭🐭🐭
Leído en enero de 2023.
No suelo leer muchas novelas sobre el nazismo y la vida en los campos de concentración alemanes. Considero que las tramas son repetitivas, ya que una ingente parte de lo escrito gravita sobre los aspectos más escabrosos y mórbidos, cuando no sobre el dramatismo, lo que no es difícil teniendo en cuenta las condiciones a las que fueron sometidos los prisioneros y, muy en particular, los judíos. Además, mi visita reciente al campo de concentración de Terezin ha exacerbado y horrorizado mis sentidos, al comprobar in situ cómo todo esto que tanto hemos leído y visto en documentales y películas, pudo existir realmente en toda su crudeza. Así las cosas, intento seleccionar mucho las obras que leo de esta temática de un tiempo a esta parte.
Por otra parte, tampoco soy lector habitual de obras en cómic, más allá de alguna historieta gráfica de cuando en cuando, que ni siquiera reseño por estos lares.
Dicho esto, quedan claras las pocas posibilidades que esta obra tenía de que yo la abordara. Sin embargo, la insistencia de varios buenos amigos lectores, así como la constatación de ser la única obra de este género que, hasta la fecha, ha recibido el premio Pulitzer, concretamente en 1992, terminó por despertar mi curiosidad.
Y debo decir que ha sido un acierto completo, por cuanto he disfrutado mucho leyendo esta obra y, además, el estilo cómic hace que se lea con avidez y presteza, manteniendo un estilo tenebroso y oscuro, pero poco propenso al efectismo fácil y a las descripciones crueles intensas. ¿Por qué el autor elige ratones para presentar a los judíos?; tal vez la siguiente cita nos puede dar una pista:
Mickey Mouse es el ideal más lamentable que jamás haya visto la luz… Un sentimiento sano indica a cualquier joven independiente y a toda juventud honorable que esa alimaña sucia e inmunda, el mayor portador de bacterias del mundo animal, no puede ser el tipo ideal de animal… ¡Fuera la animalización judía del pueblo! ¡Abajo con Mickey Mouse! ¡Lucid la cruz gamada! (Artículo de periódico, Pomerania, Alemania, mediados de la década de 1930).
Como encontramos en la solapa del libro, la novela es la biografía de Vladek Spiegelman, un judío polaco superviviente de los campos de exterminio nazis, contada a través de su hijo Art, un dibujante de cómics que quiere dejar memoria de la aterradora persecución que sufrieron millones de personas en la Europa sometida por Hitler y de las consecuencias de este sufrimiento en la vida cotidiana de las generaciones posteriores .
Y esto lo hace usando una forma de memoria gráfica tremendamente original y contando la historia de un modo tranquilo y sosegado. En efecto, en la obra, es el padre del protagonista (que es el autor de la novela) quien va contando a su hijo, a lo largo de sus visitas, la historia de sus vicisitudes vitales desde 1932 hasta 1945, intercalando retazos de su vida actual, donde pueden apreciarse las consecuencias de las penalidades sufridas. Aparte de sucesos dramáticos por supuesto, cabe también destacar la descripción de cómo los prisioneros trapicheaban con la escasez para conseguir sobrevivir.
Por todo ello, mi calificación no puede ser otra que 5 estrellas, junto con la recomendación de que la leáis, y así contribuir a que el conocimiento de lo sucedido logre evitar que vuelva a producirse.
Sin duda los judíos son una raza, pero no humana (Adolf Hitler)
April 1, 2022
My very first graphic novel - and one of the highest calibre. What can I say about it that hasn't been said before? It is devastating, personal, complex, overwhelming. Timely, too, given what is happening in the Ukraine. Such a poignant and important reminder of where we've been, and where we can go, and god, please, let's not go there again.
February 10, 2017
Reseñar Maus supone una de las experiencias más gratificantes de mi vida porque es el segundo libro en 2015 al que le doy la nota máxima. Pues verán, desde hace muchos años siempre he sentido profunda fascinación por los temas históricos y sobre todo en torno a la segunda guerra mundial. Es un tema recurrente en mis lecturas y siempre me gusta aprender cosas nuevas sobre esta época terrible de la humanidad. Así que cuando conocí esta obra sabía que debía leerla en algún punto de mi vida y gracias a la biblioteca de la universidad he podido hacerlo.
¿Cómo se pueden calificar las memorias y recuerdos personales de alguien más? ¿Es acaso posible? Cuando una experiencia como esta es trasladada al papel es cuando a quien le pertenece deja de hacerlo. En 1992 Art Spiegelman ganó el primero y hasta ahora único premio Pulitzer que se le ha otorgado a un cómic en la historia. Y es precisamente la historia de su padre Wladek Spiegelman, un judío polaco sobreviviente del holocausto.
En el cómic Wladek le cuenta a su hijo como después de que le liberaran de Bergen-Belsen pasó por un estudio fotográfico y se hizo este retrato usando un uniforme que representaba al usado en los campos de concentración. Paradójicamente lo hizo meses después de haberse despojado él mismo de un uniforme real, donde la estrella lo marcaba como un Jude (judío) para los alemanes.
