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Maus Research

http://www.gradesaver.com/maus/study-guide/major-themes/

Although this seems like a very cheesy source to use for an outside analysis of Maus II, I feel that there are very good points and themes that are discussed that shed light on Spiegelman and the Holocaust. One of the themes talked about was guilt, in “Art’s feeling of guilt over not being a good son” and feeling guilty over “the publication of Maus”. From the beginning of the novel it was shown that his father and he did not get along and things were always tense between them. The publication of Maus was four years after his father’s death and he hoped that publishing his dad’s story would help the pain that was between them. However, things did not help and Spiegelman felt that “’[his] father’s ghost still hangs over [him]’”. This also ties in with survivor’s guilt, in that Art was not a part of the war so he never experienced the struggles both his parents suffered through. The struggle effected Art’s dad greatly and it was evident in both books that is wore on Art in that he said, “’ I wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents so I could really know what they lived through! I guess it’s some form of guilt about having had an easier life than they did’”.

Another theme that was discussed in this online analysis was the distinction of race and class. Giving Jews the personification of a mouse, Germans as cats, and the Americans as dogs gave the biggest distinction between everyone and showed the hatred in real life towards one another because cats eat mice and dogs attack cats. This metaphor is an attempt to explain an existing social stratification, while other aspects suggest this is an illusion. This is most clearly illustrated when Spiegelman is having doubts about the animal metaphors that form the backbone of the story. Here, people are still characterized by animals based on race, but these characterizations are now clearly only masks that have been tied to their heads with a bit of string. Thus the idea of race is only an artifice, Spiegelman suggests, and “underneath the masks we are all essentially the same”.