Why are comics not appreciated as much as the dry narratives of novels in the literary world? A comic is composed of symbols to express concepts shared by all people in their own social environment, and provide more tools than conventional art to truly show artistic intention.
Comics exist to expose the ethnic representations that seek to control the development of collective perceptions, memories and emotions and especially fear by investigating the techniques through which this control is maintained. Maus I is a true account of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, and his experiences as a young Jew during the horrors leading up to the confinement in Auschwitz. Maus II is about Vladek recounting his own history to his son Art …show more content…
Spiegelman uses mice, cats, pigs and other animals to portray the victims and events in the Holocaust. He uses real features of human beings such as hands, feet and emotions to give the animals the full potential to relate to. Maus reveals that the characters portrayed as mice are being seen in sharper relief as human concerns in the world of mice. Spiegelman decided on interesting but possibly offensive use of different animals to use. The first type of animal which appears in this comic is the mouse (MausI:5). The form of mice is used to represent the Jewish people during the Holocaust and as of now too. The Polish police were involved in the arrest of innocent Jewish mice (27). The Polish people were pigs and Germans were represented as cats. The Germans’ appearance as cats began to make sense in the way how cats chase, hunt and kill mice (33). This comic book was translated into an easily readable format to educate the history of the Holocaust to the younger generations.
Second, the choice of a comic format serves as a vital aspect in the reader’s understanding of the visual society and making awareness through generations as more attuned to the image than to the word. In Vladek's world, being and living as a human meant living in fear. Vladek escapes the fear of death for a time through the intercession of an S.S. officer who wanted to learn English from him and in return provided him with some protection (78). This
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Why are comics not appreciated as much as the dry narratives of novels in the literary world? A comic is composed of symbols to express concepts shared by all people in their own social environment, and provide more tools than conventional art to truly show artistic intention. Comics exist to expose the ethnic representations that seek to control the development of collective perceptions, memories and emotions and especially fear by investigating the techniques through which this control is maintained. Maus I is a true account of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, and his experiences as a young Jew during the horrors leading up to the confinement in Auschwitz. Maus II is about Vladek recounting his own history to his son Art Spiegelman and the complicated relationship. As the reader delves into the relationship of the two within the story, including those from history books, the reader begins to realize what these relationships did to shape the ideology of a group of people as a whole. People most often would think that the use of comic-images would soften the realizations and accounts of events of Holocaust, but in reality the animated visuals greatly amplify them. In both Maus I and Maus II, the comic panels of drawn images of memories, which are much more horrifying and true to life, than the real photographs of that time in the Holocaust show that comic books have advantages in many aspects. First, the use of animals in the comic humanizes the tragedy much more than using real humans. Maus recounts the history of Auschwitz through highly detailed drawings and comic panels of animals depicted as humans. The main characters of Maus, Vladek and Frederick struggle everyday to be considered or treated a human. The characters’ daily struggles show just how humans can be treated like animals, denied the right to an education and haunted by what others have done to them. Spiegelman uses mice, cats, pigs and other animals to portray the victims and events in the Holocaust. He uses real features of human beings such as hands, feet and emotions to give the animals the full potential to relate to. Maus reveals that the characters portrayed as mice are being seen in sharper relief as human concerns in the world of mice. Spiegelman decided on interesting but possibly offensive use of different animals to use. The first type of animal which appears in this comic is the mouse (MausI:5). The form of mice is used to represent the Jewish people during the Holocaust and as of now too. The Polish police were involved in the arrest of innocent Jewish mice (27). The Polish people were pigs and Germans were represented as cats. The Germans’ appearance as cats began to make sense in the way how cats chase, hunt and kill mice (33). This comic book was translated into an easily readable format to educate the history of the Holocaust to the younger generations. Second, the choice of a comic format serves as a vital aspect in the reader’s understanding of the visual society and making awareness through generations as more attuned to the image than to the word. In Vladek's world, being and living as a human meant living in fear. Vladek escapes the fear of death for a time through the intercession of an S.S. officer who wanted to learn English from him and in return provided him with some protection (78). This points the central motif of how human beings retain their humanity by helping one another to survive. This happens again when Vladek sees Ilzecki, and Ilzecki takes him into his home to protect him (80). Sacrifice comes in many forms, one way is how Ilzecki gives up his son for others to raise which results in his son surviving while Richie's aunt refuses and poisons him so that he does not die by the S.S. officers (81). Nevertheless, there is a form of negative awareness when the image of the “swastika”, which is the symbol of Nazi, pervades the comic panels and even in the front cover. The swastika is historically vital in the sense that before Hitler's time, it was used across the world as a symbol of the sun, power and life force. Perhaps the Nazi regime would have never come to existence without this powerful symbol of the swastika. To remove the symbol of swastika entirely or replace it with another symbol would completely disorient the reader. Spiegelman uses the swastika to remind the reader that while the events may be unfamiliar, the novel is still a narrative about the devastating Holocaust. Third, the comic format may actually be more palatable in addressing such