Maus 1-2

Raw emotion and very powerful. This graphic novel is emotionally draining, heart-wrenching and real. I wouldn’t think a piece of media that portrayed humans as humanoid with animal heads could do such a good job at capturing the horror and the suffering of the events it portrays, but these graphic novels do it. The construct of separating entire groups of people into one look alike animal was very interesting as it went so far to illustrate how dumb of an idea it is to generalize an entire group of people. The Nazis as cats, Jews as mice, Polish as pigs and Americans as dogs.

The strongest parts of these graphic novels for me were the portrayals of the love between Vladek and Art and between Vladek and Anja. The father/son relationship was extremely honestly written, with neither being perfect and both having flaws. When it comes to autobiographical content, you can only absorb what you’re given, and most people want to portray themselves as heroic or as flawless as possible. But Art did such a good job in portraying him and his father with their imperfections that it’s hard not to care for them as humans. They’re part of a family as dysfunctional as any other, and the true ingenuity comes in showing that while showing the raw love these characters really had for each other. The father replacing Art’s fashionable coat for a warm one, he’s a lovable character. He comes across as funny without meaning to.

Another aspect of this that was emotional was Art’s guilt for having such an easy life in comparison to all of the torcher that his parents suffered. He switches between the present and the past where the actual events happened to his father, perfectly portraying his fathers fear and despair.