Maus 1 And 2 Comparison

828 Words4 Pages

Art Spiegelman's graphic novels, Maus 1 and 2, describe the personal relationship of a father and son as the father takes his son along on the journey of describing his personal experiences throughout the Holocaust. As the son, Art, encounters and is educated about these experiences and points of view, he is now aware of the different forms of relationships amongst victims and those involved in world war 2. In Art Spieglmans graphic novels, Maus 1 and 2, Speigelman uses illustrations, symbolism, and pathos to display how adversely relationships are impacted and influenced throughout world war 2. Throughout both graphic novels, Spiieglman illustrates several types of animals as a way to depict different cultural and ethnic groups in order to …show more content…

The reader is introduced to one of Arts earliest comic strips which tells the story of his mothers suicide. The comic strip conveys this theme or idea that Art's mother, Anja, killed herself partially due to her experiences within the Holocaust (1 Pg. 103). Because of these experiences that Art's mother has been through, she will never be able to adapt or build this connection with her son due to what she has undergone. Art creates this very upsetting sense of emotion to exude how his mothers own experiences during the war, will bear her this burden for years to come therefore impacting her own personal relationships with people like her son, and will later spiral into something worse. In Maus 2, Art dives deeper into his relationships with his parents and how the war has impacted it, he tells his fiance, “I know this is insane, but I somehow wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents so I could really know what they lived through! I guess it's some kind of guilt about having an easier life than they did'' (Pg. 16). Speiglamn elaborates on how his parents' own experiences have created this very different relationship with each other that he'll never be able to understand, therefore altering his own relationship with them and making him feel like he'll never be able to connect on a personal level because he did not survive like they did. Throughout both graphic