LITT11234G: An In-depth Analysis of Art Spiegelman's Maus Novel

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus, examining its plot, major characters, visual style, and themes in the context of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. The essay explores the character development of Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor, and how his experiences shape his personality. It also delves into the roles of Anja and Mala, representing different aspects of femininity, and the character of Art, who embodies the traumas of the post-war era. The analysis further investigates Spiegelman's allegorical visual style, including the use of animals to symbolize human characteristics and the impact of panel arrangements and gutters on the reader's interpretation. Ultimately, the essay argues that Maus effectively conveys the horrors of the Holocaust and explores themes of guilt, racism, and repressed memory, leaving a lasting impact on the reader.

Running Head: ANALYZING GRAPHIC FICTION: MAUS
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An analysis in graphic fiction
Maus: an interpretation
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The trope of graphic novels enable the author to portray a grim reality without the
compulsion of visual violence. The genre effortlessly slips into fictional narratives despite
dealing with issues connoting social, religious and political undertones. Speaking of socio-
political contexts, Spiegelam’s Maud is an unflinchingly honest depiction of the Holocaust,
which takes the readers into the very depths of the world’s largest account of mass carnage,
destabilizing the accepted notions of human life and relationships. (Nashti 8). The novel can be
best evaluated by the learnings from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics as per the
emphasis on dichotomy between stylization and naturalism exemplified in the work. (Bongco).
The book is authored by the infamous American cartoonist Art Spiegelman and appeared
in issues of the Raw magazine from December 1980 to 1991 mid-year. (Hancock 2014) The
author had to struggle with getting a book edition published before Pantheon Books finally
agreed to publish the first six chapters after a review on New York Times. The international
publication of the work is accredited to Penguin Books. Maus is narrated as a biographical
journal of the writer’s father Vladek Spiegalman, a Holocaust survivor who recounts the horrors
of his past life at the concentration camp, while the narrative shifts back and forth between
present day in New York and Nazi invaded Poland. The now estranged Art comes to visit his
father requesting him to recount his Holocaust experiences. Vladek goes back to the time when
he married Anja and moved to Sosnoweic, where he was later imprisoned and made to work as
one of the war’s prisoners under Nazi foray. However, he manages to cross the borders after his
release and reunite with his family. The family is separated again in 1943 when the Jews of
Sosnoweic are moved to Srodula. Vladek and Anja (his newly married wife) go into hiding but
fall prey to a smuggling trap and are taken to Auschwitz. At this juncture of the novel, the

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narrative shifts to present time with Art asking for his mother’s diaries where she had recorded
her camp experiences. Vladek admits to burning them after her suicide, which infuriates Art who
calls him a ‘murderer’. The story takes a leap to 1986 as the book finds enormous success and
Art suffers writer’s block, although the narrative stays put with Vladek’s hardships and his
descriptions of the brutalities at camps. The novel closes with the image of Anja and Vladek’s
tombstone on a note of desolation and despondency.
The novel is equally remarkable in terms of characterization if the psyche of the central
protagonists are delved into. Vladek’s survival instincts compel him from being a resourceful
and ambitious businessperson to an obnoxious, egocentric and anal-retentive hyper-perfectionist.
More interestingly, his transformation has parallels with Joseph Cambell’s idea of The Hero’s
Journey. Pertaining to this model, the hero sets off in the ordinary world before plunging into the
special world and relapses into the ordinary world again, crossing thresholds, passing ordeals and
resurrecting to order in the process. Vladek’s flaccid response to threat and imminent danger in
the beginning (his first imprisonment after moving to Sosnoweic) is indicative of his refusal to
act. (Kolar and Stanistove 38). However, he demonstrates strength of character and will when
faced with adversaries during his fugitive days (he builds bunks with barbed fences to hide
runaway Jews and has dealings with smugglers for escaping captivity) . His descent into the
‘innermost cave’ and consequent ordeals both inside and outside the prison cells meet the seven
stages criteria of Campbell’s model. (Dan). The only exception to the idea is that although
Vladek is resurrected to the ordinary world, he does not do so with hope (elixir). The book
explores two binaries in the feminine gender through the character sketches of Anja and Mala.
Anja is everything benign and exemplary associated with femininity, although she is not
emotionally stable enough to survive the turmoil of war and familial mishaps as evident in her

