07_ Legitimation

        Maus is a graphic novel that I have seen everywhere yet had never read before. I have also read and watched many stories about the Holocaust and all are powerful in their own way. Maus has been different though. A graphic novel is a powerful way to convey the Holocaust for all of the reasons we have learned up to this point. 

        Maus is created around symbolism. When I read this novel it actually reminded me of Pink Floyd’s Animals  album. The symbolism is similar in terms of hierarchy, just a couple animals exchanged. The pigs are always the leaders of government and essentially corruption. They sit at the top feasting on their wealth and power which makes them the glutenous pig. Rather than the dogs Spiegelman uses cats. Treated the same, cats are also ones with power just at a smaller level. They essentially work under the pigs to achieve the same goal of greed and power. Then lastly, rather than sheep, we have the mice. The expendable mice who must hide from the cats to not be hunted. This symbolism is very powerful and accurate to display hierarchy. 

        The use of a graphic novel to portray the Holocaust or any significant matter is perfect. We have all seen live action movies of tragic events and they are definitively hard to endure. As the viewer we place ourselves in other shoes and that helps make them feel powerful. The graphic novel point of view can be just as powerful if not more. Graphics can visually exaggerate the message to empower the tone. Also, the simplicity of the characters allows us to feel more connected with them. 

Through the mice, Spiegelman has brought us to such a personal level of his own life. There is so much power as I follow what his family endured at the time. Not only that but we experience the effect it had on the children and further generations of those survivors. As he tells the stories he does not seem to hold back life movies often do. People are afraid to see the truth but as a graphic novel he can draw and say whatever he desires. He doesn’t hold back on the details and horrible things that happened and I respect that. 

        I think that the Holocaust will always be remembered although it is losing interest. I have seen so many different movies and variations about it which are all sad but at the same time it gets old. There’s needed to be something new that can entice the viewer while keeping the general story and accuracy. This doesn’t mean I need more gruesome details but simply another take of the subject. We always need something new to keep us interested. Spiegelman does this perfectly. He took the subject that had been losing views and successfully remade the stories through the eyes of his own family.