Every week it seems I get more behind in my blog posts. The end of the week seems to always sneak up on me.
I really enjoyed re-reading Maus this week. The last time I read it was over ten years ago so it was almost as if I was reading it for the first time. Something that also made reading it again a pleasure was the discussion we had in class this week. There were so many great ideas brought up during discussion. It is always interesting to see what others notice in the book that I may have overlooked. I was especially fascinated by the discussion about the part animal characteristics are part of the story.
Cats, mice, dogs, frogs and pigs are just animals. But when you say any of these animals, inevitably certain characteristics come to mind. For me, when I think of a dog I think loyal, strong, protective. Cats are standoffish and cunning. Mice are disease carriers and gross. Frogs are slimy. Pigs are cute and fat. This is what I think when I hear these animals mentioned. But it was different when I was reading Maus. I saw those mice as shy and helpless. The pigs strike me as piggish, to use a human characteristic. The cats were not house cats but almost vicious Cheshire Cats. I think Art Spiegelman did a wonderful job using animals to represent human nature.
Another thing I did notice about Maus was the fact that it was as much a family story as much as it was a story about the Shoah, to use a term from class. Every child at some point in his or her life wants to understand his or her parents. To understand what makes a parent tick is to understand part of one’s self. By hearing his father’s story, Art Spiegelman hopes to understand his father better. I think that is why he is so upset by his father burning his mother’s notebooks. Because of this act, Art’s mother is now lost to him forever. It makes me realize the importance of getting to know one’s parents while you still can.
