A Survivor's Tale By Art Spiegelm Literary Analysis

Art Spiegelman’s Maus II “A Survivor’s Tale,” is a well-known graphic novel that depicted the holocaust. Rewriting a story about the holocaust in the form of a graphic novel or comic as some might describe it, probably seemed unusual and childish. Comics and graphic novels were seen as lacking that education equivalent that people would refer to when researching or reading about that specific point in history. Having a large amount of books relating to the holocaust over the years has only made it repetitive because we are aware of Auschwitz and its terrible events. Art Spiegelman did a fantastic job in retelling the story of his father’s survival in Auschwitz. He also shows the reader his unique relationship with his father. Maus not only

Miller also stated that “Spiegelman realized that everything is a representation.” In Maus II the plot is written as a story within a story, and it is not only about what occurred in the holocaust, but Art’s interpretation about writing his story about the holocaust. Spiegelman had a goal, to let the readers know that while writing his novel, there was no way he could fully show the audience the true essence of what took place back then. It was his attempt to try to represent the unrepresentable. Art describes his distress and guilt in writing Maus II. Pages 41-46 we see him wearing a mouse mask. I believe this symbolizes the incapacity he sensed creating the novel. On page 42 we see the reporters hounding Art about his new graphic novel. “Tell our viewers what message you want them to get from your book” (42). He is unable to distinguish his book with a viewer’s message, nonetheless it shows the reader that Spiegelman is not able to explain the personal accounts of the holocaust and the several complexities that went on. On page 41 we see one of the novel’s most powerful images, Spiegelman sitting at his desk depressed, balanced on top of a pile of dead, skeleton-like Jews, with also a picture of the guard tower on the top right. The same imagine is shown on page 43 while walking the streets with the bodies on the floor. I believe that Spiegelman used these images in this novel to represent that haunting effect that the holocaust still has on him and the reminder of the effects of the past have on the present. Even though he did not live through the holocaust himself, these memories are a part of his everyday life. These feelings seem