Maus

Title: Maus

Author and illustrator: Art Spiegelman

Reviewed by: Tegan Yarkie

Maus Part I

The book I read was part one of Maus written by Art Spiegelman. The book takes place in New York City in the 1970's when a man named Artie writes about his Jewish father's history. Vladek, Artie's father, was a survivor of W.W.II when the Nazis took over Poland. The story is told to his son through Vladek's memories throughout the book. Although Vladek agrees to talk about his past it is still very hard for him as it still affects him now. Artie is very interested in his father's story but due to his father's sickness it is a challenge to hear the whole story at once, so visit by visit the story soon unravels.

The story that Vladek reveals about his previous years goes into depth about his life during World War II. As the events occurred, Vladek and his family soon become split up and it seems that all hope has been lost. Anja was Vladeks first wife with whom they shared a child. Unfortunately their young boy died during the war. Through thick and thin Vladek and Anja continue the journey through the many years of pain, suffering, and death with their heads held up high and a sparkle of hope in their eyes. As we join their adventure through WWII we will see everything through Vladeks eyes.

LAYOUTS AND TECHNIQUES

In this graphic novel there are many different techniques used if you look close enough throughout the pages. In this book there is no colour which could symbolize many different things. One being the fact that during this time of war it was a very dark time which people had little to no money. Another reason why could be the amount of darkness and hopelessness throughout this time period.

Many different types of panels are used throughout this book. Though some of the panels are the same size, some of which are bigger than others showing the importance of that panel or telling the reader to focus more on what is going on in that specific panel. This page is very important because the two panels at the top are the same but the one a the bottom is big. The lower panel is significant due to many reasons. One of which would be the fact that this is the first time Vladek and his family first encounter the Nazi flag, also the first time the Nazis and the Gestapo were exposed to the reader.

A key factor in this graphic novel would of been the chapter where instead of it being set in the present day where Artie is asking his father about his history or in the past where we see Vladek's past during WWII, it is instead based on something completely different. Instead it reveals one of Artie's comic strips from long ago about his dead mother. This is a significant part in the book because it tells the story behind his mother and gives some background about her story after the war. After the war was done, Artie's mother had depression and it got to the point where she could not take it anymore and it resulted in Anja committing suicide. This was very important because it shows how much the war has effected the Jewish people and everyone else that was a part of this disaster even after years of putting this horrible time behind them.

Thematic and Literary Elements

A technique Art Spiegelman used quite often was foreshadowing. Since this book is so unpredictable it was very sneaky of him to apply this use of writing. The brilliant thing that Art did was he made them so glossed over that the reader does not notice them until the event happened that earlier was foreshadowed. The picture shown was a significant example due to what Vladek said to his wife Anja, simply stating that they will survive the holocaust together. At first you do not recognize that the author has used foreshadowing but as you continue to read you slowly start to notice that they do in fact survive the war but unfortunately they do not leave together.

Art was a very talented writer in the sense that he was very metaphorically smart. Throughout the whole book instead of using Jewish or German humans, he instead uses the idea of animals replacing the roles. The jewish role in this book was shown by making them all mice. This is showing that they had no power and were defenceless. The Polish were symbolized as pigs. The German role was illustrated by making all of them cats. Like the saying goes " fighting like cat and mouse", shows that the Germans had more power than the Jewish. It was brilliant of Art to use this method of writing to extend the meaning just how powerless the Jewish were to the Germans.

Finally towards the end of the book Vladek admits that he disposed all of the diaries that were mentioned in the middle of the book. The diaries were an important factor in this book because not only did they carry many stories, but they also belonged to Anja. To Vladek the memories were too much to handle and instead of keeping them to remember, he burned all of them. To Artie this was very upsetting as he would of loved to add this into his new story. But to Vladek it could of been a symbol of moving on.

About the reviewer: Tegan Yarkie is a grade 10 student at duchess school. She likes the outdoors and her horses more than she does most people. She is never actually around after school due to the fact that she would much rather be with things with 4 legs that don't talk rather than being around people who chew with their mouth open and walk hella slow. If one tried to do either of those two around her she would probably loose it completely.. Try her.

final revew

This is a very moving story that is a good read for everyone. It is very informative and educates people who may not know much about WWII and adds a new way to learn about it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to know just one more of the many stories during the Holocaust.

final review: 5 out of 5

Title: The Complete Maus

Author and Illustrator: Art Spiegelman

Reviewed by: Jessa Hansen

Description of the book

Written by his son, The Complete Maus weaves between two timelines to tell the story about Vladek, a Polish Jew, during World War II. The first timeline is when Art Spiegelman, the illustrator and writer, is questioning his father about what it was like in his shoes during WWII. Even though the main focus of the novel is what it was like for Vladek during such a hard time, many portions do not have Vladek in them. Instead they show his son and the difficulties he had writing and drawing due to the the pain and horror his dad went through. The obvious other timeline was set in WWII. The spotlight was primarily on Vladek during these parts of the graphic novel but every now and then the light would flicker onto his beloved wife and other key scenes in the novel. Throughout the novel the reader rides the roller coaster of life that Artie's father takes, which seems to have more plunges and death then you could imagine. As the reader reads further the puzzle pieces fall into place to give us the full story and then some.

