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Most important panel in Maus Ch. 1-2

Posted by Nikki

In my opinion, the most important panel from first 2 chapters of Mausby Art Spiegelman in chapters 1 and 2 would be on page 23, where Artie, the son of Vladek Spiegleman, urges his father to truthfully and thoroughly tell his story about the Holocaust because it “…makes everything more real–more human” (23). This sparks the story of Vladek Spiegleman and his wife and how they survived Hitler’s Europe during World War II, which is one of the major plot lines of the whole novel. The next few chapters were a detailed account of Vladek’s experiences with the Nazis and living in Europe during World War II.

Important panel in Maus I

Posted by David

Page 23, 3rd panel

On this page, the author’s dad is recounting the story of his marriage to Anja months later after his relationship with a wild girl named Lucia ended. Though this panel is not necessarily indicative of how Jewish people were treated–which is a major theme in the book, this panel shows that the victims of the holocaust had ordinary lives like we do today, and that at one moment, the way they saw the world was completely overturned. This shows us that the simple maus characters we see in the panels are actually telling something very deep and personal.

 

Maus Chapter 1+2 Discussion.

Posted by Eric

Upon reading the first two chapters of Maus, I found one panel to be particularly peculiar. This was on page 29. In page 29 Anja was just shown to have been translating Communist documents into German for someone, and this was illegal. In order to not get sent to jail, Anja’s father-in-law had Miss Stefanska paid off in order to keep quiet about Anja’s involvement. He also gave the money and credit to build a textile shop. If Anja was not protected by her father-in-law’s bribe she would’ve gotten sent to jail for a long time. This made it seem like there was some shady business going on with Anja and was the first real sign of secrecy in the book. It is the beginning of a turn in events for Anja as she now might be getting into more trouble as the story unfolds.

http://davidmorgen.org/eng101s14/2014/01/21/most-important-panel-from-first-2-chapters-of-maus/

 

 

Favorite Panel in Maus I Chapters 1-2

Posted by Mike

The panel on page 33 supplies many plot complications and introduces the reader to the main antagonist: Nazis. I specifically enjoyed seeing how different beliefs are drawn as different animals; Jews as mice, innocent civilians as innocent looking cats, and the Nazis as angry cats. The picture in the bottom left corner is a great representation foreshadowing the dominance the Nazis will achieve. With the swastika replacing the sun and the banner in front of the town saying “This town is Jew Free”, the author and illustrator do a great job of emphasizing the power the Nazis will soon possess.

MAUS – Chapters 1-2

Posted by Eric

The second panel on page 11 of Maus is the most important panel in the first two chapters. It shows Artie and his father heading up the stairs, and Artie’s thought box reveals that his mother has committed suicide and his father has had two heart attacks. More than any other panel in the first two chapters, this panel has predictive power. A solemn mood is set that is not quite matched by the relatively casual conversation that follows. Obviously Artie and his family have been through terrible hardship, but how exactly that hardship came to be is not at all obvious from the rest of the first two chapters. Artie’s thought that his father, “had aged a lot,” suggests that his father has been changed by the ordeals he went through. This panel foreshadows not only events not told in the first two chapters, but also the true nature of the story as more than just a storytelling effort.

 

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