On our first day back from “snowmageddon,” or whatever term you prefer to describe last week’s events, we caught up on the updated calendar and learned why 5 paragraph essays suck. More importantly, we talked about our Maus Tracing assignments which are due next week Tuesday and what “gutter boxes” meant.

For our Tracing assignments, we need to keep in mind why we chose those 2 pages out of the Maus series and what they mean to you, and what stands out to you. Also, do not be scared to use “I” in your essays, after all the essay is about why YOU liked the pages. It would be very, very redundant to use “one” in place of the more appropriate “I” to include yourself in the essay. It is better to write an inductive than a deductive one since it helps us formulate bigger ideas about a work that we might have not realized before. Noticing patterns and explaining them is an important aspect of this essay, as well.

An important article we found about why Mr. Spiegelman chose mice to represent Jews in his story: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/oct/20/why-mice/. This page describes that the oppression of the Jews was similar to containing “vermin”, or rats. The Jews that were caught during the Holocaust were put in concentration camps in “swarms”, or in extremely crowded conditions, where they were then gassed. As the Readers pointed out this week, Art Spiegelman had frequent encounters with his family’s Holocaust history in his dreams and sought to find peace of mind in being able to understand his origins better.

Here are some similarities and differences we found on Tuesday between Fun Home and Maus:

Similarities and differences between Maus and Fun Home.

1. 1st person

2. Explicit (F.H.)

3. Ornate language(F.H.)

4. Relationships with Father

5. Relive memories, envision how it happens

6. Both fathers have some compulsive disorder

Another recurring point in Fun Home:

Theres a reference to the myth of Icarus and his fall. (Daedalus and the minotaur)

(Credit to NYbooks.com for the article)

Spiegelmen writes Maus as an autobiography to illustrate the grieved past of his parents, as survivors of the Holocaust, but also to demonstrate his own relationship with his parents as it was influenced by their hardships in the Holocaust. Art, throughout the comic, uses past and present scenes to demonstrate the influences the Holocaust had not only to those who experienced it first hand, but also to future generations to come. One such example is seen at the end of Maus II, Vladek mistakenly addresses Art as “Richieu” before closing the book. Richieu, was Anja and Vladek’s first born son who died at an early age, as a result of the Holocaust. This may be a subtle hint as to why Art wrote the book. Perhaps he wrote it not only to foretell the life of his father but to add to it a long list of personal accounts. Maus I and Maus II are written as both Art’s and his father’s stories.

Credit goes to: http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2013/12/maus-and-marketing/

In Chapter 2 of Maus II on page 48, there’s a panel depicting Art sitting atop a mound of perished Jews at his art table. He states that he is “depressed” despite his success. Art steps out of the storytelling frame to comment on the fact that the commercial success of his book wasn’t what he was aiming for, or the effects of it didn’t satisfy him enough. At first glance, it may have been seen as a duty to his parents to recall their experiences, but he may have written it as a personal closure and outpouring of how it affected him.