Cat and Mouse

In Maus I, the story is that of Art Spiegelman, who through comics and texts depicts the life of his father’s Holocaust stories and the life he lives today. Using comics to portray his father’s story is a brilliant one in that though Spiegelman did not live through the situation in itself, he creates an image for us throughout the whole story that makes us see the image that went through his mind when his father was informing him of his own stories. In this, we can imagine only what Spiegelman shows us and manipulates us into believing and being able to do that in itself is smart, but using it alongside text really validates the events and also exposes us to the gritty misfortune that was the Holocaust. I specifically remember an image of mice being hung publicly for all of the prisoners to see, and showing us that real image of the Holocaust really changes your perspective on things. We can imagine what the Holocaust would be, but when someone shows us the real thing, its a lot more tangible and relatable. Spiegleman does an amazing job at using this images in his comic to perpetuate the dirty, grimy, and awful place that Auschwitz was in itself.

Though Spiegelman does use animals to portray all of the different races, it does not make it any less real. People perceive animal deaths just as serious as human deaths when it comes to cats and dogs, being the more loyal or traditional pets. When it comes to mice, they are considered vermin and are often sought out to be eradicated. Depicting the Jews as mice and the Nazi’s as cats just perpetuates that even more. Cat kills mouse, that’s how it goes, and mice are constantly trying to hide from cats. The Nazi’s were disgusted by the Jews and wanted them eliminated and Jews constantly hid from the Nazi’s, just like the cat versus mice relationship. Using this common relationship known in a variety of cultures makes this story simple to understand but also makes you work for some of the hidden meanings and metaphors behind the characters.