April Willochell-DiSanza English Comp 2 – W2
Art Spiegelman’s - Maus I

Art Spiegelman’s Maus I was a very interesting graphic novel concerning a son learning about his father’s past in surviving the Holocaust. This story was a very descriptive narrative of how Vladek, the father, made it through the war and back home to his family, after enlisting in the army. I think that this story was very iconic of the time. It plays back to the many struggles Jews had at this time and how they must question every action and decision that they had to make. This story is about one of the most horrible times in history and Spiegelman shows us not only how the Vladek made it through the war, but how it impacted him later on in life. There were a few things that stood out to me as ironic in this story. First off, I think the fact that Vladek complains about Mala is very ironic. This is the man who literally went through hell and back to get back to his family and had been in some of the most horrible conditions in his life and he complains about how dry her chicken was. Also, at this point in the story he is complaining to his son about how he does not eat enough and back in his day they were forced to eat everything on their plate, but almost in the same breath he complains about the food. There is also an ironic moment at the end of the story when Archie goes to leave and realizes that his father has thrown his jacket away because it was old looking, only to give him his old jacket to wear because he has a new one. First of all this is ironic for the simple fact that someone who had went without almost anything for years simply throws away a perfectly good jacket. Secondly, Vladek throws away Archie’s old jacket just to give him another old one that does not even fit him correctly. These are just a few of the hints of irony I found in Maus I. The themes in this story are very important to the reader. In the beginning, the theme is about family and how much as father would do to protect this family. Vladek’s father put himself and his sons through a lot in order to make sure that they were not thrown into the service and the war. As the story goes on, the theme turns more to one of survival as Vladek tells his son of all the hardships he had to go through in order to make it back to his family in the war. There were a lot of hardships and points where you think that Vladek might not make it back to his family. I think that the final theme is that a prisoner of war will always try and do the best for his family. I