Week Seven: Legitimization
For homework, I read Maus by Art Spiegelman. It is set in the 1950s, after WWII.
Maus is the author's retelling of his father's story in Auschwitz. In this story, the cats portray the Nazis and the mice portray the Jews.
This comic is all black and white, which is appropriate for this story because it touches on an extremely dark subject. This is considered being the first graphic novel and this book is NOT recommended for children or anyone of a young age. This graphic novel started a whole new genre, I enjoy this style of "comics" I found it to be extremely easy to get hooked on.
I do think this story makes cats out to be "the bad guy" but I relate it back to "Tom and Jerry" the cartoon kids show that played on Cartoon Network.
One image that stands out and allows for this novel to reflect the horror of this time is the title art for Chapter four. The image is very detailed and really makes you stop to look and think.
In this image, a group of mice is being hanged. Some have their heads down and others have their mouths open crying for help.
It does strike me as strange that someone would create a comic specifically about the holocaust, I'm sure the people in the 1950s thought the same thing.
The story gets a little confusing sometimes when the time period changes back and forth between the 1950s and the war. Unlike graphic novels today, they don't show a lot of blood and gore when someone was being beaten.
We eventually find out that the artist's mother commits suicide in the end because she can't live with everything that has happened.
Maus is the author's retelling of his father's story in Auschwitz. In this story, the cats portray the Nazis and the mice portray the Jews.
This comic is all black and white, which is appropriate for this story because it touches on an extremely dark subject. This is considered being the first graphic novel and this book is NOT recommended for children or anyone of a young age. This graphic novel started a whole new genre, I enjoy this style of "comics" I found it to be extremely easy to get hooked on.
I do think this story makes cats out to be "the bad guy" but I relate it back to "Tom and Jerry" the cartoon kids show that played on Cartoon Network.
One image that stands out and allows for this novel to reflect the horror of this time is the title art for Chapter four. The image is very detailed and really makes you stop to look and think.
In this image, a group of mice is being hanged. Some have their heads down and others have their mouths open crying for help.
It does strike me as strange that someone would create a comic specifically about the holocaust, I'm sure the people in the 1950s thought the same thing.
The story gets a little confusing sometimes when the time period changes back and forth between the 1950s and the war. Unlike graphic novels today, they don't show a lot of blood and gore when someone was being beaten.
We eventually find out that the artist's mother commits suicide in the end because she can't live with everything that has happened.
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