Analyse af Art Spiegelmans 'Maus'

In this essay I will discuss which piece of information about life in Auschwitz, I find most interesting, horrifying and uplifting.

Maus puts into question traditional notions of history, memory, and narrative, offering a fresh perspective on the legacy of the Holocaust. Spiegelman was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992, acknowledging his achievement with Maus.

One of the major topics in this graphic novel is Death; the opposite of death is Surviving. Surviving does not come without consequences. Physically, Vladek suffered through sickness, and starvation. "I got too sick even to eat I got very hot fever, and I couldn't sleep. Typhus! “ However the psychological effects were much worse. Through World War II the Nazi's practiced extreme prejudice towards the Jewish. Survivors cen be subjected to all types of mental stress, such as guilt, flashbacks and depression. It is not easy to survive a war, and often what determines who survives is random. Vladek was fortunate enough to survive, and have an audience for whom to tell his story.

The central theme of Maus focuses on the legacy of racial genocide enacted by Germans against Jews during the Holocaust of World War II. Vladek's experiences during the war detail the brutal persecution of Jews by German soldiers as well as by Polish citizens. Vladek's personal saga takes the reader inside the Auschwitz concentration camp and illustrates the daily horrors he experienced during his imprisonment. Spiegelman's choice to represent national and ethnic identity groups as different species of animals in Maus emphasizes the atmosphere of racial prejudice during the war. His depiction of the Jews as meek mice and the Germans as predator cats illustrates the insurmountable power the Germans wielded over their victims. The Graphic Novel,Maus also addresses psychological issues facing the children of Holocaust survivors, who are often confounded by the burden of the legacy of their parents' persecution.