Maus By Art Spiegelman

Reading a Graphic Novel What is the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book? The tone of a comic book is usually suspenseful and exciting. Comics are usually short works told in serial form. A graphic novel can be more serious and reflective. A graphic novel is usually longer and is told in volumes. Both comic books and graphic novels are read in the same way, moving across panels and noting both artwork and text.

Vocabulary of a Graphic Novel Panels are the boxes in which the pictures and words appear. The panels are read in sequence, the same way you read the words of a page in a book. Begin in the top left, work your way across to the right. When you finish that row of panels, move down to next row, beginning on the left side. Panels are separated from one another by panel borders. How many panels are there on page 1 of Maus?

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Captions give information about the setting or what the character is experiencing. They can also summarize information. Captions can appear inside or outside the panel. Find 5 captions on page one of Maus.

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Word balloons tell us what a character is saying out loud. Each word balloon has a “tail” to show which character is talking. Thought balloons tell what a character is thinking, but not saying aloud. They are often drawn with a scalloped edge. Identify the purpose of each word balloon on page 1 of Maus.

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In the captions and word balloons, some words are emphasized by appearing bigger or bolder or by using CAPITAL LETTERS. This lets the reader know there is a lot of emotion behind those words. Look at page 1 and identify which words Spiegelman has emphasized using these techniques.

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Art Spiegleman Art, or Artie, Spiegleman is the real-life son of Polish Jews Vladek and Anja who survived the Holocaust. He was born after the war in Sweden in His parents were held at Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest concentration camp of WW2. Of 85 relatives alive at the beginning of WW2, only 13 survived the Holocaust. He began drawing at age 13. He studied art and philosophy at Harpur College and left school in 1968, when his mother committed suicide.

After his mother’s suicide, Spiegelman created a comic about her death called “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”, which appears in Maus. He worked for Topps Candy, where he created the Garbage Pail Kids. He taught history and comics in New York. He is married and has two children.

Maus Maus is a graphic novel that tells the tells the true events of Artie’s family during WW2. The graphic novel uses animals to represent various ethic groups or nationalities. Spiegelman was criticized for depicting the Jews as mice, as well as the Polish people as pigs. Some said that he was contributing to making Jews “less than human” and that drawing Poles as pigs was disrespectful as well.

The novel uses an unreliable narrator. The person telling Artie the story, Vladek, does not always tell the story truthfully. He tells it as he remembers it, and as he wishes it to have happened. This creates a problem for the reader. The story is also told as a fractured narrative which means that it is told out of order. This is similar to a flashback.

Symbols & Terms Holocaust – The mass murder of some 6 million European Jews, as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, handicapped people, and other persecuted groups by the Nazi regime during World War II. holocaust holocaust

Star of David – The sign of the nation of Israel. Jews in Nazi controlled countries during WW2 were required to wear this badge on their clothes at all times so they could be identified.

Swastika – Formerly a Hindu symbol of good luck and good fortune, this symbol was taken by the Nazi Party as their own. This has come to represent hatred and racism.

Poland – The invasion of Poland by Hitler marked the beginning of WW2 in Europe. – This is the setting of the part of the novel that takes place during the 1930s and 40s.

Where exactly is Poland?

Ghetto – Neighborhoods set aside where certain ethnic or racial groups were forced to live. – Strict curfews were enforced, and often families were separated. – Barbed wire fences and armed guards made sure no one came or left without permission.

Concentration camp – A prison where people were sent to die, often after being starved, tortured and worked to near death. – Some concentration camps used gas showers or ovens to kill their Jewish victims. Other prisoners were starved, fell victim to disease, or were worked to death. – At Auschwitz alone, more than 2 million people were murdered. During the summer of 1941, as many as 12,000 Jews were killed every day.

Auschwitz

Genocide – The complete elimination (by death) of a race of people. – Hitler’s “Final Solution” included a genocide of all Jews on the face of the earth.