Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel called Maus 1, which is basically about his dad's life during the holocaust. He uses a literary technique called a frame story to show how the story was told to him from his dad. Sometimes when Vladek (Arts father) shares his story he rides on a stationary bike. The first time readers are aware of this is on page 12, Vladek tells Art that it's good for his heart to pedal. On the whole page Vladek on the bike becomes the reader's focal point. Also the last frame on the page can be interpreted as several things but it looks like it is the wheel to his bike. A reason for this could be that Spiegelman was introducing the shift in stories so using a circle frame and having it look like the wheel shows that transition. Throughout the story the stationary bike is seen over and over again and by using such elements as penciling techniques, frame and page analysis, and the effects of color and realism allows the reader to get a better understanding of Spiegelman's reasoning behind it all. The fact the bike can not move when Vladek rides it almost shows his pain in a way. Later in the book there is a frame that shows Vladek's speed progress as he tells a hard part in the story, it's almost as if he wants to go back in time and fix it. Since the bike can't move though it shows his struggle that he can't undo what …show more content…
The stationary bike resembles Vladek's struggles going through his story again and gives a sense of who he is as a person. The bike is shown on many pages in the book and shows the reader when he starts the story and when he stops.If the bike does not get analyzed and was just overlooked it wouldn't give the meaning it needs to truly understand Vladek's pain. Furthermore understanding the bicycle with all the variables such as penciling, page layout, and color and realism gives an understanding of why Spiegelman incorporated it in his