Layout and Techniques

Throughout the graphic novel the panels are all over the place in the sense that during that time nothing was ever set in stone, except for death, to show how chaotic it was for the Jews who were trying to survive.

In the novel there seems to be more black than white to reinforce how dark of a time it was and that death for Jews was almost inevitable. The gutters were the only exception. The glimpses of white gives reader hope of life. Showing the reader that even in the darkest of time when an entire race was being wiped out, some seeds of life broke through the cement called the Holocaust, Vladek being an example.

"The Holocaust was life without light. For me the symbol of life is color. That's why a film about the Holocaust has to be in black-and-white." This quote by Steven Spielberg, director of the WWII movie Schindler's List, goes hand in hand with this graphic novel. There is absolutely no colour in the novel then again adds to the thought of the Holocaust being one big evil dark time.

In the book the text was written in a style as if it was a journal. When characters spoke, or even the dialog, the writing was legible but gave the appearance of a person jotting the speech down. This could symbolize that this is Vladek's diary. Instead of writing it down like Anja, he kept it in his head. Then Maus was his son writing it down for him.

The use of bird view and worm view angles enhance the feel of the uneven power. For example, when there would be a Jew talking with a Pole or Nazi the angle would angle down at the Jew or up at the other to enhance the superiority that the Nazi's had felt.

The bleed angle used when the Jews first lay their eyes on Auschwitz is the panel shown on the right. On the top of the picture is the sign that Auschwitz is known for that translates to "Work Sets You Free". This is what it looked like to be sent there but there is a bleed to emphasize how even though that looks scary it's just the tip of the iceberg. This makes the reader feel as if when they take the plunge to read they are going to experience a heavy story and are not coming back.

Both extreme close ups and long shots were used in the novel. They were used mainly to capture the emotions and help get both the "bigger picture and fine details" we need to pay attention to. For example in the picture to the left the long shot used to show how ruthless and cruel the Nazi's were. The use of the long shot and the big panel combine makes the reader look at the picture a little longer and think deeply about how awful it was to witness hanging, even if it is a graphic. Then the close ups following reinforce how traumatic that event was. The hung men's feet and the expressions on all the Jews faces with the text about how Vladek knew them makes the reader feel as if someone they knew was just hung.

Thematic and Literary Elements

From beginning to the end of the novel people are represented as animals. Jews were represented at helpless mice, and Nazis were represented as cats to emphasize the cat and mouse game. The Polish were exemplified as pigs which could symbolize how "filthy and dirty" they were to the Jewish Poles. This shows the reader that the author holds grudges against all the Polish who could have helped his father, mother, brother, the rest of his family and the other Jews that died but were reluctant to help. Finally Americans were portrayed as dogs. This could be because it is thought that dogs and cats hate each other and that cats typically are scared of dogs. This only further reinforces that when the Americans (dogs) were liberating the Jews that the Nazi's (cats) were very afraid of them.

Flashbacks make up the majority of the novel. Whenever Vladek would tell Artie more about his life back in WWII, Art Spiegelman drew out what his dad was describing. These show how artistic and how imaginative Art is. Drawing and writing about something that he never was alive to experience shows how talented Mr. Spiegelman is. In between when Vladek is talking about his past, Art included many examples of personality traits Vladek developed from the war. For instance, when Vladek can't let anything go to waist, not even Special K cereal he doesn't like. This developed from having everything being taken away from the Nazi's. Now that he has the freedom to have possessions, even as little as cereal, he will keep it.

In the graphic novel examples of foreshadowing are drawn throughout. One of the being the picture to the left. The pathways that the couple take share a striking resemblance with the Swastika. This road foreshadows that the couple are walking into the Nazi's trap.

In the novel many different themes are presented. Some of them being:

~Racism: Racism is displayed in the fact that an attempt to exterminate an entire race was made singularly based on race.

~Irony: This also ties with the irony theme. Vladek survived such a hard time where racism nearly got him killed, yet he is racist against black people. Also Anja's suicide is ironic, due to the fact that she survived a mass genocide to only take her own life.

