Maus

Maus is a graphic novel created by Art Spiegelman in 1980.  The story follows Spiegelman interviewing his father Vladek as he recounts his experiences as a jewish man during the Holocaust.  The story takes some creative liberties when it comes to the characters, depicting the Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, and the Polish as pigs in the story.  The story that Vladek tells beings in 1930 and goes until 1945 with the Holocaust coming to an end.  

Maus tells the story of the Holocaust directly from a true victim of the event.  Art recounts it through his beautiful and details artwork that helps bring you into the world history.  Art depicts this story as an actual interview, it shows that the story is being told by Vladek in real time through a flashback style. This style is really interesting and sometimes comes off as comedic when Art trying to keep Vladek on track with what actually happened when he starts going off topic.

The story keeps it's dark tone, which I think is necessary given the story being told.  But it also takes some breaks in between for comedy and light-heartedness (Similar to Barefoot Gen)  It would be a bit too exhausting to keep the entirety of it dark, even though the subject material isn't very comical at all.







The story also presents many interesting themes that aren't usually addressed when it comes to Holocaust stories.  There's an important scene involving a hitchhiker, as a character wants to pick him up to give him a ride only for Vladek to express disdain.  Despite the man being respectful and expressing how grateful he was, Vladek spent the ride fearing he would rob them.  It's an interesting insight regarding racism, as it seems that even people who have suffered at the hands of it can be oblivious when interacting with people they regard as different.  I think Art included this scene about his father purposely, not to make him out to be a terrible person, but to show the reader that racism is something anyone can be guilty of, and that it doesn't amount to anything except breeding more hatred amongst people.  

Overall its a very interesting and informative story with beautiful work.  I think it is something I would definitely look into again.