Wladek vivió en Auschwitz, trabajó en muchos oficios, vio de lejos los hornos crematorios, lo vio casi todo. En Bergen-Belsen estuvo incluso, donde tiempo antes murió Ana Frank y su hermana a manos de la tifus, que el mismo padeció y casi lo mata. Muchas cosas terribles sucedieron en esta época, pero Wladek vivió para contarlas.
Art Spiegelman era un artista joven, casado con una francesa y residía en Nueva York. En los años setenta decidió volver a casa de su padre y lo llevó allí una necesidad de su vida: que él le contara su pasado antes y durante el holocausto. Por muchos meses Art habló y grabó las charlas con su padre, ese hombre enfermo, sumamente tacaño y por su puesto, solitario.
Maus es una obra parte autobiográfica parte biográfica. Porque tanto Art como Wladek son protagonistas en la historia. La novela gráfica se divide en dos tomos: I Mi padre sangra historia y II Aquí comenzaron mis problemas. Art acude a la casa de Wladek y éste le va contando los recuerdos de a pocos mientras también se cuenta el momento actual de la familia Spiegelman. Es una narración a dos tiempos y a dos voces. Esta historia es distinta cuando te das cuenta que Art nunca tuvo una buena relación con Wladek. Los remordimientos también están presentes por ser un mal hijo para su madre Anja y eso le pesa. Toda su vida estuvo a la sombra del holocausto hudío y como esa experiencia dejó marcados a sus padres y fue un determinante en sus vidas. Art se desahogó al dibujar Maus, puede deducirse claramente.
Maus abarca una gran cantidad de tiempo desde antes de la guerra e incluso después. Wladek Spiegelman y Anja Zybelberg son los padres de Art, judíos nacidos en Polonia que tuvieron una vida tranquila hasta la invasión del Tercer Reich a su país. Desde ahí el sufrimiento no hacia sino empezar. En la historia los judíos son representados como ratones, los polacos no judíos como cerdos, los alemanes como gatos y los estadounidenses como perros. Simbología que considero representativa porque a pesar de todos ser humanos en esta época eso ya no importaba, si eras judio ya eras algo muy distinto. La "raza" volvía a ser motivo de crueldad.
Poco a poco vamos presenciando como Wladek evoca la progresión de la vida polaca desde la invasión hasta lo más cruel, lo más terrible. Primero perder la casa, el trabajo, luego la familia y posteriormente la libertad. En medio de la desesperanza, Wladek destaca por tener una suerte increíble a pesar de la tragedia. El talento para muchas cosas y una gran dosis de buena suerte salvaron al padre de Art de desgracias peores. ¿Cómo puede Art llevarse mal con su padre a pesar de todo lo que sufrió?
Arbeit Macht Frei "El trabajo libera" a la entrada de Auschwitz I
Es una de las lecciones que nos deja leer esta novela gráfica. Que a pesar de todo lo que suframos seguimos siendo seres humanos. Que muchas veces las experiencias sufridas no nos cambian como somos. Art no soportaba que su padre fuera tan tacaño y mezquino, pero es como si Wladek no dejara de recordar los días donde dos personas peleaban hasta sangrar por un pedazo de pan rancio y muchos morían de hambre frente a sus ojos.
Pero Maus no es sólo la conflictiva relación de un hijo y su padre, sino que también es la historia de un superviviente que a pesar de todo tuvo mucha suerte. Los recuerdos de Wladek nos trasladan a la Polonia oprimida y donde los judíos lo perdieron todo para luego ser llevados a trabajar hasta la muerte. La novela gráfica no se corta en mostrarnos de buena mano todas las atrocidades cometidas no sólo contra los judíos que si bien fueron la mayoría, también contra disidentes del gobierno, prisioneros de guerra entre otros. El temible campo de trabajo y exterminio Auschwitz-Birkenau se ve retratado en la historia, siendo el lugar donde murieron la mayoría de los judíos durante todo el holocausto y siendo el campo más famoso hoy en día.
El azar, el talento y algo de colaboración de muchas personas hicieron que Wladek y Anja sobrevivieran a años de terror. Pero sobrevivir también tiene un peso terrible y es la carga de los que se fueron, los que no volvieron a ver. Familias enteras perecieron en los campos y la compasión era una palabra desconocida por el régimen nazi. Los Spiegelman perdieron a casi todos sus familiares pero sobrevivieron para contarlo.
¿Entonces que puede decir u opinar uno sobre una historia tan personal? ¿A caso el horror se puede valorar? Leer Maus me dejó esa sensación, de dolor, de horror y de impotencia. Art hizo un inmenso trabajo al honrar a su padre a pesar de su mala relación. Porque a pesar de todo es un sobreviviente y los que sobreviven hacen bien en contar lo que los muertos ya no pueden.
