Writing Overload

Maus was one of the best books I've ever read. The story was so compelling and well-written. It is about the experience of Vladek Spiegelman as a Jew in Poland during WWII. Vladek's son Art Spiegelman wrote the novel from his lens, juxtaposing the events of WWII and Vladek's life after the war. The novel portrays humans as animals: specifically, just the heads and faces, the rest of the body is drawn as human. Although the story is sorrowful, the narrative's juxtaposition of past and present instills hope in the reader's minds, by showing a brighter future. Maus is very different from all the other Holocaust stories. Mainly because of the unexpected perspective of Art Spiegelman, and his increasing struggle with intergenerational trauma as he becomes more intertwined with his father's story. At the start of Maus V II, he worries that he has portrayed Vladek negatively to show a truthful account of what happened before, during, and after the war. Even though Vlad

Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, set from 1980 to 1991. It shows Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. Although survival is a key theme, the graphic novel focuses on how Holocaust survivors deal with their psychological trauma. Using images in Maus adds a layer that provides meaning in addition to words. On page 58, Spiegelman uses shading to portray the loss of identity the Jews felt during the war. He uses the pattern of stripes on the faces of the mice to portray a sense of loss of individuality. It is normal for prisoners' clothes to have stripes, but the stripes on the full bodies of the prisoners have a completely different meaning. The pattern makes the reader understand the loss of individuality the Jews felt since the reader cannot tell them apart. Even Vladek, who is very easy to recognize, cannot be told apart. This is a recurring idea in Maus. All Jews, no matter where they came