In the graphic novel, Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, a Jewish man named Artie visits his parents to collect information from his father for a graphic novel he is making about the Holocaust and the experiences that he went through and truly saw firsthand. Two questions that I have gathered that do not have complete or clear answers after the given reading are regarding why Vladek, Artie’s father, did not want his personal backstory or incidents before the Holocaust in his graphic novel, and the other being why the author of the novel chose to depict the Jews in the book as mice.
Right when are introduced into the book, or even just Vladek’s story for that matter, Artie asks to talk about his life before the Holocaust even creeped into anyone’s …show more content…
This is never explained or even mentioned, it just looks like the mice were replaced with humans in that book. However, mice are not the only animal represented in the book. Polish people and many others are shown as pigs, and most importantly, Nazis are shown as cats. The uncomplicated answer would be “the cat eats the mouse,” showing how weak and vulnerable the Jews were to the Nazis power and authority. To find the true meaning of this choice illustration, you have to check a part of the book that few even go to read. Before the entire story even begins, near the credits, title, and all of that, you see a quote from Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party and at the time, Chancellor of Germany himself. The plain, black text is so quiet, but so powerful at the same time, as it reads “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” (p.4). By drawing the Jews as mice, it leads a teenager or young adult to believe it’s just a graphic novel, or could even convince someone that the whole book was just historical fiction. If someone is so ignorant to the fact that those mice on the pages, were actually real people, it can change the entire feeling or reaction to the book. It may just seem like it’s these mice that went through this Holocaust, but when you substitute those mice with actual, human beings, it really opens
Right when are introduced into the book, or even just Vladek’s story for that matter, Artie asks to talk about his life before the Holocaust even creeped into anyone’s …show more content…
This is never explained or even mentioned, it just looks like the mice were replaced with humans in that book. However, mice are not the only animal represented in the book. Polish people and many others are shown as pigs, and most importantly, Nazis are shown as cats. The uncomplicated answer would be “the cat eats the mouse,” showing how weak and vulnerable the Jews were to the Nazis power and authority. To find the true meaning of this choice illustration, you have to check a part of the book that few even go to read. Before the entire story even begins, near the credits, title, and all of that, you see a quote from Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party and at the time, Chancellor of Germany himself. The plain, black text is so quiet, but so powerful at the same time, as it reads “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” (p.4). By drawing the Jews as mice, it leads a teenager or young adult to believe it’s just a graphic novel, or could even convince someone that the whole book was just historical fiction. If someone is so ignorant to the fact that those mice on the pages, were actually real people, it can change the entire feeling or reaction to the book. It may just seem like it’s these mice that went through this Holocaust, but when you substitute those mice with actual, human beings, it really opens