¿Cómo se pueden calificar las memorias y recuerdos personales de alguien más? ¿Es acaso posible? Cuando una experiencia como esta es trasladada al papel es cuando a quien le pertenece deja de hacerlo. En 1992 Art Spiegelman ganó el primero y hasta ahora único premio Pulitzer que se le ha otorgado a un cómic en la historia. Y es precisamente la historia de su padre Wladek Spiegelman, un judío polaco sobreviviente del holocausto.
En el cómic Wladek le cuenta a su hijo como después de que le liberaran de Bergen-Belsen pasó por un estudio fotográfico y se hizo este retrato usando un uniforme que representaba al usado en los campos de concentración. Paradójicamente lo hizo meses después de haberse despojado él mismo de un uniforme real, donde la estrella lo marcaba como un Jude (judío) para los alemanes.
Wladek vivió en Auschwitz, trabajó en muchos oficios, vio de lejos los hornos crematorios, lo vio casi todo. En Bergen-Belsen estuvo incluso, donde tiempo antes murió Ana Frank y su hermana a manos de la tifus, que el mismo padeció y casi lo mata. Muchas cosas terribles sucedieron en esta época, pero Wladek vivió para contarlas.
Art Spiegelman era un artista joven, casado con una francesa y residía en Nueva York. En los años setenta decidió volver a casa de su padre y lo llevó allí una necesidad de su vida: que él le contara su pasado antes y durante el holocausto. Por muchos meses Art habló y grabó las charlas con su padre, ese hombre enfermo, sumamente tacaño y por su puesto, solitario.
Maus es una obra parte autobiográfica parte biográfica. Porque tanto Art como Wladek son protagonistas en la historia. La novela gráfica se divide en dos tomos: I Mi padre sangra historia y II Aquí comenzaron mis problemas. Art acude a la casa de Wladek y éste le va contando los recuerdos de a pocos mientras también se cuenta el momento actual de la familia Spiegelman. Es una narración a dos tiempos y a dos voces. Esta historia es distinta cuando te das cuenta que Art nunca tuvo una buena relación con Wladek. Los remordimientos también están presentes por ser un mal hijo para su madre Anja y eso le pesa. Toda su vida estuvo a la sombra del holocausto hudío y como esa experiencia dejó marcados a sus padres y fue un determinante en sus vidas. Art se desahogó al dibujar Maus, puede deducirse claramente.
Maus abarca una gran cantidad de tiempo desde antes de la guerra e incluso después. Wladek Spiegelman y Anja Zybelberg son los padres de Art, judíos nacidos en Polonia que tuvieron una vida tranquila hasta la invasión del Tercer Reich a su país. Desde ahí el sufrimiento no hacia sino empezar. En la historia los judíos son representados como ratones, los polacos no judíos como cerdos, los alemanes como gatos y los estadounidenses como perros. Simbología que considero representativa porque a pesar de todos ser humanos en esta época eso ya no importaba, si eras judio ya eras algo muy distinto. La "raza" volvía a ser motivo de crueldad.
Poco a poco vamos presenciando como Wladek evoca la progresión de la vida polaca desde la invasión hasta lo más cruel, lo más terrible. Primero perder la casa, el trabajo, luego la familia y posteriormente la libertad. En medio de la desesperanza, Wladek destaca por tener una suerte increíble a pesar de la tragedia. El talento para muchas cosas y una gran dosis de buena suerte salvaron al padre de Art de desgracias peores. ¿Cómo puede Art llevarse mal con su padre a pesar de todo lo que sufrió?
Arbeit Macht Frei "El trabajo libera" a la entrada de Auschwitz I
Es una de las lecciones que nos deja leer esta novela gráfica. Que a pesar de todo lo que suframos seguimos siendo seres humanos. Que muchas veces las experiencias sufridas no nos cambian como somos. Art no soportaba que su padre fuera tan tacaño y mezquino, pero es como si Wladek no dejara de recordar los días donde dos personas peleaban hasta sangrar por un pedazo de pan rancio y muchos morían de hambre frente a sus ojos.
Pero Maus no es sólo la conflictiva relación de un hijo y su padre, sino que también es la historia de un superviviente que a pesar de todo tuvo mucha suerte. Los recuerdos de Wladek nos trasladan a la Polonia oprimida y donde los judíos lo perdieron todo para luego ser llevados a trabajar hasta la muerte. La novela gráfica no se corta en mostrarnos de buena mano todas las atrocidades cometidas no sólo contra los judíos que si bien fueron la mayoría, también contra disidentes del gobierno, prisioneros de guerra entre otros. El temible campo de trabajo y exterminio Auschwitz-Birkenau se ve retratado en la historia, siendo el lugar donde murieron la mayoría de los judíos durante todo el holocausto y siendo el campo más famoso hoy en día.
