IB

S1/H1 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Area of Exploration: Readers, writers and texts
Concepts: Identity, Culture, Creativity, Communication, Perspective, Transformation,
Representation
Global Issues: Culture, identity and community, Beliefs, values and education, Politics, power
and justice, Art, creativity and the imagination, Science, technology and the environment.

Maus, by Art Spiegelman

Introduction
The story of a survivor’s tale and the story of how it was told.

Maus is a story within a story: Art Spiegelman, the son of two survivors of the Holocaust, tells
how he interviewed his father Vladek about his father's Holocaust experience, and he also tells
the story of the father's persecution and survival. It is written in a comic book format, with
various types of animals representing the various nationalities (and religions: Jews are generally
mice, no matter what nationality they are).

The story of:
• Vladek and Anja’s survival
• Artie’s struggle to understand his family origins and himself
• Addressing past concerns
- death of his brother (aged 3) by poison
- suicide of his mother
- murder of European Jews
• Broken relationship of Vladek and Artie
• Difficulty of working through a traumatic past
• an allegory for human suffering

Three main topics
• The telling of stories (how and why we tell stories)
• Personal, human experiences of WWII
• What is humanity? What humans do to each other.

Art Spiegelman has expanded the literary form and found a new way of imagining the Holocaust
in comic form. Although Maus includes elements of humour and suspense, the horror it
envisages is a horror that happened, a horror perpetuated by real people against millions of
other real people. This is a horror whose contemplation inevitably forces us to ask what human
beings are capable of perpetrating - and surviving. (Random House notes)

After reading, answer the following in full, detailed sentences:

How do you think Vladek and Anja survive Auschwitz?
They survive due to their resourcefulness and Vladek’s intelligence. For example, Vladek
taught English to a Nazi whom he ultimately befriended. Furthermore, Vladek’s ability to
fix shoes, allowed the female general to act in a nicer way towards Anja.
Why do you think Anja kills herself?
Anja may not have been able to come to terms with all the death faced during the
holocaust. Additionally, she lost her son, Richieu in the war. This may have been very
difficult to deal with.
Explain what you believe will happen to Vladek and Mala’s marriage.
It seems as though Mala and Vladek’s marriage will not last. This is because Vladek
thinks that Mala has only married him for his money. Mala had also given Vladek an
ultimatum to change his ways. Vladek however seems unlikely to change.
What will happen with Vladek and Art’s relationship? Why?
 I think their relationship will improve. Despite Vladek’s irritant nature, Artie now
understands what he had gone through during the war. When -writing the book, Artie
learns to empathise with Vladek.
Why did Spiegelman write this book? Why did he call it Maus?
He wrote the book to educate the preceding generations about the hardships the Jews
faced during WW2. “Maus” is the German word for “Mouse”. This immediately points out
the way Jews were viewed by the Germans.
Why did Spiegelman portray his father’s story as a comic strip?
It makes the story more dramatic. Helps to add more conversation between the father
and son.
Maus portrays the Holocaust as a genocide. A genocide is a deliberate and
systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group. What other
genocides are you aware of?
• Native Americans (1400-1924)
• Holodomor (1932-1933)
• Cambodian (1975-1979)
• Rwandan (1994)
• Greek Genocide (1914-1922)
How did people survive in Poland in WW2? How do you think the survivors felt
after the war and why?
Soviet Forces liberated Poland by the end of January 1945. About 350,000 Polish Jews
Survived the Holocaust. By the end most Polish, like Anja, must have been severely
depressed since they must have lost a lot of family and friends.
In Maus, Art interviews Vladek about the Holocaust. How reliable do you think
Vladek’s memory is? Why?
Vladek is an unreliable narrator because of his ego and the age at which he tells Artie his
story. This makes the reader suspect Vladek has an overly inflated opinion of himself and
may not be able to view his experiences in the war through the most objective lens. Even
if he relates only the facts, the reader wonders if he's embellishing his experiences to
make himself look better. Vladek's narration is also unreliable because of his failing
memory.
What happens to people who live under a terror regime for a long period of time?
How do they adapt?
They usually learn to adapt. In the book, to avoid the eyes of the Nazis, the Jews learnt to
hide their identity. Many may change religions (i.e. Rohingya Muslims).

