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Originally posted by purplekiwi on February 11, 2025 20:17

The use of comic form in Maus doesn’t negatively affect the storytelling at all, in fact it improves the comprehensibility of the novel. Art Spiegelman is able to effectively convey the emotional and historical weight of the holocaust in a comic format. Although many argue that a comic is too informal of a medium to depict an event as serious as the holocaust, especially because all the characters are animals, I believe that he does a great job at preserving the gravity of the situation through his art. One example I can think of is the drawing of him at his desk, on top of a pile of dead bodies. Though it is only a drawing the atmosphere of the scene is dark and depressing. It is clear that Art isn’t taking the millions of lives lost lightly, and that he understands the serious nature of his graphic novel. Another serious scene is where we find out how Richieu died. When Vladek’s friend realizes that she and the children are being taken to a camp, there is a close up on her when she decides to kill them and herself. This scene is quite dark and sad; the intensity of the scene is also apparent in how harshly the character is drawn. Art Spiegelman does a great job depicting the raw emotions of his father’s experiences through his drawings. The comic book format also contributes to the symbolism within the novel, and improves the story-telling. In “The Shadow of Past Time” the author argues that Maus being a graphic novel helps it to not “betray the past”, but instead elaborate on the presence of the past. I agree with that idea because throughout the graphic novel Art Spiegelman artfully connects the past and present through his art. Not only does this ease the flow of the narrative and make it less jarring to read, it also visually shows that the past affects the present. One scene mentioned in the article is the hanging of the Jewish girls who revolted in a camp. Spiegelman depicts the girls as hanging in the trees of the forest that he and Vladek were driving through. Symbolically it seems as if Art and Vladek are driving out of the forest and that scene, as if to move on from the past, but we know that isn’t the case. The trauma that Vladek has a result of the holocaust won’t go away no matter how much time has passed. He was impacted by those events for the rest of his life, and that’s shown by the panels of the past melding with the present; it’s as if they’ll never leave.

I like the idea you brought up about Art drawing himself above the corpses and I remember thinking very similar thoughts when reading/seeing it. I agree with the opinion that the comic format of the novel enhances the viewer’s comprehension of the graphic topic and effectively captures the somber atmosphere of the Holocaust. Additionally, in regards to the elaboration on the presence of the past, I think Art drew his novel in this way to allow the reader to sympathize with the characters. If it were just words on paper, it would make it a little harder to understand and see the turmoil the characters experienced. Your interpretation of the forest scene is very interesting, and I would have never seen it in this way, but I can see how this could have been Art’s intention. When it comes to the severity of the novel and Art’s ability to push that across, another example I can think of is Art including his troubles with his father. A relationship between a parent and child is regarded as a grave topic which is why I think Art decided to display it in his story through their dialogue. All in all, I completely agree with your post and it exposed me to new thoughts I haven’t previously thought of.

Spiegelman’s use of comics enhances his father’s story about the Holocaust. This is because it allows the story to be more comprehensible for younger audiences, such as elementary school, middle school, or high school students. The comics make the story more comprehensible because for starters, the pictures make it easier to understand what’s going on in the story. It makes it so children who can’t read well yet can more easily understand such a complicated and horrific story, so that they can comprehend the tragedy that occurred with that history. The comics also are beneficial because they allow Siegelman to convey the emotions and feelings of his characters better. This allows the readers to understand the characters better and therefore the story, adding to the humanization aspect of the story. Lastly, the comics help the audience because they clearly demonstrate the difference between the peoples in the story, allowing younger audiences to better understand the Holocaust. For example, displaying Jewish people as mice, Polish people as pigs, and German people as cats allows the youth to better understand what’s going on, since it’s common knowledge that cats eat mice, and the Germans are massacring the Jews. By better displaying the emotions of the characters in the story and by better portraying the history occurring in the story, the comic style becomes beneficial to Spiegelman.

The comic format of the graphic novel supports the movement between past and present very well. It does so by displaying characters differently in images based on what point in time they’re in. For example, when alternating between past and present, Vladek goes from young and skinny, to old and large. This visually assists the reader to comprehend the deep story more easily. Moreover, the comic format is far better than a regular novel, since people learn more easily with visuals, such as comics.