El azar, el talento y algo de colaboración de muchas personas hicieron que Wladek y Anja sobrevivieran a años de terror. Pero sobrevivir también tiene un peso terrible y es la carga de los que se fueron, los que no volvieron a ver. Familias enteras perecieron en los campos y la compasión era una palabra desconocida por el régimen nazi. Los Spiegelman perdieron a casi todos sus familiares pero sobrevivieron para contarlo.
¿Entonces que puede decir u opinar uno sobre una historia tan personal? ¿A caso el horror se puede valorar? Leer Maus me dejó esa sensación, de dolor, de horror y de impotencia. Art hizo un inmenso trabajo al honrar a su padre a pesar de su mala relación. Porque a pesar de todo es un sobreviviente y los que sobreviven hacen bien en contar lo que los muertos ya no pueden.
October 10, 2019
This Review ✍️ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
💉 This cover has been on my radar for a looooong time and it usually is on the most bought books in my country when I check the online bookstores. I am not a fan of history and so I avoided it for the longest time possible. A book I was reading did mention that it was a graphic novel about Jew people and what they went through and I became interested and found myself a copy!
💉 I like what the author did, he is very smart, Jew people are the mice and the Germans are the cats and this is a sneaky way to reduce tension! The author tells us what happened IRL through his father and the book is divided into 2 parts. I loved how the author stayed genuine and showed us positives and negatives and he was not biased! I think this rawness and honesty added a lot to the story.
💉 The graphics were not the best and there was much dialogue and it was a bit crammed and a bit hard to read! But at the end of the say, I learned from this book more than years in school did to me!
You can get more books from Book Depository
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
💉 This cover has been on my radar for a looooong time and it usually is on the most bought books in my country when I check the online bookstores. I am not a fan of history and so I avoided it for the longest time possible. A book I was reading did mention that it was a graphic novel about Jew people and what they went through and I became interested and found myself a copy!
💉 I like what the author did, he is very smart, Jew people are the mice and the Germans are the cats and this is a sneaky way to reduce tension! The author tells us what happened IRL through his father and the book is divided into 2 parts. I loved how the author stayed genuine and showed us positives and negatives and he was not biased! I think this rawness and honesty added a lot to the story.
💉 The graphics were not the best and there was much dialogue and it was a bit crammed and a bit hard to read! But at the end of the say, I learned from this book more than years in school did to me!
You can get more books from Book Depository
February 17, 2022
Si no es por mi hermana, jamás me habría enterado de este libro.
En MAUS conocí a un chico interesado en contar la vida de sus padres durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Una narrativa que tal vez hemos leído mucho, pero de la que jamás dejaremos de aprender.
Las emociones del hijo y la empatía con los papás me hizo llorar en muchas ocasiones.
La estructura narrativa es demasiado buena. Y el hecho de que sea en formato cómic, permite que podamos visualizar mejor las descripciones de los sobrevivientes.
Me inspira mucho que el autor no haya “querido dar un mensaje” con este libro, si no simplemente retratar la persecución judía.
¿En algún punto lo sabremos todo sobre este hecho histórico?
En MAUS conocí a un chico interesado en contar la vida de sus padres durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Una narrativa que tal vez hemos leído mucho, pero de la que jamás dejaremos de aprender.
Las emociones del hijo y la empatía con los papás me hizo llorar en muchas ocasiones.
La estructura narrativa es demasiado buena. Y el hecho de que sea en formato cómic, permite que podamos visualizar mejor las descripciones de los sobrevivientes.
Me inspira mucho que el autor no haya “querido dar un mensaje” con este libro, si no simplemente retratar la persecución judía.
¿En algún punto lo sabremos todo sobre este hecho histórico?
April 3, 2018
“The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.”
- Adolf Hitler
This a graphic novel told from two timelines. In the narrative present, Art Spiegelman (author) is interviewing his father Vladek about his experiences as a Polish Jew and a Holocaust survivor. The narrative past depicts these very experiences from the mid 1930s to the end of the Holocaust in 1945. Spiegelman has utilised different species of animals to portray different nationalities and races - Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs and French as frogs.
I was actually inspired to read this after visiting a war museum with my friend. Though I had a lot of fun that day, the Holocaust Exhibition was one of the most harrowing and tragic things I have ever seen. During the exhibition, I realised how ignorant I had been to the extent of brutality, inhumanity and pain that was inflicted on Jews during WW2.
“And we came here to the concentration camp Auschwitz. And we knew that from here we will not come out anymore... We knew the stories - that they will gas us and throw us in the ovens. This was 1944... we knew everything. And here we were.”
Maus is an incredible tale that has so much to give to its reader. It was both insightful and addictive with its illustrations and style of storytelling. It allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of how the camps were run and what it was like for the prisoners. I am so glad that this is how Mr. Spiegelman chose to write his father’s story and the story of those who didn’t live to tell it.
