Title: Maus, A Survivor's Tale: Part I, My Father Bleeds History Author: Art Spiegelman
ISBN: 0394747232 Pages: 159
Publisher: Pantheon Books, New York, 1986
Readers Annotation:
This harrowing tale of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife begins before the start of World War II, when life was somewhat calm and simple. Vladek describes his terrifying and heartbreaking new life in detail, leading up to his deportment to the death camp, Auschwitz.
Author Information:
The son of the male protagonist in Maus I, Art Spiegelman writes his own parents' story of surviving the Holocaust. He has received many honors for his Maus works, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a nomination for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other Spiegelman works have been published in the New York Times, Playboy, Village Voice, and many other periodicals. Additionally, he is the co-founder and editor of Raw, a comic magazine.
Art was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1948. Not long after his birth, his family moved to Rego Park, in Queens, New York. He presently lives in New York City with his wife Francoise Mouly, and has a grown daughter Nadja. Art is also an acclaimed artist, with drawings featured in museums and galleries in the United States and overseas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Spiegelman
Plot Summary:
Art Spiegelman, the son of Holocaust survivors, asks his father to relate his gruesome story of survival, so he can write about it. Vladek, Art's father, starts his tale with the meeting of his wife in a small town in Poland. The story continues to detail the ever growing harsh conditions that the Nazis forced upon his family, his parents, and his in-laws. Vladek describes awful details of the Holocaust, and Vladek relates the many disappearances, murders, and atrocities committed against his family and the Jews. The story line continues all the way to the moment that Vladek is shipped away in cattle cars to the infamous concentration camp of Auschwitz. Both history and actual present day conversations between Art, his father Vladek, and step-mother Mala are seamlessly woven together throughout the book. There are also references to Art's own depression and mental breakdown, and the tragic story of his mother's depression and eventual suicide.
Critical Evaluation:
Dark and heavy, this Holocaust story is told honestly and plainly. Spiegelman intersperses the sorrowful prose with the real conversations he had with his father and stepmother when learning about his family's history. All of this adds a realistic element to the novel. The book is narrated by the author, offering the audience a glimpse into the unique perspective of a holocaust survivor's child. The hand-drawn pictures only add to the poignancy of the narration, and the expressions on the cartoon character's faces in each frame are as integral to the telling of the story as the actual words themselves.
Spiegelman also utilizes symbolism when drawing the harrowing tale of his parents. Each race is depicted as different animals, apropos to their corresponding characteristics. The Jews are mice, hence the title of the book, and the Nazis are cats. This is a metaphor to the hatred cats have for mice, which to a small degree represents the hatred the Nazis had for the Jews. The heroes of the story, the Americans, are drawn as dogs, a loyal and trustworthy animal. This is the opposite of the Poles, who were depicted as pigs, after proving to be almost as anti-Semitic as the Nazis. This use of symbolism only enhances the story, adding another layer of interest and complexity.
Art Spiegelman, the son of Holocaust survivors, asks his father to relate his gruesome story of survival, so he can write about it. Vladek, Art's father, starts his tale with the meeting of his wife in a small town in Poland. The story continues to detail the ever growing harsh conditions that the Nazis forced upon his family, his parents, and his in-laws. Vladek describes awful details of the Holocaust, and Vladek relates the many disappearances, murders, and atrocities committed against his family and the Jews. The story line continues all the way to the moment that Vladek is shipped away in cattle cars to the infamous concentration camp of Auschwitz. Both history and actual present day conversations between Art, his father Vladek, and step-mother Mala are seamlessly woven together throughout the book. There are also references to Art's own depression and mental breakdown, and the tragic story of his mother's depression and eventual suicide.
Critical Evaluation:
Dark and heavy, this Holocaust story is told honestly and plainly. Spiegelman intersperses the sorrowful prose with the real conversations he had with his father and stepmother when learning about his family's history. All of this adds a realistic element to the novel. The book is narrated by the author, offering the audience a glimpse into the unique perspective of a holocaust survivor's child. The hand-drawn pictures only add to the poignancy of the narration, and the expressions on the cartoon character's faces in each frame are as integral to the telling of the story as the actual words themselves.
Spiegelman also utilizes symbolism when drawing the harrowing tale of his parents. Each race is depicted as different animals, apropos to their corresponding characteristics. The Jews are mice, hence the title of the book, and the Nazis are cats. This is a metaphor to the hatred cats have for mice, which to a small degree represents the hatred the Nazis had for the Jews. The heroes of the story, the Americans, are drawn as dogs, a loyal and trustworthy animal. This is the opposite of the Poles, who were depicted as pigs, after proving to be almost as anti-Semitic as the Nazis. This use of symbolism only enhances the story, adding another layer of interest and complexity.
Genre: Non-Fiction, Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction, Holocaust
Curriculum Ties: History - Holocaust, Jewish History
Booktalking Ideas:
1. Vladek tells the story of how his family was tortured and killed by the Nazis. How do you feel about the atrocities committed against the Jews by the Nazis?
2. Art grew up in a home where both parents were Holocaust survivors, one of them so depressed that she killed herself. What would you do if your parent was a Holocaust survivor with a lot of emotional pain?
Reading Level/Interest Age: 15 +
Curriculum Ties: History - Holocaust, Jewish History
Booktalking Ideas:
1. Vladek tells the story of how his family was tortured and killed by the Nazis. How do you feel about the atrocities committed against the Jews by the Nazis?
2. Art grew up in a home where both parents were Holocaust survivors, one of them so depressed that she killed herself. What would you do if your parent was a Holocaust survivor with a lot of emotional pain?
Reading Level/Interest Age: 15 +
Challenge Issue: none
Why I chose this item: This is a unique and true Holocaust survivor's tale, but written in comic book form.
Further Series Reading: Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
