Voice & Tone

The voice in Maus mostly consists of Art and his father Vladek talking, switching back and forth with their dialogue. Its very easy to know who is talking and to really hear how they would be expressing what they are saying because of the way a graphic novel is set up. Not having any thing written about how a place looks and having to constantly be writing who is talking the beauty of a graphic novel is all that work is done though the images. With most of the taking coming from Art and Vladek we get two different feeling when hearing them speak. Arty being raised in the US has the speech patterns of an America, where Vladek who grew up in Poland and surrounding areas in Europe has a different speech pattern and some of his words are missing because English is not his first language. The tone you hear in both of their voices is very solemn yet still holds interest and intent. The topic can be very difficult to talk or even write about but the openness that Vladek had made the content flow much easier allowing the tone to come across clear while also not having the sound of resentment towards any events that happened. You can tell that Vladek had come to terms with what had happened about the war. Arty on the other had the sound of an underlying struggle in his dialect. He wanted to get the story written and tried very much to stay professional but when ever the story related back to him there was a sadness that came out. So subtle though that only after reading the memoir for a second time could you tell. The other element that helped was the expression that was on the characters face. Even though the draings were simple the emotion was captured and helped change the tone and the voice entirely.

In this video we hear Art talking about the process when interviewing his father and some of the struggles he faced. A recording is played from when Vladek was telling Art his story and we get to hear Vladek’s voice. Although it is hard to understand what he is saying exactly you can tell that Art was able to capture the essence of his father voce in his writing.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRS6OyZpjRQ

Reference List

helviefoc. (2012 Feb 13). Interviewing Vladek-Maus.mov [Video file]. Retrieved Apr 5, 2015 from http://dwac.ca/images/remembrance/2007/munitionsWorkers.jpg

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Maus: A Survivor's Tale Writing Style." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 4 Apr. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/maus/writing-style.html>.