Comparative Essay On Maus By Art Spiegelman

The graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman is an astonishing example of second-generation Holocaust literature, as it was written by a child of two Holocaust survivors. This second-generation book follows the survival of the author’s parents through the Holocaust, and is also about Art coming to terms with his identity as a child of Holocaust survivors. Throughout the novel, Art shares how he has been shaped by the experiences his parents lived through and how, in creating Maus, he comes to understand himself better. I’ll be comparing and contrasting his experience with excerpts from interviews with other children of Holocaust survivors. Even though Art did not experience the Holocaust himself, the aftermath greatly affect him and other children of Holocaust survivors. In the first frame of Maus, Art revealed that he did not have a close relationship with his father. He said he had not seen him in a very long time. (pg. 13) When Art mentioned that he was still interested in drawing a book about his father’s life, Vladek became defensive. He said, “It would take many books, my life, and no one wants anyway to hear such

Throughout Maus, Art shared how he had been shaped by the experiences his parents lived through and how, in creating the graphic novel, he came to understand himself better. The book not only focused on Vladek and Anja Spiegelman’s survival of the Holocaust, but was also about Art coming to terms with his identity as a child of Holocaust survivors. The comparison and contrast between Art and his family with the interview excerpts with other children of Holocaust survivors was very interesting. While many survivors went through similar experiences, the aftermath and how it affected them and their parenting varied. This graphic novel is a great example of second-generation Holocaust literature written from a child of two Holocaust