The Complete Maus Literary Analysis

The complete Maus by Art Spiegelman tells a very powerful story about one man’s experience in the Holocaust. They do not tell the story in the conventional novel fashion. Instead, the books take on an approach that uses comic windows as a method of conveying the story. One of the most controversial aspects of this method was the use of animals to portray different races of people. The use of animals as human races shows the reader the ideas of the Holocaust a lot more forcefully than simply using humans as the characters. Spiegelman illustrates the use of animals in the novel that could be offensive to some but Spiegelman strategically uses animals to represent and portray what the standards and beliefs the Nazi's had of a perfect human. The …show more content…
In “the complete maus”, the use of frame stories in comic panels helped to establish the personal, social and cultural context of ethnic representation and the education of awareness of younger readers through the use of animals representing humans, as a result demonstrates symbolism. Although the Holocaust was a catastrophic event in history, it must be remembered, as others attempt to understand the Holocaust and the horrific atrocities that occurred still remains a part of history, as history tends to repeat itself, Spiegelman's intelligent representation of humans in his graphic novel creates awareness through both the manipulation of words and images as it is a vital component of remembrance. Page 87 of The Complete Maus is an idyllic example of Spiegelman’s combination of thought, attentive detail and fundamental meaning. By using form Spiegelman creates a narrative accompanied by pictures instead of needing to use immense worded detail toping the graphic novel off with powerful cyphers throughout, in which could not have been possible with the use of humans representing …show more content…
Additionally, as the story unravels readers begin to recognise and sympathise with why Spiegelman embodies a strong symbolic meaning within his novel. Further, by illustrating this symbolism, it is clear Spiegelman has attempted to challenge readers to explore the feelings of guilt, grief and hopelessness as Spiegelman guides readers through his experiences and portrays the Nazi’s racist vision, to what end is harsh and inhuman. The Complete Maus would read differently without the use of an allegory of animals in ways that readers see ‘The Complete Maus” as less significance as there would be limited understanding and messages being