Thoughts on MAUS by Spigelman

I had read MAUS by Spigelman few years ago, as a part of my English class, while I was studying back in Canada. The first time I read Maus, I felt lots of heavy emotions.  I guess the reason I felt them was because it reminded me of the struggles that my grandpa and grandma, faced during the differentiation of India and Pakistan. My grand parents lived in Pakistan, before the division of the two countries. They lived peaceful lives until, the time that India and Pakistan had started to drift apart as countries, during this turmoil time, the Pakistan and Indian army had started to resort to the similar routine as Hitler resorted to during the holocaust. Although comparing the two incidents is not justifiable, because The Jews  in Germany before the world war II  were treated unfairly.  But without further indulging into my own family past, lets continue our review on Maus.  Re reading mouse, I can relate to the author better, because in a way his father reminds me a bit of my own ,  who would complain about chores that need to be done around the house but would not like to spend extra money, and would take risks with his health.

MAUS is well written and well illustrated.  Creating the characters as animals and their struggle is a goof way of making the comic more friendly for young adults , while teaching them the truth and experiences  regarding world war II. I find it impressive as a story and as  a graphic novel. One of my favorite parts of Maus was when the main character disguised himself as a pig, to get back to his wife and kids. In a way he was trying to portray that as long as the polish train guard didn’t know that he’s a Jew, he would be helped. This approach is quite remarkable really, because with this approach he gives an example that if your skin color is the same, and as long others don’t know your religion,  people cant  and wont draw any conclusions regarding the matter. He uses several techniques in a way to show that even religious extremism has loops holes that can be exploited, in situations of life and death.