The Arts in New York City

I think Maus is amazing. It captures so much more in boxes filled with few words compared to a whole documentary. The story is so real, honest, different and captivating for me. I admire Spiegelman’s courage. Telling a story of such a horrible time period in history is not easy. Especially with the way Spiegelman does it.

There are things in this book like his father’s sense of humor that probably couldn’t be done in another format. It wouldn’t seem right. Even his drawings are a visual guide to being able to see better - what was it really like?

Spiegelman’s Maus could’ve been rejected, but in getting the story out there in a new clear cut way he has probably accomplished more than any documentary or book up based on survivors of Hitler’s Europe.

So far, I think Maus is my favorite book since the semester started. The comic book style of portraying this story made the writing more captivating, and honestly, one of the few books that I have yet to fall asleep reading. The father’s character seems to portray some comical relief to such a tragic topic as the Holocaust.

I thought compared to other stories of the Holocaust, this one plays more towards Vladek using bribes and his wits to stay alive and get through the internment camps relatively scot free. He talks heavily on other people starving, getting shot, getting gassed, but he himself had food and friends that were able to help him. It does argue against the fact that an orchestra may or may not have existed in the camps, as other accounts seemed to have documented.

Spiegelman’s art was really good, and thanks to good friend Derya, I caught onto the symbolic meaning behind the use of mice and cats as the characters.

My only question was regarding the use of masks the characters used in the book. Unless I’m wrong, I don’t think they actually wore masks as a way of disguising themselves as someone else. Is it just for artistic sake, or is there some bigger meaning to it? It just seemed rather odd.

I’ve only finished Maus I, but I thought the book was (so far) really powerful. I loved the choice is using mice, since mice have always been considered a “vermin” that everyone kills in order to get them out of their house. Hitler and the Nazis felt the same way about the Jews–that they were “vermin” and needed to be disposed of as if they were not even human. It’s absolutely sick, and using mice was a really excellent way to illustrate that.

To me, the most upsetting thing (so far) was the poisoning of the 3 children. To be that desperate, that absolutely desperate, that you would murder 3 small children and youself…I can’t imagine that. It reminded me of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, where the woman murders her children (including crushing an infants skull against the wall) in order to prevent them for being captured and sold into slavery.

To me, that scene embodies the absolute fear, hatred, and moral strength alive during this time period.

As for the question above…Spiegelman portrays non-Jewish Poles as pigs, so I assumed that was why the pig masks were used. I’m pretty sure they didn’t actually do that, but I think that was an artistic way of representing the “disguise” that they wore to seem non-Jewish. I’m sure they just wore different clothes or did their hair differently or something in real life.

Since graphic novels are my kind of books, I love reading “Maus” a lot. Its great to be able to read the story and see the illustrations of how the story goes. If it was a textbook on the Holocaust, we would have to use our imagination to visualize how it was suppose to be, but with “Maus”, it gives us a detailed link to the past when it happened. I could feel the fear, the confusion, the disbelief and all the emotions mixed together. It might not be as descriptive as a biography but the feelings are expressed effectively. I love how Art draws because its so professional and expressive! I wish I could draw like him!

There are 2 questions I have concerning the story. Whenever his father or Mala start complaining about each other, Artie just turns the other way. How come he doesn’t try to solve their problems or listen to them talk?
Also, does it seem to anyone else that Artie is just using his father for the story b/c he doesn’t seem to care about him at all? All he wants is to get the story and that’s all that matters to him.

Art’s approach to drawing is realistic except for the heads. Looking through the book, it probably took so much time to do even one page! I’m impressed about the quality of his work. Its very inspirational because not only does he tell a fascinating, but depressing story, there’s so much that it expresses. This graphic novel is a work of art and a work of history too! I enjoyed reading it and it is a really good book.

I think Maus is an excellent take on addressing such a historically significant topic. Spiegelman uses mice very appropriately because mice not only thought of as filthy, but also are easily trapped. Also, considering the topic retroactively, the Jews were forced endure conditions much like those of mice. They had to hide in small places, scrimmage for food, and if caught, were killed (or tortured).

I think what makes this work so unique is, of course, its use of graphics but also the structure of the story. Spiegelman addresses not only the past and what took place during this scary time but also how survivors coped with it in the present. Also woven into the novel, is the concept that each person’s story is unique and there are inherent limitations in human memory-especially after having been subject to such brutal conditions. The novel addresses relationships past and present and how this experience has changed survivors both mentally and physically.

