Student Responses to Art Spiegelman's Comic Book, Maus

In HGPS 201 (Spring 1998), students wrote short essays on Maus. In addition to assessing their personal reactions to reading Maus, they explored some other questions: What were you expecting from a comic book on the Holocaust? What did you come away with? Is a comic book an "appropriate" medium of representation of the Holocaust?

"Art Spiegelman's personal history of a Holocaust survivor is a powerful and provocative work. By using a comic book format Spiegelman introduces readers to a more visual and human level perspective of the Jewish struggle for survival in Nazi Germany. We are able to clearly examine the complicated interconnection of relationships, money, love, hate, fear, hope, death and the daily struggle for life in a society that specialized in manufacturing death on an unheard-of scale."
"In a fresh way Maus brings history to life, proving that comics have reached new levels in the literary world, and that it's okay to go your own way. Concentrating on the life of a survivor helped tremendously as far as understanding the atrocities and hardships that took place, and it certainly helped for emotional appeal. I think it was an important part in my understanding of the Holocaust on a deeper level, and it definitely did justice for the voices that were unable to be heard."

"This book presents the Holocaust in a light that many had never considered. We witnessed this event through the eyes of a child. The author was not a child, nor was the survivor, but when one ages to the point of Vladek Spiegelman, the world does seem so very simple. It is through his eyes that the events of his life unfold. At times, he returns to the philosophical world were nothing is right and the world is bad, but as he remembers how much he loved Anja or his child or even Art, we are whisked back to a place of peace and contentedness."

"Ultimately the use of the comic book format helps make this work a tremendous success, both historically and culturally. In traditional oral history or story book format we would, of course, have heard or read the details put forth. In this pictorial format, however, we see far beyond that and are able to, with minute detail, look upon the scene as we could only have, perhaps, were we there with Vladek. That we are looking at mice, not men, allows us to delve deeper - much deeper - than we would have if confronted with the traditional, `real' photographs of the scenes that we so often are confronted with in studies of the Holocaust: photographs that are over used and are now simply unnecessary in recounting the horrors of the Holocaust. These cartoon characters allow us to dig deep into the rhyme and reason between the lines, making sense, if sense can be made, instead of providing excuses not to look. These cartoons give us highly detailed visual representations of processes to hit home the story. These cartoons allow us to work through those representations instead of running away from them."

"Maus is a success in its lesson about one of the atrocities in history. Although it's not an `everything you need to know' book, it is a different alternative approach that makes the material something we can relate to on a more personal level. The author's sincerity and honesty allows us to open up to everything he has written and depicted. We walk away with, if nothing else, at least a greater understanding for the people, the names, of those that suffered in the Holocaust. We learn what `suffering' means."

"I thought that Maus would be one man's story of survival. I assumed that the comic book format would trivialize it and that animals would make it seem less realistic. I couldn't have been more wrong. This book was a fast read, but not an easy one. Through tears and with a heavy heart I read - I couldn't put it down! The feelings and behavior of the characters reminded me of their humanity. It is a strange paradox that they are mice, that such tiny animals can relay such a powerful message about the importance of remembering that we are all human beings. We owe it to the generations past and those to come to keep this message alive."

"Maus is quite a sonnet. Like an honorable poem that presents one with a unique value on life, Maus works in the same way. You can't entirely contemplate Maus clearly until you've read it twice. Just like a poem that must be read twice or more to understand, the might of Maus becomes greater in the second reading. It's a book that, for most, can just be skimmed on the surface revealing no detail to the reader but, if you take the time to look closely at Maus you will see a much more vast network of structure. Maus is a documentary, a memoir, and at the same time a comic book. When I read Maus I found myself questioning my own motives and expectations, just like a good book should make you do. I wasn't expecting that from something that looked like a comic book."