Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a work of historical fiction that uses very unique illustrations and writing style to tell the story of a holocaust survivor. This piece is very unique in that it takes the form of a graphic novel, but is still dealing with a very serious issue. The story begins with a son, Artie, asking his father, Vladek, to dictate his experiences of the Holocaust from Poland in 1939. Smoothly transitioning from modern times to the actual story being told by the father, the reader can see the toll that the war has taken on Vladek’s life and how he is still surviving.
The art in Maus is an extremely important element because it is the only detail the reader gets to clarify character’s emotions and experiences. The most notable artistic choice in this book is the author’s decision to use animals instead of human beings to be the characters. In the novel, the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats and the Polls are pigs. . It is essentially depicting the world as a game of ct and mouse. Using animals provides clarity for the reader so there is no guessing who the bad guys are and the novel does a great job personifying these characters by using dramatic facial expressions and detailed settings. Spiegelman is able to tell his father’s story in a very unique way without losing any of its meaning or severity.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: I: My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon, 1973.
No comments:
Post a Comment