Themes In Maus

The Effect of Representation: Separation from Emotion and Situation
Through the use of comic strips in his novel, Maus, Art Spiegelman illustrates his father’s experiences as a Jew in Poland during the rise of the Nazi regime. Although depicting people as animals, (Jews as mice, Polish as pigs, and Nazis as cats), seems odd, these representations help readers fully understand the inhumane conditions of the Holocaust Era- in that none of the participants were treated or behaved with human-like dignity. This portrayal also allows readers to separate emotion from situation. Spiegelman writes in this format for the purposes of sharing the story of the Holocaust and also for his own personal understanding of why his father has become the man he …show more content…
Spiegelman’s motif in this part of the novel is not to display the situation of the event, but rather to shift focus onto the emotions he experienced during the aftermath of his mother’s suicide. In this scene we see a change from the typical narrative of the novel thus far, which was to share his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. Spiegelman exposes readers, for the first time, to the effects of his mother’s suicide on him and the larger generational effect of the Holocaust. The visual aspects of this comic work to enhance the emotions of the scene. For instance, not only are there no animals being used to represent people, but Spiegelman also illustrates the facial expressions of the humans in an overly outlined fashion to enhance the somber demeanor of this time. The close-up shots of Spiegelman’s face looking simultaneously scary and melancholy effectively express his personal emotions. We see the personal emotional effects of the Holocaust on families when Art’s mother commits suicide and the generational effects when Spiegelman reveals that he spent time in a mental institution. In the final scene of the comic, readers see Art in a jail cell yelling “You murdered me, mommy, and you left me here to take the rap!!!” Art displays his feelings of guilt in …show more content…
Through the use of animals and humans in various points of the novel Maus, Spiegelman works to shed light on the horrific events of the Holocaust in a way that has never really been used before. The visual expressions of the humans in scenes, such as the “Prisoner on Hell Planet” strip, and the style used when drawing out the comic strips to represent the shifts from present to past allow readers to fully understand Spiegelman’s directed effect of the novel; whether his effect is for the reader to focus on emotion or situation. In effect, through the non-conventional comic method, Spiegelman hopes to share his father’s experiences in a manner to provoke clear understanding of the Holocaust without the distractions of the emotional elements often associated with traumatic events such as the Holocaust. Through the double-narrative dialogue within the novel, Spiegelman sheds light on the personal, emotional, and mental effects of the Holocaust on survivors and the effects on their families. Utilizing this same structure, Spiegelman shares his struggles coping with his mother’s suicide which resulted from her mental issues after surviving the Holocaust. Revealing that the effects of the Holocaust affect not only the survivors, but also the future generations of the survivors. Therefore, Maus discloses not only a one-sided