Essay

In the graphic novel “The Complete Maus” by Art Spiegelman, the author narrates the story of a family encounters living through World War II and Holocaust (Spiegelman, 1). The story is about Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe together with his son, a cartoonist, in his attempt to come to terms with his father’s horrific story and also their history. Maus tells two powerful narrations in which he is moving back and forth from Poland to Rego Park, New York. In the first story, Maus tells about the events and survival of Spiegelman’s father together with his wife during Hitler’s reign in Europe. The story gets characterized by numerous brushes with death, unbelievable escapes and also the terror of confinement and betrayal. The second story, the author tells about their tortured relationship with his father. His father is getting old, and the author tries to build a normal relationship with him with few disagreements and passing visit against a backdrop of history to big to pacify. The story gets set in three towns namely Czestochowa, Sosnowiec and Bielsko. Czestochowa is a Polish city near the border of German and north of Sosnowiec and is where Spiegelman lived from birth to marriage with Anja Zylberberg. Sosnowiec is also a Polish town near the German border and west of Krakow where Spiegelman moves to after his marriage and conducts a successful textile business.

In this graphic novel, the heavy use of visual metaphors and symbolism stands out. The author uses a series of symbols to bring more meaning and depth to his writing, and it is crucial for a reader to understand them so as to understand the contents of the book. Symbolism in literature refers to the use of objects, actions or ideas that represent something other than it’s real self. The use of symbols in the book plays essential roles in the narration of the story.

One of the main visual representations in the narratives is the use of animals to symbolize different nationalities in the story. The different species of animals depicted the varying nature of the races of the characters in the narrative. The Jews in the narrative get depicted as mice, whereas their arch-nemesis who is the Germans in the narrative gets portrayed as cats. The use of the “cat and mouse” symbolism is no surprise since cats get known to haunt, they are larger, stronger, fierce, and eat the mice that are small and helpless. Similarly in the narratives, the Nazis hunt, torture as well as kill the weak Jews as represented by the “cat and mouse” metaphor. Other symbolisms include depicting the Poles as pigs, French nationalities as frogs, the American people as dogs, the British citizens as fish, the Swedish as reindeer, and the Romans as the gypsy moths. This art is significant in representing the characters, behaviors and conducts of the different people in the narratives. The portrayal of characters as animals in the narrative depicts the ideas of the Holocaust a lot more forcefully compared to if the author used humans as the characters. The character and behavior of Jews symbolized by mice are innocent, weak, quiet, hence forced to run and hide as they get hunted by “cats” and also get considered as dirty. The character and behavior of Germans symbolized by cats is a cunning and stealthy character, cold-blooded people and vicious predators. The cats get shown as looking angry and bearing teeth, with a lot of viciousness around the mice since they are hunting them. The Germans searched for the Jews and killed them such as in the mass genocide that targeted the Jewish people. The Germans in the narrative are the least favorable. The character of Americans symbolized by dogs is protective, helpful, compassionate, friendly, and man’s best friend who also acts as a rescuer. The Americans helped and sympathized with the Jews. In one scene the US creates a displaced person camp to accommodate those running and fearing for their lives in Garmisch-Partenkirchen where Spiegelman takes refuge. The cats are scared of the dogs since the dogs chase them. The character and behavior of Polish get symbolized as pigs since they are self-centered and greedy. Although the Jews had received a sanctuary from the Polish, they were not entirely truthful and friendly and thus had developed bad relations. The Polish police got involved in the first arrest of the Jews and many other scenes sold out the Jews to the Germans. In one of the scenes, Kawka a polish warns Vladek and his family who lived at Kawka’s farm “They may come to search here any minute!! You have to leave now”. In this instance, Kawka was not truthful but only protecting self-interests. The Polish people are greedy since they would only keep Vladek and his family of only they had money to pay for the stay. In the scene when Spiegelman could not pay Mrs. Motonowa the full price of bread, she lied they were no bread. The Polish people helping the Jews could not stand up for them when the Nazis came to look for them. The author settles on depicting the French (Spiegelman’s wife is French) as frogs that are a slimy and lowly creature. The author considers using bunny rabbits that are too sweet and gentle to symbolize the French but reconsiders due to their dark history of anti-Semitism and Nazi collaboration. The French do not play a significant role in the narrative; however, it is essential in allowing the author to understand the history Europe during this period. Through the use of the animals, the author builds an elaborate visual metaphor that enriches the narratives. The cat compared to the mouse in the narrative is a symbol of superiority. Even the events showing the Jews running and hiding from the Germans gets symbolized by the cat and mouse game where the mice run and hide from the cats.

The use of visual elements gives the story smooth transitional moments and also minimizes verbal explanation of the experiences. This style is a practical advantage used by writers of a rich visual style that exceeds the content of the speech balloons. The visual elements in the “Complete Story” serve other more highly symbolic functions. Maus uses iconic visual symbols to show relevant material at the foreground and also enrich the meaning of the story. An important visual effect gets shown by the use of the swastika to frame the story of the elevated Nazi brutality. In some of the scenes in chapter two of the “Complete Maus,” the author titles the German flag “The Honeymoon”. Behind the scenes, a group of Jews gets shown in silhouette against a blank background of dark horses. The Jews clothing get shown by a luminous white of the men’s collars and the woman’s pearls, although they are already frozen. The starkness of this scene in the book and the fearful silence of the characters show the powerful emotional import of the event. The brutality of the Germans in the scene gets symbolized by the use of a harsh light of the Nazi emblem. The author does not verbalize the atrocities of the police who came in the house since the image of the swastika is extremely potent. Another scene where minimal verbal content gets required due to the use of symbols is where the swastika get replaced by another symbol that is the black chimneys of the crematoria rising into the gray skies above Auschwitz.

Symbolism in the narratives gets enhanced in the form of the masking effect. The physical characteristics of the characters in the narrative are vague; therefore, the target audience of the story can easily link themselves or others to the story. The author ensured that although they used animals to symbolize specific human behaviors, they also brought the appearance of the animals close to that of humans. For example, the animals in the narrative walked upright and wore clothing just like humans. This aspect is important in ensuring that the reader can link with the events of the narrative. The animals even could drive cars just like the humans. The symbolism in this book allows the reader to feel even emotions felt by the characters in the story. In one scene the author uses four pairs of legs dangling to make a hanging scene. The scene is very emotional, and the reader could feel and understand what the Jewish people were going through. Also, in showing the Polish people, the author draws the pigs with open and possibly kind eyes symbolizing their role. The use of open and probably kind eyes brings the reader closer to humans who are pretending to help, just like the Polish appeared to assist Spiegelman and his family. The facial expressions of the cats symbolizing the Germans get drawn to have hard jaw lines and squinty, accusing eyes to represent their character of hunting, torturing and killing Jews.

The use of symbolism by the author also gets shown when they use flies to represent the dead bodies. The use of flies buzzing around Art at the beginning of the second narrative could also be a representation of the memories of the dead that may be haunting the author. It is a very creative symbolism form by the author who attempts not to offend readers by drawing the real dead bodies. Symbolism plays a significant role in this scene of communicating the message and sad story in the horrifying scene in a more comfortable way. Another powerful symbol by the author is the use of masks in the characters to show that as humans we are just the same, and race and nationality are just minded accusations of creating enmity and difference. In the Holocaust period, the different races and nationalities were all the same. However, hostility and violence occurred by races. The Nazi Germans in this Hitler’s Europe did not want the Jews, hence arrested, deported as well as exterminated them.

References

Spiegelman, Art. Complete Maus. Vol. 1. Pantheon, (1997): (1-140)