“The biggest pile of bodies lay right next to the door where they tried to get out.” (from the gas chambers)
- Adolf Hitler
This a graphic novel told from two timelines. In the narrative present, Art Spiegelman (author) is interviewing his father Vladek about his experiences as a Polish Jew and a Holocaust survivor. The narrative past depicts these very experiences from the mid 1930s to the end of the Holocaust in 1945. Spiegelman has utilised different species of animals to portray different nationalities and races - Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs and French as frogs.
I was actually inspired to read this after visiting a war museum with my friend. Though I had a lot of fun that day, the Holocaust Exhibition was one of the most harrowing and tragic things I have ever seen. During the exhibition, I realised how ignorant I had been to the extent of brutality, inhumanity and pain that was inflicted on Jews during WW2.
“And we came here to the concentration camp Auschwitz. And we knew that from here we will not come out anymore... We knew the stories - that they will gas us and throw us in the ovens. This was 1944... we knew everything. And here we were.”
Maus is an incredible tale that has so much to give to its reader. It was both insightful and addictive with its illustrations and style of storytelling. It allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of how the camps were run and what it was like for the prisoners. I am so glad that this is how Mr. Spiegelman chose to write his father’s story and the story of those who didn’t live to tell it.
“The biggest pile of bodies lay right next to the door where they tried to get out.” (from the gas chambers)
April 20, 2019
I feel like anything I could say about this book is going to sound woefully inadequate, but I guess I'll give it a shot anyway. Maus had obviously been on my radar for ages as a critical piece of Holocaust literature as well as being the only graphic novel to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, so I was certainly expecting it to be good, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for how utterly harrowing of a read this ended up being. And again, yes, I did know that its subject matter was the Holocaust, but I also knew that Spiegelman made the famous stylistic decision to depict Jews as mice and Nazis as cats in this book, so I guess I was expecting something altogether more abstract? Instead it's a rather literal depiction of Spiegelman's father's experiences throughout WWII, culminating in his release from Auschwitz in 1945.
There's also an added dimension where Spiegelman chooses to depict the scenes in which he interviewed his father and came to hear these stories. In this present-day timeline we learn about Spiegelman's complex relationship with his father, and all the tension and resentment that's built up between them through the years, often due to the fact that his father's life was shaped so significantly by this atrocious thing that Spiegelman struggles to make sense of, as he was born after the end of the war. Spiegelman also lost his mother to suicide decades earlier, a tragic event from which his father had never fully recovered, though he did go on to remarry. In one particularly devastating panel, Spiegelman laments to his wife that he wishes he could have been in Auschwitz with his parents so he could understand what they had to go through, so he could bridge that gap between generations. That's this book in a nutshell: raw, unfiltered, uncompromising. It takes a strong stomach to get through this, and I think I spent the better part of it in tears, but if you're able to read this, I cannot recommend it highly enough. This is the best graphic novel I've read, the best piece of Holocaust literature that I've read, and strangely enough, the best love story that I've read. The final panel shattered me.
There's also an added dimension where Spiegelman chooses to depict the scenes in which he interviewed his father and came to hear these stories. In this present-day timeline we learn about Spiegelman's complex relationship with his father, and all the tension and resentment that's built up between them through the years, often due to the fact that his father's life was shaped so significantly by this atrocious thing that Spiegelman struggles to make sense of, as he was born after the end of the war. Spiegelman also lost his mother to suicide decades earlier, a tragic event from which his father had never fully recovered, though he did go on to remarry. In one particularly devastating panel, Spiegelman laments to his wife that he wishes he could have been in Auschwitz with his parents so he could understand what they had to go through, so he could bridge that gap between generations. That's this book in a nutshell: raw, unfiltered, uncompromising. It takes a strong stomach to get through this, and I think I spent the better part of it in tears, but if you're able to read this, I cannot recommend it highly enough. This is the best graphic novel I've read, the best piece of Holocaust literature that I've read, and strangely enough, the best love story that I've read. The final panel shattered me.
April 19, 2022
“Show to me your pencil and I can explain you … such things. It’s good to know exactly how was it—just in case.”Like a lot of other people, I had heard of Maus but was not inspired to actually read it until school districts in the South started banning it from schools. Shame on them for such a despicable act, and a little bit of shame on me for never having read this book before.
…
“If you want to live, it’s good to be friendly.”
…
“About Auschwitz, nobody can understand.”
The premise of Maus is pretty simple. The author, Art Spiegelman, interviews his father, Vladek, a Polish Jew who survived WWII including spending its final months at Auschwitz. The story is told in black-and-white cartoons in which the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Poles are pigs, and the Americans (when they finally arrive) are dogs. Vladek is an ordinary young man living an ordinary life, dating and then falling in love with Anja. They get married, he starts a business, they have a kid, she suffers from postpartum depression. But there are small hints of the gathering storm—stories of Jews being disappeared, the first time he saw a Nazi flag—and by the end of the second chapter, it’s September of 1939, Vladek has been drafted into the Polish army, and little is ordinary anymore.
