Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds (Maus Series, 1)
Art Spiegleman, 1986
Knopf Doubleday
160 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780394747231
Summary
The first installment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust” (Wall Street Journal) and “the first masterpiece in comic book history” (The New Yorker).
A brutally moving work of art — widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written — Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.
Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 15, 1948
• Where—Stockholm, Sweden
• Raised—Queens Borough, New York, New York USA
• Education—Harpur College
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Art Spiegelman is a Swedish-born American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel Maus. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines Arcade and Raw has been influential, and from 1992 he spent a decade as contributing artist for The New Yorker, where he made several high-profile and sometimes controversial covers. He is married to designer and editor Francoise Mouly and is the father of writer Nadja Spiegelman.
Family background
Art Spiegelman's parents were Polish Jews. In Spiegelman's Maus, from which the couple are best known, Spiegelman used the spellings "Vladek" and "Anja", which he believed would be easier for Americans to pronounce. The surname Spiegelman is German for "mirror man."
In 1937, the Spiegelmans had one other son, Rysio (spelled "Richieu" in Maus), who died at the age of five or six. before Art was born. During the Holocaust, Spiegelman's parents sent Rysio to stay with an aunt with whom they believed he would be safe. In 1943, the aunt poisoned herself, along with Rysio and two other young family members in her care, so that the Nazis would not take them to the extermination camps.
After the war, the Spiegelmans, unable to accept that Rysio was dead, searched orphanages all over Europe in the hope of finding him. Spiegelman talked of having a sort of sibling rivalry with his "ghost brother"—he felt unable to compete with an "ideal" brother who "never threw tantrums or got in any kind of trouble." Of 85 Spiegelman relatives alive at the beginning of World War II, only 13 are known to have survived the Holocaust.
Early life
Spiegelman was born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 15, 1948. He immigrated with his parents to the US in 1951. Initially the family settled in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and then relocated to Rego Park in Queens, New York City, in 1957.
Spiegleman began cartooning in 1960 and imitated the style of his favorite comic books, such as Mad. At Russell Sage Junior High School, where he was an honors student, he produced the Mad-inspired fanzine Blase. He was earning money from his drawing by the time he reached high school and sold artwork to the original Long Island Press and other outlets.
His talent was such that he caught the eyes of United Features Syndicate, who offered him the chance to produce a syndicated comic strip. Dedicated to the idea of art as expression, he turned down this commercial opportunity. He attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan beginning in 1963. He met Woody Gelman, the art director of Topps Chewing Gum Company, who encouraged Spiegelman to apply to Topps after graduating from high school.
After he graduated in 1965, Spiegelman's parents urged him to pursue the financial security of a career such as dentistry, but he chose instead to enroll at Harpur College to study art and philosophy. While there, he got a freelance art job at Topps, which provided him with an income for the next two decades.
Spiegelman attended Harpur College from 1965 until 1968, where he worked as staff cartoonist for the college newspaper and edited a college humor magazine. After a summer internship when he was 18, Topps hired him for Gelman's Product Development Department as a creative consultant making trading cards and related products in 1966, such as the Wacky Packages series of parodic trading cards begun in 1967.
In late winter 1968 Spiegelman suffered a brief but intense nervous breakdown, which cut his university studies short. He has said that at the time he was taking LSD with great frequency. He spent a month in Binghamton State Mental Hospital, and shortly after he got out his mother committed suicide following the death of her only surviving brother.
Career
Spiegelman began his career with the Topps bubblegum card company in the mid-1960s, which was his main financial support for two decades; there he co-created parodic series such as Wacky Packages in the 1960s and the Garbage Pail Kids in the 1980s.
He gained prominence in the underground comix scene in the 1970s with short, experimental, and often autobiographical work. A selection of these strips appeared in the collection Breakdowns in 1977, after which Spiegelman turned focus to the book-length Maus, about his relation with his father, a Holocaust survivor.
The postmodern book depicts Nazis as cats, Jews as mice, and ethnic Poles as pigs, and took thirteen years until its completion in 1991. It won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and has gained a reputation as a pivotal work, responsible for bringing scholarly attention to the comics medium.
Spiegelman advocates for greater comics literacy. As an editor, a teacher at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and a lecturer, Spiegelman has promoted better understanding of comics and has mentored younger cartoonists.
Personal
Spiegelman married Françoise Mouly, and the couple has two children together: a daughter Nadja, born in 1987, and a son Dashiell, born in 1992. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/27/2017.)
Book Reviews
Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a Holocaust memoir with a remarkable difference.… Mr. Spiegelman brings considerable humor to the telling of his story.… Maus is a comic book! Yes, a comic book complete with word balloons, speed lines, exclamations such as "sob," "wah," "whew" and "?!," and dozens of techniques for which I simply lack the terminology.… The style is eclectic, echoing everything from "Krazy Kat" to "Gasoline Alley." Naturally, the effect of treating such a subject this way is shocking at first. But with a speed that is almost embarrassing to confess, this reader was transported back to the experience of reading World War II comics such as "Blackhawk" or "Captain Marvel."… But the impact of what Mr. Spiegelman has done here is so complex and self-contradictory that it nearly defies analysis.
Christopher Lehmann Haupt - New York Times
Discussion Questions
The questions below have been submitted to LitLovers by our Associate, Jennifer Johnson, M.A., M.L.I.S. a Reference Librarian at the Springdale (Arkansas) Public Library. Thanks, as always, Jennifer.
1. After reading Maus, what did you think of the story? How did the format assist in telling of the narrative? Do you think the story could have been told without the visual component? If so, in what way?
2. The narrative is told through the voice and drawings of Art Spiegelman. What differences can we see between the younger and older Vladek Spiegelman? Consider the differences in dialect, communication, and body language.
3. Consider the graphic novel format — how does Art utilize the format to the best of his ability? What cultural cliches can be identified throughout the book?
4. Spiegelman decided to dehumanize the story by representing the people with animals — Germans were cats, Jewish persons were mice, Polish persons were pigs, French persons were frogs, British persons were fish, and Swedish persons were reindeer. How does Spiegelman ensure these animal representations have human characteristics?
5. For many, we know that the Holocaust consisted of disbelief and rumors of what the Nazis were doing, Jewish persons assisted the Nazis in hope of being saved, and many hid in hopes of being safe. What known facts are discussed in Maus and, as a result, provide the academic community with more proof of the horrifying, unimaginable tragedies that occurred during WWII?
6. Consider the main relationships that occur throughout the narrative — how can those relationships be reflective of each other, both in past and present?
Vladek and Anja and Vladek and Mala?
Vladek and Richieu and Vladek and Art?
7. Even in the most difficult parts of the narrative, does Vladek and the other Holocaust victims find ways to survive and hold on to hope? If yes, give examples.
8. Throughout the book, the reader experiences various story parallels — consider the health of Vladek? Is there any foreshadowing that occurs early in the narrative to suggest the outcomes for both the young and old Vladek?
9. What is the role of family in the narrative? How does the familial structure change as the War and Holocaust progress? What all do they lose?
10. What is the role of the "Prisoner on the Hell Planet"? Why do you think the author choose to include this in his father’s narrative?
11. Spiegelman includes various moments of humor throughout his graphic novel. Was the humor used appropriately? What do you think was the purpose of the humor?
12. What did you think of the role of Anja in the narrative? How does her presence in the story compare / contrast to the role of Mala?
13. How did the actions of Vladek during the War change him into the difficult and combative parent known by his son?
(Questions submitted to LitLovers by Jennifer Johnson, M.L.A., M.L.I.S., Reference Librarian, Springdale Public Library. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)