difficult and sensitive matters. In many cases, the visual images portray horrible acts of violence but it does not seem as terrifying when they are in comic forms. Real human being images may have disgusted the reader because it may be too explicit. For example, it is much more pleasing to the eye to see mice dying or dead as cadavers rather than real human bodies. In the “Reading Visual Narratives” by Ewert, one example was when the son was ignored by the father at the dinner table; the reader also ignored the visual narrative of the son and how important this scene was. Like the cases in “Reading Visual Narratives”, the images and text show contradictions where the contexts are light-weighted while the pictures are very vivid: the punishing of the children by hitting them against the wall and the blood stained the wall with a “SPAT!” It would be horrifying to see the cadavers as real pictures rather than mice throughout the Holocaust (MausII:41). The German cats punished or killed the Jewish mice sometimes for no reason. Some crucial examples are one of the prisoners did not stand straight so a guard took him away and “jumped hard on his neck” (II:50) and Vladek’s friend was killed because one of the guards took his cap and told him to fetch it but shot him in the head “for trying to escape” (II:35). Such explicit visuals may be dramatizing for readers, especially young readers, so Spiegelman uses cartoons to reach the message across at a minimal but irrefutable level. The physical pain and fear a survivor of the Holocaust felt could never fully be understood by anyone other than a fellow survivor. Just as the case of Artie and his father, children of survivors may not feel the physical pain and agony as their parents did but feel the psychological effects later in their lives. Moreover, Spiegelman believes that Maus concludes that the people should be aware and educated of the Holocaust in order for the history of the Holocaust to not repeat itself. In “Education after Auschwitz”, the author states that “the premier demand upon all education is that Auschwitz not happen again” (Adorno:2). Reasons for the extreme challenge of "Education after Auschwitz" are connected with the situation in Germany itself. The topic of Holocaust to address in Germany is difficult in the sense that dealing with an unaware set of intergenerational relationships, of sensitive political issues and of ethical questions which are difficult to answer. "Education after Auschwitz" is a topic that most people, including Spiegelman, can approach with only fear. This topic is very important for all education in Germany but there is a limitation to the contribution of spreading the awareness of the Holocaust. More importantly, people should not speak about "Education after Auschwitz" without thinking of the victims, the children and grandchildren of those survivors. Fourth, Spiegelman is successful by using an ironic fashion of utilizing the methods of the comic book to tell a very un-comic story, a real narrative. It is a serious story of his father’s recollection of the Holocaust. He tells the story just as his father told him, including what his father said and did during the interviews. It seems as though when the father is telling the story, the comic panels are shadowed like he was looking back into his past. However, real actual pictures of humans stand out significantly different in this comic. In the “Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History”, Spiegelman adds a picture of Artie and his mother at Trojan Lake, ten years before his mother committed suicide. Including this actual picture of Artie and his mother brings a more personal touch than a mere drawing of mother and son mice. This is an actual memory that he has of his mother's suicide which is portrayed in real life. In Maus II, Spiegelman draws human characters wearing the animal masks of the pigs, cats and mice. Even he is a part of this as he masks himself a mouse head when all the reporters are barging and harassing him after his fame. Spiegelman tries to give the reader a story from the Holocaust but also show the reader what it was like to write this comic book. Not only do the media distract him, but also the death of his mother and his father. In the bottom comic panel, Spiegelman provides the reader with the reasons for his depression just mentioned prior (II:41). Spiegelman mentions his mother's suicide which he has yet to fully understood or accepted. In “Time Flies”, he becomes a small boy when he calls out for his mother. Those comic panels could not be portrayed in a dry narrative as well as it does in a comic. The visuals show how he not only felt but also desired to be back to a little boy. Other visuals are the pile of dead mice underneath his desk which is obvious and the watchtower and fence outside his window which would have been a common sight in the Nazi concentration camps. This shows Spiegelman's effort to convey his feelings of entrapment within his comic work. Spiegelman’s entrapment feelings are accompanied by the inadequate feelings or responsibility to convey the effects of the Holocaust on the victim’s children. Therefore, he questions not only his ability to write, but also the ability of the readers to truly comprehend his piece of art. In conclusion, Maus I and II examines the limitations of recording a tremendously devastating experience by the engagement of the social and personal problems of oral history in addition to his memory. The comic book is a story about telling a story of a significant historical event as a testimony. Because this comic book is only his father’s experience in Auschwitz, Spiegelman’s interpretation is very limited. The Holocaust becomes a part of every man's story due to the personalizing of the event and the ability to humanize an individual's story. The comic book’s structure is very useful in getting the tragic but true events out of the Holocaust. Most comics are associated with fun and enjoyment but Maus is the complete opposite in the sense that there is a deeper, hidden message and to be taken seriously. It is a serious account of one’s recollection of the Holocaust to make the world aware of the history not to repeat. In understanding Maus, the reader must take into account the fact that all works of literature are affected by the social and cultural contexts of its author. Spiegelman proves the point that “a picture is worth a million words” with his visual representations, which speak louder than the text, and are a big contribution for close reading and understanding. In Maus, the use of frame stories in comic panels helped to establish personal, social and cultural context of ethnic representation and the education of awareness of younger readers. Spiegelman, Art (1986).