Maus By Art Spiegelman And Night By Elie Wiesel

1135 Words5 Pages

“At last, he said, wearily: ‘I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.’” (Wiesel 22). MAUS written by Art Spiegelman and Night written by Elie Wiesel have different approaches and use of storytelling have led to the same outcome, telling one’s story as a memoir as it shall not be forgotten. Spiegelman approaches his book as a graphic memoir, telling the story using visual and metaphors. In contrast, Wiesel makes use of descriptive language and tells his story as he remembers. Both authors mention guilt in their books, either for surviving the tragedy of WWII or for what it has shaped them to become. Wiesel wrote Night as a memoir to bear witness of his experiences …show more content…

Both authors present a similar story from the same time but while Wiesel focused on telling his story, Spiegelman tells his father’s story as well as his relationship with his father and generational trauma that he experiences. MAUS and Night investigate similar stories from the same time period, however they do so in very different manners. MAUS, the first graphic novel on a serious topic, contradicting at first but it grew to become one of the most successful graphic novels as of right now. Night is a novel that won a Nobel peace prize and talks about one’s personal experience. In chapter one of MAUS Artie first introduces the topic of writing a memoir of his father’s experiences as well as his relationship with his father and motivation behind the book “But Pop — it’s great material. It makes everything more real — more human. I want to tell your story, the way it really happened.” (Spiegelman 25), this might come across as lighthearted and simply a boy hoping to tell a story, however, Art is trying to tell a survival’s story in his own way. In comparison to Spiegelman, Wiesel tells his story in hopes to break the silence and in all seriousness, for example in recollection of his first night at camp he states, “Never shall I forget that night, the first

More about Maus By Art Spiegelman And Night By Elie Wiesel