Homework 7 - Maus: The Power of Visualization & Materialism

While reading Maus, there were two central ideas that piqued my attention, and I wanted to cover both topics in separate sections of writing.

Part 1: The Power of Visualization to Propel Comics as an Art and as Literature

It’s the subtle design and visual choices that make Art Spiegelman’s Maus succeed as a comic portrayal of his father’s intense and saddening life story. Spiegelman makes it clear from the first page that there is an intent to provide visual metaphors into the story by clearly stating the visual device of portraying Jewish individuals as mice, Polish as pigs, and Nazi Germans as cats. While this is the most prominent visual choice in Maus, it is the effect of these appearances that provides an insight into the experience of living through this event. From the very beginning this shows how much of a target the Jewish people have on their backs, which is extended through visuals like the ones shown below:

Spiegelman uses the visual framing of feeling like a trapped mouse through illustrations that evoke terror and immediate danger in a carefully constructed maze set by those in power. The fact that the characters are portrayed in this way does not make an impact on their behaviors or the story line; as the people still act like people and do not exhibit the animalistic qualities of their drawings (a trait commonly found in pieces where characters are portrayed as animals, such as Animal Farm). By just putting on a “mask”, the people can disguise themselves as a completely different species. Instead the focus is on the situation that these metaphorical descriptions put the characters in; further strengthening the impact of the story in a way that wouldn’t have been as powerful with just words.

Spiegelman actually addresses the difficulty of exploring comic art as a medium for his father’s story as well as his doubts of the art’s ability to describe the complexity of the story. It was evident that Spiegelman had experimented in underground comics to describe the emotions he was processing after his mother’s death, which got a strong emotional reaction from not only his father but also from others around him. This shows a unique self-reflection on the author himself that admits both how little he truly understands regarding his father’s experience, as well as how experimental and potentially unsuccessful this newfound type of storytelling may be. However, Spiegelman himself realizes by the second book, as with much of the rest of the world, just how effective and powerful comic art can be as a literary and visual medium.

I believe that this is the reason why Maus was one, if not the first, graphic novel to be considered as an intellectual study, as the medium seeks to strengthen the themes of a story through what comic art had to offer, instead of using the visuals as an element primarily for entertainment.

Part 2: The Effect of Materialism on Vladek’s Psyche

Throughout both parts of Maus, there is continuous mention of Vladek’s “miser-like” behavior and his desire to hoard any and all items of his possession. Artie and Mala both discuss the potential reasoning for this behavior, but between the two of them only come to the conclusion of that just being a part of Vladek’s personality.

However, the story of Maus shows the value of materialism and monetary gain in a country that’s falling apart, as it is a major component of Vladek’s survival. There is a consistent “trading” mentality while Vladek is in the camps, and through the whole story he fully utilizes his business skills to collect enough food or money to provide for himself as well as his family. This is a very common phenomenon among those who take initiative or a leadership role in their families; a parallel I was told of in my own family in the form of stories about my grandfather who sold his original landscape paintings to secret police officers and repaired neighbor’s radios for extra supplies. Being forced into survival with nothing but your wits, it is completely reasonable that Vladek wouldn’t so much as use his own toilet paper in fear of not being able to come by any in the future.

Perhaps unaware by the author himself at the time, Vladek is not stingy or cheap for his own sake, but to insure the safety of his family. This is shown through him sending packages to Anja while in the camps, asking for boots and a belt for his friend while working as a shoe repairman, and even by returning cereal to the supermarket for another person to eat. These traits and subtle details about Vladek’s behavior makes him an extremely human character portrayed by Siegelman with a sense of truthfulness not outwardly commented upon.