Maus: My Father Bleeds History: Summary

For my Unit 4 Summative, I decided to create a poster based on the novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History. I created my poster in the typical flyer style propaganda that would have been distributed across Europe during World War II by the Allied Powers. During that time, one of the most common spoken languages in Western Europe was French. On May 10, 1940, Germany distracted the Allied Powers by attacking the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The Allied Powers kept their attention on those countries while Adolf Hitler’s Nazi army invaded Paris, giving him the opportunity to control France. As a result, many French learned and were familiar with the German language. If my poster had been in existence during this same time, it would have likely acted as a uniting force for the French citizenry to fight back against their occupiers.
This statement is being addressed to all the non-Aryan races and people who were negatively affected by the Nazi ideology. Additionally, this statement incorporates the use of Pathos. Red is the color of fire and blood, thus it is easily associated with war, strength, and power. It stirs emotions of anger and hatred, both perfect reasons for a 1940’s European citizen to enlist in the resistance forces to fight for their country. The phrase at the bottom ‘Ensemble, nous pouvons les descendre’ is in French and it translates to “together we can take them down”. This phrase uses the propaganda techniques of assertion, as it is a bold statement that is delivered with confidence and enthusiasm, hence the triple exclamation points that does not encourage the audience to question or doubt the probability of its truthfulness. ‘Ensemble, nous pouvons les descendre’ is written in blue and the color blue correlates with trust, confidence, and