There are many sides to every story and one of the main
problems with Maus’s story is that all of its content is taken from the same
side, the same person and the same traumatic memories.
On page 101, it is illustrated how fragile people are and
how easily their memories can be manipulated by the emotions they felt at that
time. The red circles show Art’s cousins facial expressions concerned,
hysterically laughing, and then sad. Obviously Art’s cousin wouldn’t actually
laugh at the death of Arts mother but in that moment Art felt as if the world
was against him so he drew his cousin, who in every other frame portrayed as
being negatively affected by this tragedy, as a laughing maniac. The doctor is
also portrayed as an antagonist because he had to deliver the bad news. He
doesn’t say anything unusual but is explaining to Art what has happened and is
therefore portrayed in a negative light.
This shows a large problem for the story of Maus because all
of Maus’s content is taken from Art’s father who was put through a traumatic
experience throughout the holocaust. The emotions he felt throughout the
holocaust cause his memories to be bias and thereby less accurate. I feel that although
the events of Maus are historical, the bias view of Art’s father and the
metaphors woven into the story to accentuate these feeling makes Maus into more
of a historical fiction than a non-fiction novel.
That's an interesting and different interpretation of the genre you think Maus belongs to. I am very interested that you chose this part of the book to analyze, because this book is more focused on his father, we often forget who the real author is. When I was reading this part of the book, I felt strange. I don't know how else to describe it other than strange, but I definitely think that they way Art draws in a biased manner had to be partly responsible for the strange feelings. Your point about how he visually represents the actual reality through his emotions raises a good point about how to categorize the genre that Maus belongs to. The top frame with the doctor's hands position makes it seem like he enjoys delivering bad news, which seems quite biased.
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ReplyDeleteI somewhat understand how you categorize Maus as belonging to the historical fiction genre, but I'm not sure if I agree. You are right when you say we are only receiving one side of the story and one person's interpretation, but I think the interpretation is very real. The events of the Holocaust are facts and this graphic novel is allowing us to see how these events impacted a person, a family. Art's father knows how traumatizing the Holocaust was, which yes can skew his perception of what actually happened, but one cannot deny that what he feels or what he went through. I think showing one person's personal experience with the Holocaust and how it impacted them gives readers and everyone else a better understanding of the event. Art's father's story isn't fiction, because it happened, and it is real to him. We are reading a personalized story of a victim of the Holocaust and I guess I just don't see how that is fiction.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Your analysis is really in-depth and you show a good understanding of what each drawing and its detail add to the overall purpose of Maus. I like how you articulate how something as small as facial expressions, a detail we often look over, develop an entire theme about historical biases and the role of emotion in story telling. I think this is a huge theme throughout the novel and really leads us as readers to question how true a source actually is. I also like your argument of Maus being a "historical fiction". Although I agree, it does indeed add a new twist to the fiction/nonfiction debate with Maus. Well done.
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