Maus Art Spiegelman Analysis

Art Spiegelman’s comic “Maus” provides a unique way to learn about the Holocaust. Through comics, Spiegelman allows each reader to interpret the text in their own way. Spiegelman ventured away from the standard textbook method of describing history with specific details for each subject matter, and instead, drew his comic in a way that allowed each reader to form their own conclusions on the historical event. Spiegelman used unique elements in his comic to tell the story. Perhaps the most unique is the use of animals in an iconic way to represent each race of people. The second unique method was the use of photographs and depictions in the Prisoner on the Hell Planet section of the comic. The third unique element, Spiegelman’s use of realism
Spiegelman said this when talking about “Maus”, “In Maus, the mouse heads are masks, virtually blank, like Little Orphan Annie's eyeballs--a white screen the reader can project on,” With the use of iconic faces in the form of animals, Spiegelman made it where the individuals within a group could be anybody, which made it necessary to follow along with the dialogue to be able to identify the characters essential in the telling of this Holocaust story. Using animals to represent the iconic faces opposed to humans, allowed Spiegelman to depict characters universally and with less complexity. There were traits given to important characters that gave them particular faces, examples are, Vladek drawn with glasses and Artie drawn with a cigarette. This allowed certain characters to be identified easily, it also aided in uncovering which animals represented which race of people. The various iconic groups used to portray the races of people were, Jews represented by mice to clearly depict that they were considered vermin at the bottom of the totem pole. Jewish mice were prey to the Germans that were depicted as cats to symbolize their superiority and physical hold over the Jews. Poles were represented as pigs because from the view point of the Jews they were selfish, brutal animals that were only concerned with themselves. The less depicted, but still important in
Realism is, “the quality or fact representing a person, thing, or situation in a way that is true to life.” Spiegelman was telling the story of his parent’s life experiences during the Holocaust. Spiegelman used a comic book and animals to tell the story, but nonetheless, he represented the situation in a way that was true to the real life. As Spiegelman said when he was talking about “Maus”, “My anthropomorphized mice carry trace elements of Fip's anti-Semitic Jew-as-rats cartoons for Der Sturmer, but by being particularized they are invested with personhood; they stand upright and affirm their humanity. Cartoons personalized; they give specific form to stereotypes.” Spiegelman chose to represent the humanity of each race through the stereotypes of animals, and by doing so, he could show the reality of life for the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Through using realism, Spiegelman conveyed the story behind the history of the Holocaust with genuine