Jewish Literature

Maus

Author: Art Spiegelman
Date: 31/05/19
Event: WW2, Holocaust, Death, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Suffering, Guilt, and Antisemitism
Characters: Art Spiegelman, Vladek Spiegelman, Anja Spiegelman, Richieu Spiegelman, Mala Spiegelman, and others.
Memorable Quote: "If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week... Then you could see what is it, Friends!"

I love reading, but I had never read a graphic novel until I read Maus. I do not know why we tend to think that when a book has pictures, the content is lighter or not that serious; well, that was not the case with this novel. The drawings of mice were cute, but the story that those drawings tell is so heavy that I had to stop reading it once or twice. The story is based on real life and narrates the experiences that Vladek Spiegelman (the author's father) lived during the WW2. 

Everybody knows about the Holocaust and WW2, but at least for me, when I read something new related to it, I get shocked as if it were the first time that I learned from the events that happened, and I felt that with Maus. I knew how the story would go; I knew that the Jewish did not have a chance to escape from their fatal destiny because it is history, but somehow, I hoped for things to change. Honestly, I do not want to say that I enjoyed reading this book due to its content, but the book definitely trapped me like no book in a very long time. In some parts, Maus stopped my heart; in others, it broke it. I felt a tunnel of emotions, and sometimes the story got so raw for me, that I could not even look at the vignettes. That is why I can say that it is a remarkably good book, and it deserves all the recognition that it has received during the years. Also, I am impressed by the openness that Art had to talk about his own life and his father's and to touch such delicate and hurtful topics such as his mother's suicide. He took his father's life and exposed it to the world because it is a story that everybody needs to know about in order to not forget. Stories like Maus remind us that the human being is capable of the most horrible things if he is not careful with his soul. Indeed, there is an old saying: "Who does not know the history is condemned to repeat it." Thus, I believe that all the stories about the Holocaust exist for everybody to know about them, and perhaps avoid the story to be repeated.