Context:
Research the Holocaust and what happened to the Jews during WWII
What happened to the survivors and to their children?


Symbols
Spiegelman chooses to depict the humans in a very inhuman way for deliberate reasons and
effects. The depiction of animals as humans is known as anthropomorphism. This also allows
the readers to question and confront the actions of what the humans can and cannot do. Hitler
said, “ The Jews are undoubtedly a race but they are not human” and he linked the Jews with
vermin.



Author’s
Character Represent Characteristics
purpose
Mice Mice are chased by
Cats (Germans). It is
- Helpless
Jews a metaphor for how
- Anxious the Jews were
treated during
 WW2. They were
hunted.
Pigs Call attention to the
- Helpful fact that they were

Polish - Kind helpful, but only in
a selfish way (for
- Selfish
their money).
Cats
- Predators They were chasing
Germans
- Vicious the Jews.

Dogs
- Friendly They tried to help
Americans
- Resourceful the Jews

The French Man is
friends with Vladek
Frogs
French - Helpful and shares his food
(received from the
red cross)
They were in charge
Fish British of a camp



Story Arc

Introduction
Vladek, a clever, resourceful man is living in Poland. Married Anja, the daughter of a rich father,
who set him up in a house and textile factory. Has a young son, Richieu. Anja suffers severe
postnatal depression and they (Vladek and Anja) travel to a sanitorium in Czechoslovakia to help
her recover, encountering the first hints of the devasting effect of the Nazi regime.

Conflict
Vladek joins the Polish army on the outbreak of war. He becomes a POW. Returns to Poland
which is occupied by the Germans. Conditions worsen. The Germans confiscate the Jews’
property, restrict movement and life. They are moved into ghettoes and finally deported to
concentration camps, where most are gassed but a few survive to work in labour camps.

Complication
Vladek and Anja hide from Germans at Mrs Kawka’s and Mrs Motonowa’s. When they attempt to
escape into Hungary, they are betrayed by the smugglers.

Climax
Vladek and Anja are sent to Auschwitz. They experience the horror and brutality of the camp.
Richieu is poisoned by his aunt.

Resolution
Vladek tries desperately to survive in the concentration camp, using his language skills, his
extraordinary practical skills, his courage and his quickwittedness. He is ever resourceful- works
as a tinsmith, a shoemaker and barters his labour and language skills.
Both Vladek and Anja are transferred to Dachau where conditions are worse than Auschwitz. The
war ends and Anja and Vladek are free. They reunite in their hometown, then move to Sweden
and finally settle in US.

Conclusion
Present. Art records the last words of the story.

Create a Freytag’s Triangle showing the story arc of Maus and what the key events are.

 Act 1: Vladek and his family in Poland living a prosperous life.
Act 2: The horrors of the war. Concentration camp.
Act 3: Vladek and Anja survive, immigrate to US. Anja dies, Art writes Vladek’s story.

Themes

What the theme How it is Example explained: Author’s purpose
means shown: importance
Example
from Text
The Holocaust It is up to the Art writing Showing that it is up to The emotions associated
and the survivors to the book on them to write and talk with writing the novel.
Emphasising on the pain
responsibility of share their top of the about their experiences that it takes to even share
its survivors experiences and graves of to educate the common the story
stories so that the other person no matter the
history will not mice. pain that is caused in
repeat itself. the process.
Family, identity They had hid Wearing the Hide the fact that they Showing that the Jewish
and Jewishness their identities pig masks are Jews needed to give up on their
own identity to survive.

Grief, memory This caused the Anja’s She could not handle To extenuate the suffrage
and love Jews to be Suicide her grief the Jews felt
Depressed
Guilt, anger and The after-effects Relationship he cannot use the book Though his story does not
redemption of the holocaust between art to explore or resolve have a neat or satisfying
ending, Artie must release
and his the deeply conflicted his pain before he can finish
father. After
 Vladek feelings he feels toward his work and move forward
threw away her with his life. Yet it’s
important to note that his
Anja’s Diary gesture of love and
forgiveness does not
completely heal Artie’s
suffering, or that of his
parents.

Death, chance The inhuman Gas The physical and Showing the extent at
and human treatment of the Chambers mental torture Jews which the Nazi’s hatred for
the Jews were.
Interdependence Jews in the faced, knowing that it
Concentration might be their last day.
camps