Dear Mili Analysis

The use of graphic art in storytelling creates another dimension in which the audience is guided through the experience. Images can emphasize the gruesome nature of events as well as allow the viewer to distance themselves from the horror displayed. The visuals within Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Maurice Sendak’s illustrations of Dear Mili depict the Holocaust in starkly different ways, but with the same intent. The illustrations of Maus and Dear Mili provide a new layer to their companion stories and attempt to bring the reader to therms with their subject matter. Dear Mili features illustrations by Maurice Sendak that change its original fairytale sentiment into that of an anti-fairytale. While Grimm wrote the fairytale long before the Second

The little girl embarks on an “into the woods” journey typical of children’s novels. The forest is a place of origin, free of the sins of the corrupted world and protected from being invaded. When the girl does not return after three days, her mother believes she has been killed by the beasts.. As the girl travels further and further into the woods, she encounters Saint Joseph and temporarily lives in his paradise. Saint Joseph is there to ensure the girl has an easy death, free of suffering. However, the paradise Sendak has illustrated is twisted from the traditional perception. The center of the images are full of color, but as the picture fades out the colors turn darker and more sinister. Upon her homecoming, the sun stands out as the brightest image in the book, a stark contrast to the light colors and pastels in the rest of the illustrations. Natural images of trees and roots are morphed into white bones of the victims of concentration camps. While the young girl plays with her guardian angel, they are among tombstones, one of which is marked by a noticeable Star of David. During her journey to the Saint Joseph’s hut, nature is threatening as it forms claw-like

The little girl’s home was full of bright colors and friendly animals. The affect of the war problematizes this concept of home and disrupts the sense of security it evokes. The girl is forced to leave home in order to be safe. She is only saved from the corruption of the war by crossing into another world. The image of her home before she is sent away is off kilter. The cottage is not in the center of the frame. Instead, her mother is in the center and she forms a protective barrier with the animals around the girl. When the girl returns home after what she perceives is three days, her mother is blind and decrepit. Her mother looks like a demon while the young girl is still a beacon of innocence and youth. Her perception of home have become deformed. While she has not aged during her time in the sanctuary, she dies the same night as her elderly mother. This is symbolic of a loss of innocence, not of an individual, but of a generation of Jewish children. The eternal childhood she experienced is destroyed by the images of death, destruction, and aging. Sendak’s stylization of lines provide meaning to the experiences of the characters. The little girl and the inhabitants of Saint Joseph’s paradise are drawn with smooth, round lines that evoke easiness. While her mother was originally drawn in a similar way, her aged form is comprised on jagged, sharp lines. The images of Jews seem to be out of place in context of the