Lastly, I think Germans are represented as cats because they prey on mice, but I am curious why the Poles are represented as pigs. I mean, some such as Mrs. Motonowa, were even pretty helpful–a characteristic that does not fit what pigs typically represent. Then again, I guess it could be used in a more general way.

I have one big question. Why aren’t any of the Maus books dedicated to Speigleman’s father? He’s not even thanked in the beginning! Considering this whole story is his, shouldn’t there be something about him in the “thanks?” I know Art had problems with his father, but cutting him out of a book all about him is pretty cruel, especially since more than half the story is about Vladek.

I was just wondering if anyone could answer that for me!

I think that a movie would present the audience with as much imagery as a graphic novel, but a graphic novel does create a better picture for the reader than a regular novel would. However, perhaps something a movie would not be able to do is capture the metaphor of people being represented as different animals. I think the use of animals helps make a more powerful statement about how Jews were treated and their relationship with the Germans.

Spiegelman drawings are sketchy, but accurate. I think if he made them more technical it would take him forever to finish the novel. On the other hand, it also makes them less gruesome.

Questions:
Why did Spiegelman decide to use a frog to portray the French guy and fish to portray the British?
Why didn’t Vladek burn the photos he found?
Why does Spiegelman choose to include the comic “prisoner on the hell planet” in Maus?

First, I have to say that I loved maus. I really enjoyed reading every page. What I like about it is that spiegalman didn’t just tell the story – he took us through it by putting himself into book and making it a biography and an autobiography at the same time and by incorporating into the graphic novel actual maps, diagrams, and a comic within the comic. It certainly puts things in another perspective – not like what we usually read about the holocaust.
I think this method accomplishes in delivering the message about how destructive the holocaust really was – and I don’t mean in just obvious physical terms. It was so destructive that it even affected the next generation emotionally even when the child was distant from his surviving parent as we see in spiegalman’s relationship with his father. Although they spoke a lot, almost always I felt a tension between the father and son and, as Emily mentioned, it was usually so that he can get the story. Despite this, spiegalman was emotionally hurt – whether it’s because of the guilt he feels or because of his attempt at trying to come to terms with his father and his past, thereby attesting to the fact that the war did not just hurt the actual victims…but rather it also indirectly affected the families too.

One question I had was about vladek – was he so overly careful about money as a result of the holocaust or was that just part of his character? Throughout the book I kept on changing my mind.

I thought Spiegelman is (in his own way) dedicating Maus to his father. He makes it pretty obvious that his relationship with his father was no walk in the park, but despite their arguments he does care for his father.

He flipped out when he received (false) news that his father had a heart-attack, but it turned out his father was testing his son.

Although Spiegelman doesn’t thank his father directly, I strongly believe there’s love and care for his father. Maybe this book is his way of getting out the “teenager-like” anger out of his system. He has numerous sarcastic comments to his father that his father doesn’t catch on to (probably due to old age and some hearing loss).

However big the problem between the two, Spiegelman could’ve chosen someone else for Maus. I thought it was very “cute” the way he tried to make his dad seem psychotic and annoying, but couldn’t really. The book is something for his father, it’s not just a story about the Holocaust or their sour relationship.

He includes his father’s feelings and probably even drew the characters as a certain animal because that may have been his father’s view. The father’s stinginess, skepticism of people around him, and weird behavior are due to the war.

Vladek is not the same as before compared to the after. The most vivid difference is seen with his first wife and his second.

His father is like the description of a usual grandparent figure who seems to do nothing but drive a sane person crazy, but in the end, life wouldn’t be as worthwhile if that person wasn’t there. The kind you might not get to say what you want to because you’re too furious with them while their alive, but deep down have more to say to than anyone else.

His father may have destroyed his mother’s diary, but Spiegelman’s not letting his father’s story get lost. I consider that more than thanks.

Maus was really a great pleasure to read and seeing the comments of everyone else above i see that everyone else enjoyed reading this book too. I began Maus II and saw how Art was worried if his portrayal of the Holocaust in the form of a comic strip and his depicting of the Jews as mice might be offensive and take away from the seriousness of the time. I think that instead it added to the effect because not that many people want to see the gruesome reality of actual pictures but in this comic i see everyone is very interested to keep reading the entire story. In this way he is allowing people to experience everything that happened to these poor people by keeping his audience’s attention.
I think that Spiegelman’s approach to drawing is very simple yet shows a lot of emotion. When he has to show extra details he does so very well, in Maus II for example, he draws his friend Mandelbaum and shows what a dreadful time he is going through just by the clothes he is wearing.
To say the truth I like every part of this book and even when i read it on the subway the extra flap on the cover makes it easy to hide the swastika. This comes in handy because it would just be very awkward to get very into a book that has a huge Nazi sign in the front.

