Maus
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| Maus (Or Maus: A Survivor’s Tale) | ||||||||||
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 “ Friends, Your Friends? If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week…THEN you could see what it is, friends! “ - Vladek, one of the most well known quotes in the book.
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Maus, also referred to as Maus: A Survivor's Tale, is a graphic novel by cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and the first of such to be given a Pulitzer Prize. It tells the story of the author interviewing his father about his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust.
Plot
Art (the author) seeing his father Vladek again in the first time in 2 years, asks him about his experiences of the Holocaust. Volume One mainly covers the events leading up to Vladek going to Auschwitz, and Volume Two covers Vladek’s experiences at Auschwitz and after.
Why It’s One Of The Best Graphic Novels Of All Time
- The way the comic covers the Holocaust by making it a Frame-Story makes you hooked to the book, with both Vladek’s experiences and Art interviewing him being extremely intriguing and interesting to read.
- The Minimalist drawing style is simple, but highly effective, with the characters being portrayed as animals creating a well-executed anonymity for them.
- The page layouts are done greatly, arguably revolutionising comic page layouts forever.
- The ending drawing, being the gravestone for Anja (Art’s mother) and Vladek (Who died during production after giving all the information for the book), hits hard.
- The other comic made by Art in this book, “ Prisoner on the Hell Planet “ (made back in 1972) which is implemented in the plot is illustrated really nicely.
- The books graphic imagery of mice burning alive in mass graves , despite sort of retconning the simplistic style, is really effective and shows how much suffering the Hungarian Jews had to go through.
- Extremely well-written quotes that remain in the readers head, such as:
- The one being the image caption, when Vladek talks to Art about friends back in the latter’s childhood in the Prologue.
- “God DAMN you! You—You murderer! How the hell could you do such a thing!!” When Art finds out that Vladek burnt Anja’s diaries.
- The final panel of the storyline, where Vladek refers to Art as “ Richieu “ ( The name of Art’s older brother, who was killed in a murder-suicide by one of Vladek’s friends so they didn’t go to Auschwitz ), naturally also hits hard, similar to the gravestone scene.
Trivia
WIP
Reception
Maus received critical acclaim upon release. The Comics Journal called it the fourth greatest comics work of the 20th century, while Entertainment Weekly listed Maus at seventh place on their list of "The New Classics: Books – The 100 Best Reads from 1983 to 2008". However, the book is considered controversial, with schools in Tennessee removing it from their curriculum due to its use of bad language and violence.
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