~Survival: The whole drive of Vladek's story was his will to survive. Everything he did, bad or good, was to survive. Sometimes though, that was the only thing Jews had to live for. Without loved ones and possessions that to them was the only thing worth fighting for. This theme allows the reader more insight into the despair felt during the Holocaust.

~Family: Family bonds are shown throughout the novel. For example, Anja and Vladek tried as hard as they could to be together. Another instance is even though the camp workers weren't blood family, they adopted each other and helped each other as if they were family.

~Luck: Luck seems to have followed Vladek everywhere, even in a time where his race was expected to be wiped out. An instance includes when he had to deliver the bag of sugar and got caught by some S.S officers with more than what was allowed. He was able to cover it up with saying he owned a shop but if the officers had checked his papers, Vladek could have been killed over sugar. Another occasion was when he was in the POW camp and a bullet grazed his arm. Again he could have been killed but his guardian angel was with him. His guardian angel must have also been with him when he was able to find all the people he did to take him and Anja in and hide them.

A definite read

Maus is a great read, especially for people who read about the Holocaust. It gives people a break from the documentaries and the endless amounts of words on a page for a unique approach to describing the Holocaust. Even if you don't read a lot about the Holocaust people can still appreciate the powerful story behind it and the art by Mr. Art Spiegelman.

Final review: 5 out of 5

About the Reviewer: Jessa Hansen is a grade 10 in Duchess School. She is a tomboy that loves volleyball, football, softball and baseball. Don't try to bash the Saskatchewan Rough Riders in front of here if you enjoy living...

Other people describe Jessa as, "Jessa Hansen is a level 6 kung fu blackbelt that attacks on sight."

Title: Maus

Author and illustrator: Art Spiegelman

Reviewed by: Taylor Morishita

Description of the Graphic Novel

The story of maus, written by the main character Vladek's son, gives insight into the horrible and gruesome details of WWII. However the book also features details on the conversations between Vladek and his son as they are in the process of speaking about his story. As the story continues to progress, there is never a moment that you don't feel the pain and sorrow that Vladek went through. You also gain a sense of the emotion that characters around Vladek are feeling including Anja his wife, who suffers through all of it along side Vladek. Due to all of these key details in this story it is easy for any reader to get lost in the tragedy that Vladek went through and never want to stop reading.

Comic Techniques

A common technique used in the novel was long shots. Long shots were extremely important to high light the significance of specific points in the story such as when Vladek speaks of seeing the other men hanged. Instead of showing it as a normal shot to get the basic idea, it gives you a long detailed shot of the horrific scene that is meant to capture your attention and allow you to feel how Vladek felt in that moment.

Another technique used in the story was different sized panels. having different sized panels helped with a number of things in the story including uncertainty. The different sized panels could easily help represent the chaos that was happening around them in a sense that nothing was really the same. They also helped highlight important points that you should maybe take a look at a little longer a good example would be when they first see the Nazis flag. Rather than just skim over the image, the fact that the image takes up half of the pages really pushes the reader to take another look at the image and think about its significance to the story.

A different strategic move the author made was to have everything in black in white. this helped to enhance the story by rather than focusing on the colours and other details of the story, it is all only black and white so you can really focus on what is happening. It also shows how dim those times were for the Jews and how there seemed to be no hope for them.

Literary Elements

Throughout the story of Maus, the author demonstrates his extremely creative thoughts through rather than keeping everyone in the story as normal people, he decides to show them all as animals. The Jewish are represented as mice showing that they appeared to be helpless and had to run and hide all the time. The Germans are represented as cats, showing that they "hunt" the Jews as a cat would hunt a mouse, and the Polish were represented as pigs.

In the story, foreshadowing takes part in multiple places, one of which being at the beginning of the story when they first see the flag. This foreshadows the terrible events that are going to take place ahead in the story involving that flag.

The story also contains irony. For example, when Vladek wants to send their child with the person who is taking his friend Ilzecki's child too however Anja refuses to do so to protect their child. However we find out that later in the story they end up sending their child away anyway and their child ends up not surviving, well his friend's child does.

Overall Opinion

Maus is a remarkable story about the hardships of a Holocaust survivor. It is an amazing and powerful story that anyone could come to appreciate the pain and sorrow they went through but still survived. Even if you aren't normally someone interested in reading about the Holocaust its easy to get caught up in the story and once you pick it up, you jut cant put it back down. Therefore I strongly recommend this book.

Final Rating: Five out of Five

About the Reviewer

Taylor Morishita is a grade ten student from duchess school who enjoys playing sports (even if she isn't that good at them), she believes the Edmonton Oilers are the best and if you disagree, your opinion is irrelevant.

People around her describe her as: A crazy blonde maniac who can often be found tripping over cats.

Report abuse