Maus by Art Spiegelman

Maus by Art Spiegelman is a graphic novel about the experiences of the Holocaust in WWII. It established graphic novels as a legitimized medium since it was accepted in narrative circles, sold in regular book stores, and analyzed in schools. I remember studying Maus in school and remember being surprised and excited that we were being assigned to read and analyze a graphic novel. I think part of the reason  Mause was as game-changing as is was, is because it took a medium that had previously been dismissed as trivial, juvenile, and not taken seriously and used it to tell a story of a Holocaust experience, one of the most serious events in history. The subject matter is magnified by the art style. Spiegelman uses anthropomorphic characters to tell his story. Animals have been regularly used in the comic medium, especially those for children, but Spiegelman's use of them is particularly artful. Not only does the use of animal characters make the otherwise horrific story more digestible, but it also employs the use of powerful allegory by using different animals to represent different groups (jew=mice, nazi germans=cats, poles=pigs, french=frogs, etc.). In one particularly interesting instance, Speigelman draws one character as a mouse in one instance and a cat in another because he is thought to be a Jew but claims to be a German. In another instance, some Jewish character try to pass themselves off as Poles by wearing pig masks. Even though the appearances of different races is divided, the character isn't. There is great variety in the characters that are Jewish and Polish. Some are helpful and friendly while others are not.
Memory is another important theme in Maus. The narrator of the story is Art, but the story he tells is not his own, rather the memories of his father which Art seems to adopt as his own by such vivid storytelling. The father-son relationship of Art and his father and how it impacts the story is interesting. It brings up the question of memories being inheritable, especially when memories are of something as impactful as the Holocaust. Even though Art never experiences the Holocaust himself, he writes an entire graphic novel about it. This probably speak to how Jews, even though WWII has long been over, are still victims of racism and marginalization and Art could probably identify with some of the feelings and dehumanizing experiences of his father. Also, we tend to be invested in the experiences of our loved ones in ways where their experiences affect us almost as much as they affect them. Our loved ones almost become extensions of ourselves and when they are hurt we feel it too because we care about them. Th dynamics of family are also explored in Maus. The relationship between Art and his father is a complex one that changes in nature throughout the book. Art's father is not a particularly likable character but when paired with his horrific accounts of his past you understand and empathize with him. You see Art struggle with his opinion of his father the same way the reader struggles with their opinion of Vladek. This also translates into themes of guilt. Even though Art might not like his father at times he feels guilty for it because of all that his father has been through. He doesn't always like the way his father acts but he knows why he acts that way and that makes him feel guilty. He also feels guilty about portraying a story that is not his own and for capitalizing on pain that is not from his own experience.