Maus is by far my favorite unit of study that we have done this sememster. When I was taking it out of the library, the librarian told me that it was amazing and I would definitley enjoy it. Honestly, I was quite skeptical. Comics never appealed to me, and what confounded me even more was how such a serious topic could possibly be discussed in a comic book. But after reading a few pages, I just couldn’t put it down and in fact I didn’t get up until the first book was finished.
Speigelman’s unique approach to discussing the Holocaust is incredibly effective. Describing each event in a few short words accompanied by a simple picture makes the information penetrate quicker and deeper. I also liked the way he combined the story of the war together with scenes of his father today. This clealry illustrates the effects the Holocaust had on his father, and how these effects formed his character.
I just wonder what the motives were for his mothers suicide. People fought to survive even the most atrocious camps, even after all hope was lost. So why, after surviving the camps and assessing the value of life, did his mother decide to kill herself so many years later?

Maus I and II were great books. I really enjoyed reading them. I strongly believe that the message in this book should be strongly emphasized to all generations. Since I have worked at a Holocaust Museum, I was able to relate to the pictures and artifacts I had seen there. The details potrayed in this novel, though very gruesome, displayed the true conditions faced by the Jewish demographic during that era. I was facinated by how Spiegelman brought out such an important event in history in such a innovative way.
Today, in the metro newspaper, I saw an article about a man in Atlanta who is getting deported because authorities found that he was a Nazi dog trainer in the Dachau concentration camps. This was a very eye-opening article because I was able to relate to what was going on then.
In today’s world, everyone should make a equal effort to acertain that such a inhumane act will never occur again.

Well, for me, MAUS is just……amazing
Everything and everything about it is captivating. The story itself, the scenes the characters and even the author….our beloved Artie himself!(too self-centred and opportunistic - he naturally married a nicie like Francoise and obviously wasn’t interested in his father just in getting his story) Seriously!I really think a piece like “Art Spiegelman …The Untold Story” would be very revealing… even though it obviously wouldn’t be such a hit as MAUS is. Anyway I’ll get back to that.
MAUS is a very powerful and effective novel in the sense that the style in which it is written has the unique ability of catching and keeping the attention of all manners of people: The young , the old, the artisan , the professional, the learned and not so learned. I personally learnt a lot from the book..especially from Vladek as a person. Ummm not exactly when he was older anyway.lol.
One important lesson for me was - it pays to be resourceful and being a little bit nicer than you would ordinarily be at the right time, hurts nobody.Also “the gifts of a man, makes room for him”. Both presenting a gift and using your talent/gift. It seemed as though he was destined/fated to survive it all ..but with his smartness that kept him away from Auschwitz? till the ending of the war(I personally believe that we wouldn’t have heard of him if the war had gone on for a bit more)and his ability to always have the right resource to get out of almost all scrapes,fate had no choice but to smile on him…somehow we still are responsible in a way for our future. I still am amazed that the whole world let the Holocaust get so far .Its really really sad. It shows that when things are going wrong, someone has to start asking alot of questions. I don’t think people really realised what was going on. I actually feel that the Jews of that era need to be apologised to. It was just not fair. They were like mice in a box with a cats and every one just turned their backs.
Hopefully we all will be more alert and ask more questions to prevent such in the future….so hey! what’s happening in Darfur? lol - but REALLY.
I really believe Art loved his Father(and I think his Jewish doctor sensed that) and was very indifferent to his mom….but…later.
There’s obviously a lot one can say about MAUS.

Well I have to say i really enjoyed reading all of your blog posts. After today’s lecture on Maus, I think we should tie up some loose ends, recap, and dig a little deeper. But first let me try to answer some of your questions.
In regards to why Art’s mother committed suicide, when I read the book last year, it seemed to me that although she was able to survive the war, she came out of it losing her son and carried an enormous burden of survivor’s guilt.I believe that the death of Richu(?) constantly loomed over her. In addition, remember that she was originally from a very wealthy sheltering family? I don’t think that she knew how to deal with the horrors she witnessed.

