I have never been a comic book fan so when I first saw the format of Maus I and II and thought about having to read a series in this format I was far from thrilled. However, I soon found that I really enjoyed reading these comic novels by Art Spiegelman. Not only were the stories engaging, but the graphics added a new dimension of meaning. Spiegelman would indicate the tone of particular parts of the story through his use of black and white. When the action of the story was revolving around Artie in everyday discussion with his father or Mala, the comics contained a lot of white. An example is the discussion that was taking place on pages 20-21when Vladek is preaching to Artie about not using up his wooden matches to light his cigarettes. The tone of action in this point of the story is much lighter as the subject matter is much more trivial and Spiegelman reflected this through his use of more white space. However, when the focus of the story shifted to the events that took place during the Holocaust, Spiegelman’s increased use of black in each panel showed the darker tone of the subject matter. The darker the story, the darker the comic frames became with little or no white in the background. One example can be found on page 95 when Vladek is telling about his bout with Typhus and how he had to walk on the bodies of dead people who covered the restroom floor. So even before the reader has looked at the dialogue in the comic box, they already have been provided with a strong visual clue as to the tone of that portion of the story.
In addition to the use of color to communicate the tone and mood of the scenes, throughout the story readers were given an insight into the emotions of the various characters through the facial expressions Spiegelman gave to his characters. For example in the comic strip on the bottom of page 50 a German guard is brutally beating a man for complaining. The facial expression on the guard shows the contempt the guard had for the Jewish prisoners.
Spiegelman’s use of facial expression in his drawings was just one of many details he incorporated into this series. It was these details that made the pictures tell the story in a way dialogue alone could not. For example, in the same comic strip discussed in the previous paragraph, Spiegelman not only drew the prisoners in the background but also the brick wall of the building and most importantly the shadow of the guard. We all know shadows are often larger than the object they are silhouetting, yet the shadow of the guard in this panel is greatly exaggerated to reflect the imbalance of power between the guard and the prisoner. Another example of the detail included in this work can be found on page 65. In the top right-hand panel there is a drawing of the fence that surrounds the camp. Rather than just draw the wires of the fence. Spiegelman includes detail such as the knobs on the fence that lets the reader know that the fence is hot with electricity.
What I found ingeniously refreshing about Spiegelman’s artwork in this series was his clever use of animals to represent the various races in the book. Since the holocaust was founded on racial discrimination of the Jewish people, it seemed fitting that Spiegelman chose to represent them as mice since rodents are considered to be the lowest and most despicable of the animal species. A universal concept is that a mouse’s greatest enemy is a cat so it was equally fitting that Spiegelman chose this animal to represent the Germans who were the most threatening race to the Jews during World War II. The Russians were depicted as pigs, a fitting choice since pigs are intelligent creatures that are not given the full respect they should be given. Then there were the Americans who in this novel were seen as the heroes, liberating the surviving Jews from the concentration camps. So it was no surprise to see that Spiegelman drew this species as dogs, man’s best friend. For to the Jewish prisoners they liberated, the Americans were their new best friends. But what was most interesting about the use of various animals was the ironic statement they made. By drawing each race as a different animal it made it easy for the reader to quickly identify the character’s race. This is ironic in the fact that if people look beneath the physical features of a race, there will discover the truth that all human beings are basically the same. Spiegelman covertly indicates this when he shows scenes where Jewish people are pretending they are German and the Germans do not see through this facade. Spiegelman communicates the fact that the character is successfully pulling off the charade by drawing the character wearing a mask that represents the other race. I also believe that Spiegelman is making a statement that if everyone was able to take off their mask and accept each other as equals, prejudice would cease to exist. However, despite the horrible lessons the world learned about prejudice through the memories of the holocaust, prejudice is still thriving today, even by those who have been on the receiving end. Spiegelman indicates this through the addition of a scene where Vladek, Art, and Francoise are returning from the grocery store and Francoise pulls over to give a ride to a hitchhiker who happens to be black. Vladek was furious and he ranted about how this Shvarster was going to steal his groceries (p 98-99).
I enjoyed reading your analysis of the animals, especially the portion about the masks. I hadn't thought about the fact that Spiegelman was making a statement concerning prejudice using them. Thanks for me thinking about an aspect of this book in a new way.
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