Maus Spiegelman Analysis

Maus, an award winning series of biographical graphic novels by Jewish American comic artist Art Spiegelman, tells the harrowing yet powering story of a Holocaust survivor. Through his father Vladek Spiegelman’s eyes, the artist gets an insight into the lives of his parents as they struggled to survive the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the Auschwitz Concentration camp as well their lives in the aftermath of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is depicted in a very innovative and contemporary manner in Maus. Vladek Spiegelman voices his skepticism because he feels like no one would be interested in listening to his story “It would take many books, my life, and no one wants anyway to hear such stories” (Maus I, 12:5).

The Jewish people can be identified as mice. The anti-Semites considered Jews to be the pests of the human race, just like mice are considered pests of the animal kingdom. These people struggled on a daily basis to survive the holocaust: they foraged for food to keep themselves healthy and hid from the Nazi soldiers, like mice hid from predators. Both mice and Jews during the Holocaust had the same goal: to stay alive. Another interesting implication the image of Jews as mice is that they were the subjects in many experiments. This includes the horrifying experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele, whom Vladek encounters “two times” as well as the variety of ways the Germans use to locate and dispose of the Jews, which could be considered them experimenting various ways to exterminate the Jews. Could include that all Jews represented as mice which is…interesting. The next animal introduced in chronological order would be the Poles, who were represented as pigs. Art Spiegelman’s selection of animals was not random; he chose all animals in a very calculated manner, as shown when he ponders as to what animal he should draw his wife. Pigs are very greedy and self-centered animals and the Poles exhibited these traits when they committed acts of selfishness by betraying the Jews and selling them out to the Nazis. An example of this is when Vladek and Anja reside in Kawka’s house and she says “The Gestapo just searched me…They may come search here any minute!” (Maus I, 143:7). Once the Germans appeared, the scheme of the animals began to make sense. Germans were shown by the use of cats. This could be a play on the cat and mouse idiom, in which the cat hunts, captures, sometimes tortures, and kills the mouse. Lastly, Americans were represented by dogs, since they chased the Germans away and were friendly to the