Maus

At first glance the graphic novel Maus appears to be about frightened Mice hiding from an evil cat, and an interested reader may even consider this a children's tale, that is until your eyes meet the large black Swastika dominating the background. The novel dives into a biographical retelling of the Holocaust through the eyes of the authors father, a survivor, only unlike many depictions of this event their story is told with mice, cats, frogs, pigs, and all manner of creatures. What the book lacks is a human character, but the story itself is an all too human tale, needing no physical representation of our species to have the gravity of the event communicated. The choice to use animals in our place is, not only a revolutionary idea, but an incredibly strong one. The narrative is not only much more relatable because of this choice, but also gives the book a more powerful message. The decision to use animals such as cats, for the German Nazis, and mice for the Jewish population forces a new perspective on the blatant abuse of power, and the over whelming racism of the time. By using such a representation to depict the racism, it can't be missed, our minds aren't distracted by the idea that they all look so similar that it can't be genuine discrimination. We are given an image in black and white terms, because to the Germans, and many of the time, and unfortunately many today, that is how the issue of race is, cats and mice, us and them. Another aspect of anthropomorphic characterization is the much deeper sense of relating to the characters. By taking specific races and physical appearances almost off the table, a much wider range of people are able to identify with the survivors, and put themselves in their places, to imagine what it must have been like to experience such tragedies. While races, religions, and nationalities are referenced there is no physical barrier between the reader and the subject, any person can relate.

Contributing also to the heightened sense of accessible characters is the relationship between the father and son. Having his father at the present and himself as a character adds an emersion many biographies and historical novels lack. Depicting his fathers current state and their relationship with each other and the world gives an even deeper better look into the history of this historical tragedy. His father being at the present belligerent, and at times even racist sheds a brighter light on the complexities of exploring such a subject. There are times in the narrative that the father will ask his son not to include aspects of his stories, such as his relationship with the woman before his wife, yet his son still includes this tale. The juxtaposition of the two situations highlights the difference in generational thinking. His son believing that every aspect of a story is crucial in learning from the past, and as an artist his need to tell them, while his father holds onto the idea that there is a shame associated with having survived something like this. The Author, Spiegelman, having been influenced by the philosophies in Underground Comics, particularly the idea of telling a story truthfully, and including the dirty, hurtful parts, desires to include every part of his fathers story, as well as his own effect on it. From his mothers suicide, to his fathers reaction to the hitchhiker, nothing is swept under the carpet. The intent is in no way to make the reader pity his father, or to look down on the Germans, or to shame any one group, the intent is merely to expose a truth, to depict an event, while a genuinely horrific one, his job is only to provide a story, and allow the reader to learn from it what they will. While Spiegelman takes this approach his father is quite different, jumping around in his stories and interrupting himself with trivial things, and in some ways glorifying his first wife and child, speaking of them as though they had done no wrong, and denying to accept many aspects of what he had been through. While his father wishes to live in a house of carpet, all the bad hidden below, Spiegelman sees the value in what his father has lived through, and shares his experience with the world, not only because he sees how necessary stories like this are to our society, but becuase deep down he feels like he has to tell it.