Summary Of Maus: A Survivor's Tale By Art Spiegelman

Written over a thirteen-year period, Maus: A Survivor 's Tale by Art Spiegelman, tells the story of the authors attempts to learn about and document his father, Vladek, and his mother, Anja’s experiences as Jews during the Holocaust and later as survivors in the United States. Spiegelman uses this opportunity to tell the story of his family 's history and relationships during and after World War II. The way in which Spiegelman documents his fathers’ history is peculiar in that Artie choose to make a comic, depicting the tragedies of World War II which suggests a lighter, cartoonish sense while the reality is quite the opposite. In order to represent individuals in the book more easily, and without having to describe each character, or outline background details, Artie choose to depict the characters by drawing them as animals, categorizing them by race or religion. All people in the book are depicted as anthropomorphic animals (i.e., all Jews are portrayed as mice, thus the name Maus which is German for "mouse"). The Jews, as mice, …show more content…
Although the style is more abstract with sharp lines, the expressions and detail of the human face are there emphasizing the emotions (Spiegelman 102-105). The juxtaposition between these panels and the simplistic mouse faces adds more emphasis to the fact that the mouse figures do in fact dehumanize the people when presented as animals. While there are emotions shown among the mice figures, they are not as prominent as when displayed as a human face. The animal figures are not as detailed, and in a sense, complex as the human figures are shown to be. With the animals, the main focus is on what animal the character is, what race they are. While this knowing such information in this historical context is certainly important, it can detract from the more human qualities of the character that define people as opposed to focusing on