Response to Maus

One of my favorite students this year is also one of my trickiest.  Matt is a Special Ed student but doesn’t want people to know.  So instead of letting it show that he doesn’t understand something, he goofs off.  I have succeeded in giving him a book or two that he has enjoyed and I thought that Maus might be one of them.  I offered it to him and he refused because he “doesn’t like comics”.  I took this opportunity to explain to him that it is a graphic novel and told him about the characteristics of this type of book.  I bought in until he opened the book and saw the mice.  He decided that he wasn’t going to read a comic book about mice.  I showed him that the Nazis were cats and pointed out the importance of cats and mice being sworn enemies.  I never did convince him to read the book, but it certainly got me thinking about how important the visuals of a graphic novel can be when readers are assessing them.  Where Matt was completely put off by the book about mice, I was intrigued by all the animals.  He viewed this book as childish because his understanding of literature hasn’t developed past seeing only pictures of cartoon animal.  I viewed this book as profound and understated because I was able to not only understand the choice of animals but could appreciate them.  It creates an interesting dichotomy between reading for pleasure and reading critically.  To read the book aesthetically, you have to be able to understand the symbolism.  Older adolescents could understand the meanings on their own, but the details would be lost on middle schoolers.  However, with some guidance it would be a fun book to introduce to younger adolescents with the purpose of teaching about the Holocaust and literary symbolism. 

Something I have enjoyed recently is creating mental book bundles. A book bundle is combining a few titles together that share some similarity: theme, time period, etc.  I like to make groups of books that I would combine because it helps me to make connections between what I am reading now and what I have already read.  It also helps me to have a running list in my head so that I can easily recommend a book to a student in response to a title that they liked.  I teach about Anne Frank in my 8^th grade Language Arts class.  My students are always amazed when they hear the family was sent into hiding and the tiny apartment that they shared.  Maus shows that the Franks’ hiding place was paradise comparatively.  Maus focuses on the experiences of those in hiding; The Book Thief complements the graphic novel nicely because it also puts focus on the experience of those risking their lives to hide others.  Lastly, I enjoyed Maus because it offered experiences of the Jews living in Poland.  An adult nonfiction book I read lately, The Zookeeper’s Wife, also shared details of another brave family that was living during the Holocaust in Poland.  I enjoy challenging myself to make these groupings because it encourages to make connections with other things that I’ve read and to seek out other titles to read in the future. 

This story’s setting moved around many times.  The nature of the book required that the physical setting changed constantly as the family was moved from one place to another, but the time period also shifts much more dramatically.  The balance of the story rotates between modern time in America and the Holocaust period in Poland.  This balance is interesting because we get to know Spiegelman’s father in two ways: the way he was and the way he is.  In modern time, he is thrifty, insistent, and cold but caring.  His history shows that he is brave, giving, and resourceful.  Readers know that the two men are the same, but their personalities don’t share many similarities.  We are led to believe that his experiences during the Holocaust have changed him.  Readers are also told that these stories are the memories of the father retold by his son; can these second-hand memories be trusted?  The events have lived on in the father’s memory, as they have for decades, and they end up The images that are shared between father and son can be painful but ring of truth.  The shift between modern time and history helps the story to gain ground and appear honest, even in all its pain. 

The most impressive aspect of this book is its characterization through illustration.  We place certain characteristics upon all animals.  Speilgelman played upon these ideas very creatively by assigning certain races and groups of people to be represented by particular animals.  At first I was confused by the depiction of the Jews as mice.  But through the eyes of Spiegelman it fits – mice and quiet, crafty, and are survivors.  Mice are powerless creatures, just as the Jews were powerless throughout the Holocaust.  The first image that struck me as odd was on page 15 when pigs appeared.  Pigs?  The pigs represented the Poles.  Even the Jews wear pig masks to disguise themselves.  Was this because pigs are stubborn?  Or lazy?  I am not sure, but the majority of interactions between the pigs and mice were positive.  Pigs and mice are not enemies.  While I initially thought that mice would represent all characters I realized that different groups would be depicted as different animals.  Page 35 displays a very festive party with mice, pigs, frogs, and rabbits.  On page 33 we see our first Nazi, and, not surprisingly, he is represented as a cat hunting the mice.  The most unexpected character depiction was that of Americans on page 125.  We see an American helping Vladek in a bank and he is represented as a dog.  Again when it is put into the big picture, it makes sense.  The mice are hunted by cats, and the cats will be overpowered by the dogs.  In a graphic novel, Speigelman uses the common characteristics of familiar animals to help us to better understand the groups of people seen throughout the book.