The fact that Art wrote these books shows that he is in fact trying to understand his father. He makes it quite clear to the reader that his relationship w/ his father is extremely rocky and uncomfortable. Despite this however, if he really didn’t care for his father why in the world would he waste his time spending time, and listening to his father’s stories? I feel that Art is in a way, writing this book to convey his guilt for not caring and willing to understand his father earlier and better. He feels guilty.

Now onto what I found interesting in Maus was the way in which Spiegelman brought up the conflict between the conversion/intersection of public history and personal history. How much and what part of someone’s experiences belong to public history?
Another interesting aspect of the book was how Art said that his father destroyed history and called him a murderer when he found out that his father burned all of his mother’s diaries. It should be noted too that its quite ironic that Spiegelman would call his father a “murderer” in a book about mass murder (holocaust)
Oh yea to elaborate on Prof. Davis’ question in the beginning of class today, one can see that Spiegelman would always frame the passages when he is telling the story of his father (the past), yet he wouldn’t frame the sections when the events are happening in present time.

Relating to the scene with the hitch-hiker, when I was reading the book I found it very hypocritical how someone who has experienced such racism and brutality towards his people will right away go and judge someone by the color of their skin. Vladek was seriously appauled to even be in the same vicinity as the “Schvartser” and that was a shocking moment. Vladek quickly generalized that all African Americans were thieves and horrible people just because he had a bad experience with a few before. This is exactly what happened in the Holocaust, all the Jews were generalized to be the “evil race” by Hitler and he decided to kill off as many of them as he possible. As Vladek generalized all blacks maybe he thought that what he went through during the Holocaust makes him more of a victim than anything they went through during the times of slavery in the U.S. Instead of him using his harsh experience to accept that many people are stereotyped and insulted by ones who are uneducated and racist he completely ignores that and becomes the racist when he encounters the hitch- hiker.

I think Maus was a great book. Even though we mentioned in class that it is the story of a survivor and has its emphasis on the rare story of survival as opposed to the stories of the 6 million others who did not survive, I think that the torture and horror that the Jews went through comes across strongly. A graphic novel is also a lot easier and much more fun to read as opposed to a novel especially on a topic as serious as the Holocaust.
I found that Art writes his father’s dialogue in the way that Vladek actually spoke English, with a heavy accent. I wonder if it was used as comic relief (since the Holocaust tends to be a very heavy and serious subject) or was Art was making fun of his father?
The Holocaust affected survivors differently. Some Jews remained religious and recognized that G-d had saved them. Others turned away from religion. Vladek never threw out anything. He kept and saved. He also would not waste any food. He even went back to Shop Rite to return an opened box of Special K that he would never eat. Mala, on the other hand, is not like this even though she also survived the camps.
Could this book have been a way for Art to get to know his father and maybe find out why he is the way he is?
In regard to Vladek’s racist comment about the black hitchhiker (”shvartser”), Vladek does say that when he first came to the U.S. he had some bad experiences that involved theft of his valuables by “shvartsers.” After all that he has been through, and being the seemingly stubborn person that he is, I don’t think that we can really blame Vladek for thinking the way he does.

Concerning the hitchhiker scene, I think it’s absolutely vital to the very core of the work that Spiegelman include this scene. It’s a very ambiguous, even strange moment but not one that’s outside of the real life boundaries that he sets up throughout this work. His father is a complex character in a story full of complex characters. If Spiegelman can only allow us to see flashes of these real life layers of prejudices, thoughts and contradictions within his father’s character, then I would think he’s chosen a fantastic scene. Much like the rest of the class, I find it surprising to believe that a person who had suffered so much because of his race would practice such wanton prejudice. But then again, we must consider where his father comes from and what prejudices had been impressed upon him by his upbringing alone. I think Spiegelman makes it a point to show us the contrast between his and his wife’s reaction to the African American hitchhiker’s with his fathers. The unmitigated and sudden racism on his father’s part is yet another cultural gulf that separates the American-grown son from the European immigrant survivor.

Maus I and II have definitely been one of my favorite reads in the class. It was the first time I’ve ever read a serious novel in that sort of cartoon format. The drawing were very clear in the message they were trying to convey, and the black/white color used set the tone of he story. The different animals used to represent different types of people showed a what sort of rank or social stature each group of were people were considered in. Spiegalman clearly depicted the events of the Holocaust in clear, vivid detail. His use of a graphic novel style does not restrict the portrayal of the horrible events that occurred.
It was a great novel, with amazing illustrations that added to the overall experience.