I have always had a soft spot for graphic novels, and was
excited to learn that we would be reading the Maus books for this class. I had seen them and had been interested,
but hadn’t yet read them. This was a really good push for me to do so, for
obvious reasons.
As much as I loved book II of Maus, it was book I: My Father Bleeds History that really
drew my attention and fascination. Most Holocaust stories that I’ve read would
cover mostly what happened after the Jews were in the concentration camps, and
this narrative spent a lot of time around Vladek’s journey evading the Nazis.
That, combined with the other narrative of Art learning all this from Vladek
made the presentation of the story very fresh. This did continue on to book II,
as well, but I feel that a lot of the narrative’s strength was in this first
half. As a lot of the book is Vladek narrowly evading capture right under the
German noses, it creates a tension that is not usually seen in Holocaust
stories. In particular, the scenes that place Vladek in ornate hiding places.
Seeing how these were laid out visually and not just having to infer from words
was really helpful. These claustrophobic scenes just made the whole story much
more horrifying.
I was drawn to many things in these book, but if I had to
choose one particular thing that drew me in, it would be the art style and
visual metaphors. There is the obvious visual metaphor between cat and mouse,
but the way Spiegelman draws these characters and scenes adds a lot of
atmosphere to the books. The angled and simplified character designs contrast
with a lot of the scenes of brutality depicted in the book. The scenes give a
very distorted look that barely looks real, as if these horrors were simply
imagined. These horrors were, of course, not imagined at all, but seeing these
almost cute characters go through horrible events, as pictured in page 72 and
95 of Book II seem even more brutal. The hatching and heavy shadows are raw,
haunting, and shocking, managing to be easy to interpret without losing any of
the horror that the scenes depicted should have.
The biggest section of art that stood out to me was the Prisoner on the Hell Planet, the short
comic that Art made discussing how his mother’s suicide still grips him. I’m
sure that this is his real artwork, but seeing such a vastly different drawing
style helped bring this particular section of narrative ahead of the rest of
the story. It shows how big of an affect Anja’s suicide had affected her son. The
different drawing style, while showing a neat shot of how Art’s drawing style
evolved, also symbolized how this one emotion was so big and daunting, and how
it had such a distinct effect on him emotionally.
Overall, these books were incredible and I would recommend
them to anyone without a second thought. The attention to detail, the simple
yet powerful storytelling, the subject matter, and even the empty themes of
family and loss are universal, and this is one of the most unique and brilliant
ways of conveying a story that is told so often it almost doesn’t bite as hard.
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