Art Spiegelmen's "Maus"

I had read Maus a long while back and still remembered it so for this week's reading, I just flipped back through it. Something I've always loved about this book's execution was that such a horribly graphic topic was produced in black and white only. I always find artists with that sort of skill really admirable. I know as an artist I tend to get caught up in a lot of detail which can make a small image like the panels difficult to read. Spiegelmen has perfected this in my opinion. Everything in this book is readable. I think its especially important to recognize his separation of races through different animal species. There's almost no way that one would be able to successfully depict the variances in who the characters were without doing that. But I think even the idea of the Nazis being cats and the Jews being Mice, not only in the sense that cats tend to kill mice, but also that the Nazis stalked the Jews in the same way that a cat will stalk its prey. Any time the Nazis would occupy a new country, the very first thing they would do is take a census to search out who was on their list of 'undesirables'. It was from there that the Gestapo would come in to those peoples' houses and drag them out to ghettos and later to the death camps.

When I first read this story I never thought of it as a comic. I had never really read anything so serious and so immersible in the world of comics. The story isn't only about Spiegelmen's father, but its also a clear reflection on him and his relationships. There's a portion in this book that is like a comic within a comic where Art showcases a small comic that he did in response to his mother's suicide. The awkwardness between he and his father is almost palpable and I think that incident has something to do with it. In his mini-comic it expresses how he felt that her suicide was his fault because of the last time he saw his mother alive. In turn he blames her for his guilt as if she did it to get back at him. I found that fact very interesting. I would have expected Vladek to be very upset upon reading his son's comic, but really it just brought back memories and made him sad. It really was a very emotionally driven piece that is something that I think resonates and enhances the mood of Maus overall.

The story seems to end sort of abruptly as Vladek's health has declined. He finishes explaining his story to Art by telling how he and Anja (his wife, Art's mother) and him reunited surprisingly after the war. The literally says, "More I don't need to tell you. We were both very happy, and lived happy, happy ever after." Two panels later Maus is over and finishes with an image of Vladek's and Anja's grave. I feel that this is a great ending. As I said before, the awkwardness felt between Vladek and Art is very prominent. Also, Vladek's personality is very abrupt. He holds nothing back and speaks in almost a staccato tone. I don't think that if the story ended differently that it would make as much sense to the characters.