Telling Vladek's Holocaust Story

Maus: TSPEC- Is Maus an appropriate and effective way of telling Vladek’s Holocaust story?

Thesis: Despite writing about such a heavy topic in such a deceptively playful medium, Maus was very effective in telling Vladek’s holocaust story because it shows rather than tells the holocaust from Vladek’s and Artie’s perspective while capturing both of their emotions, the drawings aide Artie in showing the metaphor of the power system, and makes reading Maus much more understandable.

The drawings used in each chapter makes the metaphor of the animals and who has authority, more powerful and also makes the reader feel as if they are apart of Vladek’s Holocaust journey because of the showing and not telling aspect. The use of animals instead of drawings of people to describe the power system during the Holocaust is one of the many great uses of visual aides. In this case to address a metaphor. Some may say that using animals is dehumanizing, especially to the Jews, but that is simply false. The metaphor describes where the Jews were in
Germans were Cats and the Jews are mice, showing that the Germans had more power over the Jews. The uses of pictures/drawings allow for us to be taken along through the Holocaust journey. The drawings were used to display how Vladek felt during the Holocaust and make the experience easier to understand for the reader. One example is when Vladek and Anja are searching for a path out and in Maus Art draws the path as the swastika, showing that he felt like he could never escape the Germans, exemplifying the showing and not telling strategy.Also, while Vladek does explain his and some of Anja’s journey with words, the uses of pictures/drawings makes it easier for the reader to imagine the Holocaust. It puts his words “to life”. Seeing the mice that were hanged on pg. was a much more shocking experience due to the fact that there was a picture there to aide you in your process of