The argument against comic style for a story about the Holocaust is strong. The argument is that the animals used to depict humans and the pictures used don’t nearly illustrate the seriousness that was the Holocaust. The argument is that the animal drawings used by Spiegelman take from the overall significance of the story, since they’re not real people and make the story less human, which is not the case at all. However, this argument is not valid in my opinion, because I believe that the comic style used is actually beneficial to the humanization of the story overall. This is due to the fact that the drawings make it easier for the reader, regardless of age, to understand the complexity of the story. With comics, one can more easily see emotions, visualize the plot, and know what is happening overall in the story in relation to time. Even though comics are commonly used in books aimed at the demographic of younger people, the graphic novel style of this story is still very useful and far from frivolous. It does not at all lighten the significance of this amazing and in-depth story.

Originally posted by questions on February 11, 2025 13:33

Children of Holocaust survivors are forced to endure the emotional burdens of their parents even though they themselves did not experience the Holocaust. As it was depicted in Maus, Artie often felt burdened with survivor’s guilt whenever he tried to communicate with his father. Artie felt as if he was never enough and was not allowed to complain because he knew that his father went through so much more as a Holocaust survivor. Stated in Stanislav’s Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman’s Maus, “Art’s story confirms the assertion that generations which have never been exposed to a traumatic event can ‘inherit’ the trauma of their ancestors and that the most common channel of this intergenerational and transgenerational transmission is through the family” (Stanislav 228). Children of Holocaust survivors live through the trauma their parents went through by simply existing, causing them to have burdens that they may not fully understand. Since the children of Holocaust survivors didn’t actually go through the Holocaust, it can be hard for them to understand why their parents have certain responses to some things, or just their actions in general. This misunderstanding often causes problems with communication between the parent and child, which was very evident throughout the entirety of Maus. Artie most likely does not understand the trauma Vladek went through, therefore he was very annoyed with Vladek’s various habits. For example, Vladek loves to save money on everything he can even though it is not entirely necessary anymore. This habit is likely taken from his time in the Holocaust when he had to save whatever he could in order to survive. Since Artie did not experience the Holocaust, he could not understand the purpose of Vladek’s odd habits even though he had to live with Vladek for the majority of his life. Since the lives of Artie and Vladek don’t align too well, that is most likely the reason why their relationship is not that great. This can be applied to many young people today as well. Many young people today live extremely different lives from their parents, so it is particularly difficult for both to relate to each other. This lack of understanding creates distance between parents and children, possibly causing the child to feel burdened for not living up to the standards of their parents.

It is not possible to move beyond generational trauma because it is something that will always be there. Even if someone were to try and ignore the trauma, trauma does not just go away on demand. Through time people can learn to live with their trauma, but it can never be forgotten. Trauma is always shown through subconscious actions that children will learn from. Therefore, simply never bringing the topic up will not work because children will eventually find out. Especially if the trauma is from something as big as the Holocaust, it is almost impossible to ignore or hide. Instead, acknowledging the trauma is better because that could possibly bring awareness and understanding to certain habits from the said trauma. At the beginning of Maus, Artie and Vladek seemed a lot more distant than by the end of the graphic novel. This is most likely due to the fact that by the end of Maus, Artie knows almost everything his father has gone through. Although he himself did not go through the Holocaust, he now knows why his father has such habits for saving things. Just knowing his father’s situation made him more empathetic towards Vladek, creating a better relationship between the two. After telling Artie his entire story, Vladek had finally acknowledged his trauma and was ready to leave his legacy to Artie.

Hey Questions, I really enjoyed reading your response and I felt that the most compelling idea was about how children not being able to understand their parents' trauma can cause a strain on the relationship with their parents. I also agreed with this idea because I feel like no one can truly understand a trauma that they didn't have to endure themselves, just like how Artie could never understand what Vladek had to go through no matter how many times he heard it. Additionally, I thought you had an interesting point about not being able to move past generational trauma. We both had the same idea about how acknowledging generational trauma is much better than ignoring it since it can’t just be hidden away, but I felt that generational trauma can be moved past. Acknowledging the trauma serves as the first step to overcoming generational trauma and stopping it from being passed down, and though it may be hard to accomplish I think it’s very possible. Overall, I really liked reading about your point of view because it made me think of things differently. I also really appreciated how every opinion came with an example so I could envision what you meant.