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postpartum depression and suicide following the Holocaust experience. Mala is the prototypical
‘New Woman’ whose survival instincts makes her compatible with Vladek. She reminds the
readers of Allan Moore’s heroines who were rather ruthless in their pursuit of success. She has
little fear in dangerous dealings with the smugglers The most crucial to the story is Art, who,
with his persistent traumas, denials and dilemmas embody the fallacy of the post-war era.
(Orbáán 57-89). His uttering behind the war “Mommy you murdered me” (Spiegelam 83) is
indicative of his misshapen mental state. The characters are iconic in the sense that they can be
approached from different perspectives and yet retain a similarity with basic human nature, no
matter the differences in time and place. The central characters are an embodiment of human
endurance and superhuman abilities when it comes to survival.
Maus employs an allegorical visual style, conveying the fundamental emotions through
facial features. As Mc.Cloud points out, the author has incorporated symbiotic arrangement of
pictures and words, leaving panel margins in between images (Mc.Cloud 17) Drawings might
appear to be sketches rather than end products which renders the work a naural aura. Although
Spiegelman is consistent with the panels and their placements on each page, he incorporates
certain unconventional techniques like angling out some panels, drawing some with no borders
and some of them are even drawn strategically for enabling readers to view Spiegelman
sketching where the reader is currently reading. (Doherty 69-84). Most of the actions are
positioned in the panels and the panels flow as words do on a page. The comics are composed in
frames and gutters, the rich hollow spaces between particular moments direct the reader’s
interpretation. These blank spaces have been described as “closure” in Mc.Cloud’s text, referring
to the reader’s role in filling narrative gaps between the panels.

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Maus, as an ideal graphic novel aims to project an unfiltered account of the atrocities of
Holocaust. Spiegelman uses animals as symbols for human characteristics: Jews are
characterized as mice, Cats as Nazi Germans who mercilessly kill the mice, other animals like
pigs and frogs are used to depict corresponding nations. (Mittman and Ghodke). The gutter-
effect has annotations of time and space that approaches history from a modernist perspective.
The hero is placed in a fractured society with no one to look for help during massacres. The
abomination can be compared to the contemporary geopolitics associated with the perpetual
bloodbaths in Syria which goes parallel with the mass killings during the Nazi invasion.
There is no denying that Maus is an outstanding piece of visual arts and literature. (Watts
38). Among the qualities that contribute to the novel’s success is the symbolic character sketch
of human beings as animals that divulge disturbing truths. The aim was to retell the prevalent
stories of the Holocaust horror, disorienting the conventional thought process with a story that
propels readers to question everything they have been told about history so far. This is achieved
by striking out the perfect balance between words and pictures. The themes of guilt, racism and
repressed memory are integrated together to convey a universal and timeless message: surviving
past the trauma is more painful than the trauma itself.

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References:
Bongco, M. (2014). Reading comics: Language, culture, and the concept of the superhero in
comic books. Routledge.
Bronzite, Dan. "The Hero’s Journey—Mythic Structure of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth."
(2017).
Doherty, Thomas. "Art Spiegelman's Maus: Graphic Art and the Holocaust." American
literature 68.1 (1996): 69-84.
Gohlke, Jennifer, and Elizabeth Mittman. "Art Spiegelman's Maus-When Telling Confidential
Stories and Depicting the Holocaust through Animals becomes justifiable." (2014).
Hancock, Michael W. "RAW." (2014).
Kolář, Stanislav. "INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF TRAUMA IN
SPIEGELMAN'S MAUS." Brno studies in English 39.1 (2013).
Mudita, Nasti. "THE DEPICTION OF JEWISH PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE AGAINST
NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES IN ART SPIEGELMAN’S GRAPHIC NOVEL MAUS." Jurnal
Ilmiah Mahasiswa FIB 2.8 (2013).
Orbáán, Katalin. "Trauma and Visuality: Art Spiegelman's Maus and In the Shadow of No
Towers." Representations 97.1 (2007): 57-89.
Watts, Pam. "Graphic novels offer diverse perspectives, narratives." The Education Digest 81.2
(2015): 38.