Universidad de los Ángeles

ENSAYO MAUS
 Miguel Ángel Bautista Rondón
Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé
Maus is the story of a survivor that focuses on the holocaust caused by the Second World
War and the experiences of Vladek Spiegelman, the author's father, who based on
interviews and controversial talks, tells an acid story, but above all real, because throughout
the book leads us to a reflection on the human barbarities that occurred in the last century.
The narrative begins with a pre-war Vladek enthusiastic about marrying a young Jewish
girl named Anja, who comes from a wealthy family and refined education, despite some
problems of past love affairs Vladek manages to marry Anja and run with the fortune of
having a son, but Anja suffers a postpartum depression that makes Vladekse takes care of
her completely to overcome this disease, on his return they find a serious problem.
The characters of this graphic novel, revolve around Vladek Spiegelman, Jewish-Polish, the
story is based on two timelines, in a present that changes based on the author's narrative and
a past remembered by Vladek, his experiences before, during and after the holocaust, the
characters are graphically characterized by animals, representing each of them by their
culture and country of origin, Jews-Mice, Poles-Pigs, Germans-Cats, French-Frogs and
Americans-Dogs.
It all begins in Poland, in the year 1937. Vladek tells his son how was his life in
Częstochowa before the war, one day he meets his mother Anja on a trip to Sosnowiec, a
few months later he decides to move to this town to marry her and work in the textile
factory sponsored by his father-in-law, also at this stage Richieu was born, Anjasufre a
postpartum nervous breakdown, so the couple went to a mental health center in
Czechoslovakia, at that time, already controlled by the Nazis.
Vladek is recruited by the army and later captured by the Nazis, after a few months he
manages to return to Sosnowiec with his family but the city was already invaded, they
spend this stage hiding in several forts built by themselves, but little by little the situation
gets worse and his family is reduced until only he and Anja are left, in this stage of the
story the author describes his father as the typical greedy Jew molded by the ghosts of the
war that haunt him all his life.
One day Art returns to his father's house and realizes that his father is a little indifferent to
him, then Mala, his father's partner, tells him that she found an old comic he made several
years ago about the death of his mother, undoubtedly one of the most tragic and shocking
experiences that the author relates, his father only accepts what he did to solve his mother's
guilt.
Vladek and Anja begin from that moment a long and dangerous journey fleeing from the
Nazis. But finally they are captured and taken to Auschwitz. Vladek recounts the misery
and penury in the camp, his strategies to avoid being executed and to communicate with his
wife at this stage Vladek manages to describe graphically and sentimentally everything that
happens to him in Auschwitz, from its beginning until his transfer to the Gross-Rosen camp
and then to Dachau, where Vladek falls ill with typhus and faces an even greater challenge,
to survive the inhuman transfers of thousands of Jews and prisoners across Europe.
Although he later recovers. After the war, the prisoners are released by the Americans and
Vladek returns to Sosnowiec in search of his beloved, for he learns that she survived and
was released long before him. In the end he and Anja are reunited in a finale that the author
dedicates entirely to the memory of his parents, with a heartbreaking and profound story
about the inhuman conditions they lived in.

conclusion
Maus is a completely real account of what the Holocaust was, it describes a humanity
devastated by the genocides that occurred in the last century and leaves us a message about
what happens when everything is gone and we only have the hope of surviving for those we
love, but at the same time, even though everything is completely tragic, there is still
humanity in those survivors who suffered from all this invasion in their lives as the author
describes with his introspection about his father, his mother and its repercussions on his
present.