I chose this as my badge because I thought the fact that the painting is sectionalized by color in a sense represents the different aspects of my self. Overall, I am not that happy with this badge simply because I am not well versed in Picmonkey features and therefore could not do anything extravagant to my badge.

I chose this as my badge because space is a mystery, as am I! Also i think it looks very interesting and cool and would be a fitting badge for my personality.

This picture is funny, I think, and it is an example of the kinds of pictures that I enjoy seeing on the internet. The dogs look so curious.

Credit goes to The Simpsons show (Treehouse of Horror special) and to MeetThyReaper: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67956043@N08/7173808778/in/photolist-bVVDqf-fzmTi-5gBhkN-4fwLQL-cvLp9w-59XpS8-5a2BN5-dPnd6V-4PGZGB-gNiWsT-5occwG-2JajM-cernMj-9StWwt-9SwS7m-9StVo6-9StV4a-9StWQr-9SwPQy-9SwRm7-9StX9H-9SwSzE-9SwQ8E-A7LTn-af94zA-9SwSYE-AUfJv-aW6awg-4jBAzC-9tj1wM-bddKVx-57eVfc-65rc4E-7hS8Fy-7S92F9-CproA-9tbFpX-94sjoA-25H87r-25H8ex-25H8dx-25H896-4xEWHJ-4Fwdsz-agRy6y-3jXXsX-7YLR51-9HtxGt-fce9E-fce8S-gSeMCx

On page 23 in Maus by Art Spiegelman, Vladek, a Jewish survivor of Nazi Germany, tells his tragic story to his son Artie.  Vladek begins with his relationship with a girl named Lucia Greenberg.  After Vladek finishes, he asks his son not to put this information in his book.  Artie responds “But Pop – It’s Great Material is makes Everything More REAL – More Human.”  I believe this is so important and crucial to Vladek’s story.  When people read about the Holocaust it is very difficult to understand how vibrant and exciting Jews lives were before the war.  Vladek’s relationship with Lucia allows the reader to relate to Vladek before the war starts.

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

The panel that caught my attention more than others was the top one on page 35. In this panel, Vladek is in a ballroom setting, dancing with his wife. Surrounding Vladek and his wife, who are both depicted as mice, are all different kinds of animals. Spiegelman portrays the Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, and Polish citizens as pigs,and other citizens as rabbits, turtles, and more. The way Spiegelman uses animals to represent the people who experienced the Holocaust, portrays the animalistic nature of the people during this time and the actions that many horrible people were doing during the war. Vladek and his wife were the only Jews in the ballroom, which also shows how outnumbered the Jewish people were during this period.

Page 32, bottom panel:

I found this panel to be quite significant as it shows all the people on the train gazing at the giant swastika flag. Anja and Vladek were on their way to the sanitarium in Czechoslovakia when they spotted it hanging in the center of a town. It caught everyone’s eyes as it was the first time they had seen it. Using hindsight, it would obviously have a huge impact on their near future. They began to speculate what it could have meant, but little did they know just how much it would change their lives forever.

One of the most subtle panels of these two chapters was about the gradual separation between the Jews and their fellow associates caused by the Nazis. Located on page 37, after hearing news of the Nazis’ invasion, Anja remarks in front of her Polish governess about the high temper of the “Poles”. Affronted, the governess calls her out, and Anja apologizes because fear caused unreason. Although only casual conversation dominated this panel, it represented the unconscious polarizing between the citizens from fear of their own safety.

The first chapter of Maus is centered around Vladek telling his son, Art, the story of how he met his mother. While dating Lucia Greenberg, Vladek met Anja Zylberberg during one of his trips to Sosnowiec. After striking up a connection with Anja, he placed a framed picture of her in his apartment, which was soon noticed by Lucia during panel 17. Vladek told Lucia he was going to marry Anja as although Lucia was prettier, looks were not everything to Vladek. This is a key panel in the early chapters of Maus as it is a major  change in the story that he is telling to his son.

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.

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.

Assignment