From there, and despite focusing on his father’s personal story, Maus tells a significant cross-section of the entire Holocaust from start to finish. The wholesale theft of Jewish property and businesses, the shortages and rationing, the papers and the roundups. Being moved by the Germans every few months, everything always a little worse. Building rooms with false walls, tiny bunkers to hide in each place they moved to. Needing help from others for survival but under the constant threat of betrayal from collaborators. Making impossible choices like “do we send our first-born son (Art’s older brother, Richieu) away with friends, and risk never seeing him again, because we think it will increase his odds of survival,” and having to live with those choices. Hiding without food, hungry enough to just chew on wood to simulate the feel of eating, just barely surviving until, finally, being betrayed and taken to Auschwitz. How he managed to survive there until the end of the war, and how Vladek and Anja were finally reunited afterwards.
What I did not expect from Maus was its B-story. There are sections at the beginning and end of each chapter in which we see Vladek in the present. Art has a tense, rather unhappy relationship with his father. Anja committed suicide in 1962, and it has haunted him and Art ever since. Vladek has remarried to a woman named Mala, but they are unhappy. We see the lasting effects of the Holocaust on the survivors and even their children. And because the book was originally published serially, there’s even a bit of meta, as Art in the book talks about his guilt in telling this story at all, and his decision to present his father warts and all.
Maus is an extraordinary story. It is both subtle and complicated. Despite the seeming simplicity of the drawing, there are scenes of evil—not gore, not blood, but evil—that are difficult to look at. Rather than being banned by those who are cowards (or worse), Maus should be read in every high school, not just for the history, but for its humanity, for its exercise in empathy towards family and/or people we don’t understand. Truly a must read.
March 3, 2024
[5.0⭐] 𝙈𝙖𝙪𝙨: 𝙍𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚 𝙪𝙣 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚 es una novela gráfica que fue completada en 1991 por Art Spiegelman. Fue la primera novela gráfica en ganar un premio Pulitzer en 1992. La historia cuenta las experiencias del propio autor junto a las respectivas entrevistas que le hizo a su padre: este narra su vida como judío polaco y superviviente del holocausto. En sí, es un libro de memorias, histórico, autobiográfico y biográfico, tiene una mezcla de géneros. Aquí, los judíos son representados con ratones, los alemanes con gatos y los polacos que no son judíos con chanchos.
Tiene una narración en presente (1978), en donde se verán retratadas las complicadas relaciones que hay entre padre e hijo. Están en Estados Unidos ya que su madre y su padre lograron escaparse de la guerra. Esta parte se desarrolla específicamente en Rego Park (Nueva York), en donde Vladek Spiegelman, un judío polaco que vivió en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, le cuenta la historia a su hijo Art, que se encuentra creando un cómic. Además, está presente esa ausencia maternal porque Anja (madre de Art y esposa de Vladek) se suicidó cuando Art tenía veinte años. Vladek llegó a destruir los diarios que ella escribió sobre Auschwitz.
La otra narración se compone de flash-backs de Vladek, en donde se narran sus vivencias antes y durante la guerra.
Por más que se conozca, a grandes rasgos, las vivencias de los judíos en el Holocausto, es indiscutible que todas las narraciones son desgarradoras, crueles y horribles. No por tener una trama conocida por todos significa que será menos dolorosa la lectura; de hecho, todo lo contrario, uno se siente más destrozado.
Esta es una historia trágica, al igual que todas las de los judíos en aquellos años, pero que, sin duda, te sacará más de una lágrima. La técnica del autor de intercalar el pasado con el presente es realmente majestuosa y digna de admiración, hasta se han creado diferentes corrientes de la novela gráfica a partir de esta obra (marcó un antes y un después en este género). Su técnica de dibujo tiene un estilo muy minimalista y, también, llega a ser muy innovadora en cuanto a las viñetas que crea y la estructura.
Es una obra maestra desde el inicio hasta el final ya que demuestra una originalidad innegable: el empleo de diversos animales para simbolizar los bandos (hasta llega a parecer una fábula por los comportamientos humanos que estas criaturas tienen), el uso de flash-backs y el recurso escogido (cómic). Había escuchado con anterioridad la majestuosidad de este relato y, por fin, me animé a sumergirme en esta historia.
Finalmente, puedo decir que es un relato que dejará a todos atónitos por su crudeza y originalidad. No he querido hablar con más especificidad sobre la trama ya que todos nos hacemos una idea de lo que sucede. Considero que es una obra que merece ser leída por cualquier individuo porque les dejará una gran marca en su corazón.
Tiene una narración en presente (1978), en donde se verán retratadas las complicadas relaciones que hay entre padre e hijo. Están en Estados Unidos ya que su madre y su padre lograron escaparse de la guerra. Esta parte se desarrolla específicamente en Rego Park (Nueva York), en donde Vladek Spiegelman, un judío polaco que vivió en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, le cuenta la historia a su hijo Art, que se encuentra creando un cómic. Además, está presente esa ausencia maternal porque Anja (madre de Art y esposa de Vladek) se suicidó cuando Art tenía veinte años. Vladek llegó a destruir los diarios que ella escribió sobre Auschwitz.
