Maus

Maus written by Art Spiegelman was the most intriguing comic book that I have ever read, I did not want to let go once I got a hold of it. I soon believed after reading a few pages, how important it is to not judge a book by its cover. The cover has two mice huddled together with a gigantic Nazi symbol above them dripping red (probably blood). The Nazi sign on the front cover made me feel like I was about to read a history book. My first impression of Maus seemed like it would be boring and uninteresting, little did I know I was struck by surprise. The pages were black and white and full of text bubbles. After skimming through the pages, I then realized it felt like I was about to read a novel rather than a graphic novel, there was a lot of …show more content…
I thought that comics were generally about superheroes or comedic from what I remember from my brother’s collections of Batman or Archie from my sister’s collections. So when it was time to read Maus, I had already imagined it and I wasn’t too excited to read it. But now I can proudly say that I read Maus. I would like to (someday) solemnly thank Spiegelman for creating Maus. The story and the illustrations definitely work together to draw the reader in. Spiegelman did an excellent job by drawing the reader’s attention towards the characters. The emotions and actions of the characters depicts …show more content…
The challenges and torments that Vladek and the innocent Jews had to endure during the period of the Genocide was sad and heartbreaking. They were helpless victims tormented by the Nazis. The comic was so intense, if you were like myself and unaware of the “Comic Book World”, this is definitely a great read and I would definitely recommend it to my brother who I know would definitely agree. Spiegelman used animals to represent Jews as mice, Nazis (Germans) as cats, and the Polish who were cops as pigs. Like the "cat and mouse relationship", the cats in this story are out to catch the mice. In a journal article written by Rosemary Hathaway, titled Reading Art Spiegelman's Maus as Postmodern Ethnography, Hathaway says "the texts are concerned with depicting the complex relationships among personal histories and larger 'official' histories" (2011). I agree with this quote because while reading the comic, it felt like I was learning history and at the same time a personal perspective. The comic gives the reader a glimpse of the lives of Jewish victims during World War 2. It shows how there was more to history than people shooting and killing each other, rather it shows the sad struggle of the