Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History, written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman, is a compelling graphic novel of one man's fight to survive the Holocaust. What makes this story unique is that instead of using people, Spiegelman uses mice to represents Jews, and cats to represent the Nazis. Spiegelman also breaks away from the standard storyteller in which he himself plays a role and the order of events is told as if he didn't yet write the Maus series. He is gathering the necessary information from his father, Vladek, to write it. This was a great call on Spiegelman's part because had he not ordered the events as such, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to capture the father's character as well as he did.
Spiegelman succeeds at painting his father and making readers feel attached to the story. In the present, Vladek is old and ailing as he reminisces of his experience in Nazi-occupied Poland. Spiegelman captures his bitterness and that great contrast in personality to when Vladek was younger. The characters may be portrayed by animals, but that doesn't deviate away from capturing the depressing mood and setting. People, or I should say mice, turned on each other and I was surprised to learn that even some Jews joined the Nazis, or cats, to support the brutality and racist violent policies.
I definitely look forward to reading the second book in the series, Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began.
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