Maus - Art Speigelman

Maus, a two part graphic novel by Art Speigelman, stands very uniquely amongst the many stories that have been told about the holocaust. While the story does indeed chronicle the survival tale of a survivor, it does it through the lens of his child trying to understand his struggles, and coming to terms with his own difficulties with his father. The conversational back and forth between Art and his father created in me a much more personal connection with the story of the survivor than any that I've experienced through other media portrayals of holocaust survivors. 
Though the story could have been told through any medium fairly successfully, as it is a very personal take on a very written about subject, I believe the medium of comics provided the chance for a visual interpretation that would not have been possible in literature, and would have been simplified and dumbed down in film. Using the visual metaphor of mice to represent the European Jews and cats to represent the SS and the German public was something that added a much deeper level of content to a mostly biographical narrative. Seeing the simplified faces of characters almost gave it a surreal quality in contrast with the brutal nature of the situation, which I think is true to the reality of the holocaust. Instead of being shown the brutality of what happened through photographic qualities, which I feel slowly desensitizes viewers to the truth of what happened, creating emotional tug through the simplified anthropomorphic animals allows the readers to stay engaged and stay empathetic to the situation of the characters throughout the story. It isn't overly dramaticized however, and for that I'm glad as I feel that would not have been appropriate for the type of storytelling Art used. The subtlety of describing the situations his father was faced with I think adds more ability to contemplate the effects a survivor would deal with in trying to carry on with their life.
The other point I believe adds a much more dimensional quality to Maus is the aspect of the story told unfiltered and biographically by Art about his constant struggle with his own father while learning about his story. Similar to Blankets, Art expresses his own feelings and emotions though the dialogues he has with his father and wife, occasionally breaking the forth wall. Particularly in part II, I think this puts an interesting perspective on the story. Towards the beginning of part II, Art speaks as the narrator talking directly to the reader as he is creating the second part of Maus. He describes the difficult questions he gets asked about the first volume of Maus after its release, as well as the weight of responsibility and self criticism he goes through in trying to finish the volume. Its obvious that the largely unspoken and untreated effects of the holocaust have leaked through in his father's treatment of Art growing up, and for this they have always had a tense relationship. By asking his father to detail each and every part of his experiences in the war, it both heightens these tensions, and also brings them into an examination by Art. This adds a level of depth that is much more connectable to most people, who for the most part remain detached from the intense suffering that happened in the holocaust. I especially can relate to this aspect of the story, as one of my closest friends has a father who was raised by holocaust survivors. Unfortunately it is common for most survivors to have raised their children in environments of abuse, and as such my friend's father as carried on such a legacy. Though Art's case isn't quite to the level of abuse, it is clearly not a positive relationship he shares with his father, and it is in this brutal honesty that Maus stands apart from many holocaust tales. 
I think its fair to say from my response that I thoroughly enjoyed Maus, almost as much as Blankets, though that still sticks in me stronger due to the intense connection I have with the experiences of the characters. Maus is very similar in storytelling to Blankets, however I feel it is a little subtler, and in some ways more complex in the relationships of the characters. It is both frustrating to read because of the obviously frustrated relationship between Art and his father, and very empathetic to the situations of survivors and their attempts to live beyond the struggles of the holocaust. I think it has been critically lauded as long as it has for a reason, and I believe it will forever stand out amongst its medium and as a record of the horrible events that occurred in Germany until 1945.