Self-Adoption In Art Spiegelman's Maus

Why would an author or in this case a cartoonist write/draw himself into the story? The use of self-insertion adds to the effectiveness of the writer and in this instance, Art Spiegelman uses the concept of self-insertion to effectively tell the story of the Holocaust and tell the story with a post-memory twist. Primarily, the use of self-insertion creates a sense of ethos with the audience. Rather than acting as a regular character, the cartoonist sits in for the reader herself. Acting as a surrogate, the cartoonist steps in for the reader and asks questions that the reader would ask and creates a dialogue in the story that would be absent if the story lacked the cartoonist self-insertion. Also, the cartoonist self-insertion adds a sense of realism to the story. In the case of Maus, Spiegelman adds realism to this multivalent …show more content…
While the story comes from Vladek himself, Art Spiegelman uses a graphic novel to process the events his father suffered through and to call attention to the event in hopes of preventing another Holocaust. Through his use of vivid imagery, frame bleeding, and self-insertion, Spiegelman creates a type of dialogue between the reader and the story. Rather than a simplistic story to tell people the Holocaust was bad, Spiegelman set out and created a graphic novel that handled the seriousness of the topic while educating the audience through Spiegelman’s father’s personal anecdotes. By using anecdotes and imagery, the story did not read like a book, but rather, caused the audience to connect on a personal level and view the text not as a monologue being spoken to them, but as an open dialogue that left room for continued discussion like in the classroom or at home. Art Spiegelman inserts himself into the story to build a personal connection with the reader and by the end of the comix, he acts as a surrogate for the reader by asking questions