La otra narración se compone de flash-backs de Vladek, en donde se narran sus vivencias antes y durante la guerra.
Por más que se conozca, a grandes rasgos, las vivencias de los judíos en el Holocausto, es indiscutible que todas las narraciones son desgarradoras, crueles y horribles. No por tener una trama conocida por todos significa que será menos dolorosa la lectura; de hecho, todo lo contrario, uno se siente más destrozado.
Esta es una historia trágica, al igual que todas las de los judíos en aquellos años, pero que, sin duda, te sacará más de una lágrima. La técnica del autor de intercalar el pasado con el presente es realmente majestuosa y digna de admiración, hasta se han creado diferentes corrientes de la novela gráfica a partir de esta obra (marcó un antes y un después en este género). Su técnica de dibujo tiene un estilo muy minimalista y, también, llega a ser muy innovadora en cuanto a las viñetas que crea y la estructura.
Es una obra maestra desde el inicio hasta el final ya que demuestra una originalidad innegable: el empleo de diversos animales para simbolizar los bandos (hasta llega a parecer una fábula por los comportamientos humanos que estas criaturas tienen), el uso de flash-backs y el recurso escogido (cómic). Había escuchado con anterioridad la majestuosidad de este relato y, por fin, me animé a sumergirme en esta historia.
Finalmente, puedo decir que es un relato que dejará a todos atónitos por su crudeza y originalidad. No he querido hablar con más especificidad sobre la trama ya que todos nos hacemos una idea de lo que sucede. Considero que es una obra que merece ser leída por cualquier individuo porque les dejará una gran marca en su corazón.
May 9, 2021
The Complete Maus
Art Spiegelman
Graphic, intimate real-life testimony of the holocaust from a Polish survivor, and the trauma of the second-generation Holocaust survivors. (The children of the Holocaust survivor are known as second-generation survivors.) This second-generation have tried to make sense of their backgrounds, which are often obscured, especially where their parents have been unable to talk about their experiences.
Maus is really two parallel stories, not one. It jumps back and forth between the two stories, one set in the past (Poland), the other set in the present (NYC).
Story 1: 1940’s Poland: Vladek Spiegelman tells how he survived the holocaust as a Polish Jew. From the invasion to the spread of Naziam, to his time in Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp as a tin worker at the gas chambers. Vladek is one of the only surviving camp survivors who had intimate knowledge of how the gas chambers facilities worked because he worked there and lived to tell the tale. He saw how pesticide (Zyklon B) was dropped into the hollow columns to gas screaming victims and how they burned in crematoriums afterward. Most Jewish inmates who worked near the gas chambers and crematoriums were executed so they could not give testimony to the horrors they witnessed.
Story 2: 1980’s New York City. Art details his creative process of composing his book about his dad's holocaust experiences. Art has a very antagonistic relationship with his father, Vledeck. We see Art trying to interview his reluctant father, pushing his father to recount his experiences. The holocaust permeates every detail of Spiegelman's daily life, even though it took place so many years ago.
There is a need in our society to push the Holocaust into the past and keep it there, but we see throughout this novel that this is impossible. Survivors and their children don't have the luxury of just forgetting about it and moving on. You can stop talking about it, you can try to pretend it never happened, but the recollections of those horrible experiences never go away. You can't erase them. They haunt their victims.
A predominant theme in the book is how traumatic events like the Holocaust continue to distort and shape people generations later, long after they are over. Children of Holocaust survivors are also affected by the holocaust, secondhand, through their parents. They often feel guilty about leading such pampered lives, compared to their parent's horrific experiences. So, survivor’s guilt stems from first-hand experience (holocaust survivors who feel guilty for surviving when so many loved ones did not) and it reverberates down through generations (children of holocaust survivors). Vledeck's parenting style is warped by the long-term psychological effects the holocaust has on his behavior. In turn, Art's childhood is warped by Vledeck’s post-holocaust world view, a secondary repercussion of the Holocaust.
Why Graphics?
The graphics add power, context, and tone to the text, providing deeper insight into the mixed feelings and thoughts of the characters. You can hear (read) a character say one thing in the text, but you might also see them thinking/doing something very different, which is expressed in graphics.
Most of the text in the book are direct quotes from Art Spiegelman's father, Vladik. Sometimes the graphics will reflect the same mood and message expressed in the text. Other times the graphics might reflect Art's interpretation of what his dad is saying. This way the reader sees two very different interpretations of the same exact incident or story simultaneously. How brilliant is that?
Art Spiegelman also uses animals to represent different races and nationalities. It's a very effective metaphor. Jews are drawn as mice, which reflects back to the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews being subhuman rats. Germans are cats; they prey on Jewish mice. Americans are dogs, they fight the German cats. The French are frogs. The Polish are pigs; Nazis considered the Polish people to be pigs. Jewish Mice sometimes pretend to be Polish pigs to hide from the German Cats. They do this by wearing pigs masks.
