Hanging over our heads

Art Spiegelman’s drawings in Maus not only function as a simple visual representation of the Holocaust through his fathers eyes, but he also makes terrific metaphors that bridge the simple lines and curves from a pen on page to the words written as well. History often is written and the photographs are usually posed, since photo taking back then was a luxury and often took a long time. The Holocaust is known for it’s terrifying images of concentration camps and starving Jews, but how often do we find actual depictions of the atrocities in action such as the hangings of innocent Jews in the middle of the ghetto created by the Nazis. On page 84 of Maus I, Art has a wonderful frame that takes up about 25% of the page that depicts how tragic and haunting the murders of the Jews within small communities were. It’s very important to appreciate the overlap and placement of two memories within this one frame. At first glance, it appears just to be Vladek, Anja, and Richieu in a room together with the parents in deep thought about the recent news of the hangings. However, the brilliance shines through when you see that the hanging of Vladek’s fellow business partners and friends literally hangs over his head as he ponders about whether he cheated death himself at the expense of his friends. We all have had that guilt when something bad happens to our friends when it could have been us, and that the guilt hangs over our head for, what seems like, forever. With this drawing of the hanging bodies hanging over Anja and Vladek’s head, this “comic book” is certainly not a thrown together random doodle publishing. The ghastly expressions on Vladek’s publically humiliated and mutilated friends also branch this “comic book” further away from the typical comics that serve only a purpose to amuse and entertain. Typically in visual representations of hangings, most victims are shown only from the knee down. We have a “signifier” of dangling feet that twitch for a few second or a noose with no head in it, as a signified representation of someone being hung. However, we rarely actually see the faces of the victims because they are often the most morbid part of the occurrence. Art punches the reality of death by the noose with this frame by showing expression (even if it’s only drawn in on cartoon mice) of how violent a hanging can be with one of the mouse’s eyes bulging out and the open last gasp of air from the second mouse from the right. Another very important detail with this single frame, is the fact of Richieu being the only lit up character in the frame. Both the parents are under the shadow of death, depression, and guilt, while Richieu still maintains the pure and white depiction of naively playing with his doll right next to the parents despite the recent tragedies.