While creating the book, Art struggles with how he should draw his French wife who converted to Judaism to please his father. It encourages the reader to think about the roles of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion. Is Art's wife a frog that transforms into a mouse? But she's still French. So is she half frog, half mouse? Is she a frog in a mouse mask?
When can we stop talking about the Holocaust?:
I understand that the holocaust can sometimes seem like a ghastly but impersonal genocide of countless, faceless victims. The magnitude and horror of it all can be so hard to stomach. But each of those six million people was an individual with their own personal story. Individual stories may not seem as important when compared to famous, historical figures like Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, but learning about each individual story is critical to understanding the magnitude of the Holocaust. Recorded memories are the only way Holocaust survivors can maintain a connection to the stolen lives of those who were erased from the face of the earth by the Holocaust.
Art Spiegelman
Graphic, intimate real-life testimony of the holocaust from a Polish survivor, and the trauma of the second-generation Holocaust survivors. (The children of the Holocaust survivor are known as second-generation survivors.) This second-generation have tried to make sense of their backgrounds, which are often obscured, especially where their parents have been unable to talk about their experiences.
Maus is really two parallel stories, not one. It jumps back and forth between the two stories, one set in the past (Poland), the other set in the present (NYC).
Story 1: 1940’s Poland: Vladek Spiegelman tells how he survived the holocaust as a Polish Jew. From the invasion to the spread of Naziam, to his time in Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp as a tin worker at the gas chambers. Vladek is one of the only surviving camp survivors who had intimate knowledge of how the gas chambers facilities worked because he worked there and lived to tell the tale. He saw how pesticide (Zyklon B) was dropped into the hollow columns to gas screaming victims and how they burned in crematoriums afterward. Most Jewish inmates who worked near the gas chambers and crematoriums were executed so they could not give testimony to the horrors they witnessed.
Story 2: 1980’s New York City. Art details his creative process of composing his book about his dad's holocaust experiences. Art has a very antagonistic relationship with his father, Vledeck. We see Art trying to interview his reluctant father, pushing his father to recount his experiences. The holocaust permeates every detail of Spiegelman's daily life, even though it took place so many years ago.
There is a need in our society to push the Holocaust into the past and keep it there, but we see throughout this novel that this is impossible. Survivors and their children don't have the luxury of just forgetting about it and moving on. You can stop talking about it, you can try to pretend it never happened, but the recollections of those horrible experiences never go away. You can't erase them. They haunt their victims.
A predominant theme in the book is how traumatic events like the Holocaust continue to distort and shape people generations later, long after they are over. Children of Holocaust survivors are also affected by the holocaust, secondhand, through their parents. They often feel guilty about leading such pampered lives, compared to their parent's horrific experiences. So, survivor’s guilt stems from first-hand experience (holocaust survivors who feel guilty for surviving when so many loved ones did not) and it reverberates down through generations (children of holocaust survivors). Vledeck's parenting style is warped by the long-term psychological effects the holocaust has on his behavior. In turn, Art's childhood is warped by Vledeck’s post-holocaust world view, a secondary repercussion of the Holocaust.
Why Graphics?
The graphics add power, context, and tone to the text, providing deeper insight into the mixed feelings and thoughts of the characters. You can hear (read) a character say one thing in the text, but you might also see them thinking/doing something very different, which is expressed in graphics.
Most of the text in the book are direct quotes from Art Spiegelman's father, Vladik. Sometimes the graphics will reflect the same mood and message expressed in the text. Other times the graphics might reflect Art's interpretation of what his dad is saying. This way the reader sees two very different interpretations of the same exact incident or story simultaneously. How brilliant is that?
Art Spiegelman also uses animals to represent different races and nationalities. It's a very effective metaphor. Jews are drawn as mice, which reflects back to the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews being subhuman rats. Germans are cats; they prey on Jewish mice. Americans are dogs, they fight the German cats. The French are frogs. The Polish are pigs; Nazis considered the Polish people to be pigs. Jewish Mice sometimes pretend to be Polish pigs to hide from the German Cats. They do this by wearing pigs masks.
While creating the book, Art struggles with how he should draw his French wife who converted to Judaism to please his father. It encourages the reader to think about the roles of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion. Is Art's wife a frog that transforms into a mouse? But she's still French. So is she half frog, half mouse? Is she a frog in a mouse mask?
When can we stop talking about the Holocaust?:
I understand that the holocaust can sometimes seem like a ghastly but impersonal genocide of countless, faceless victims. The magnitude and horror of it all can be so hard to stomach. But each of those six million people was an individual with their own personal story. Individual stories may not seem as important when compared to famous, historical figures like Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, but learning about each individual story is critical to understanding the magnitude of the Holocaust. Recorded memories are the only way Holocaust survivors can maintain a connection to the stolen lives of those who were erased from the face of the earth by the Holocaust.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 14,203 reviews