How I relate to the memoir...

I’ve always been very inserted in history and learning what actually happened and why it happened.  I found this memoir to be really eye opening, as you don’t get the perspective of the holocaust from someone who was actually there everyday. The struggle and loss that occurred during that time is know by most but the deep connection this story has and the amount of personal information given is heart reaching. I don’t have any personal experience to relate to what happed to any of the characters but at the same time I feel for them as if it had happened to me as well. My grandmother was a young teenager during the war and had to work in a bomb factory. No matter where you were in the work the events of the war effected every one and if my great grandparents weren’t farmers and didn’t have to stay to work the fields they could have very well been sent to fight in Europe and may not have ever retuned. A lot of people aren’t here today because they never got the chance because either a husband or a son didn’t make it and never came home to create a family.  Just like Vladek lost a son and Arty lost a brother he never even knew. An innocent child that had barley taken his second breath in the world lost forever. This story is moving, informative and inspiring, making me value everything  I’ve had and will receive.

Figure 1

Figure 1: DWAC. (n.d.). Women and War. [virtual image]. Retrieved Apr 3, 2015 from http://dwac.ca/press/readingRemembranceResource2007.html

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>.

Maus | Theme

Landa’s Rat Speech | Inglourious Basterds | Script

Landa: Now, if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk. But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat. The Führer and Goebbels's propaganda have said pretty much the same thing, but where our conclusions differ is I don't consider the comparison an insult. Consider, for a moment, the world a rat lives in. It's a hostile world, indeed. If a rat were to scamper through your front door right now, would you greet it with hostility?

Perrier LaPadite: I suppose I would.

Landa: Has a rat ever done anything to you to create this animosity you feel towards them?

LaPadite: Rats spread diseases. They bite people.

Landa: Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that's some time ago. I propose to you, any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Would you agree?

LaPadite: Oui.

Landa: Yet I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels that you do with rats, do you?

LaPadite: No.

Landa: But they're both rodents, are they not? And except for the tail, they even rather look alike, don't they?

LaPadite: It's an interesting thought, Herr Colonel.

Landa: Ha! However interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to walk in here right now, as I'm talking, would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk?

LaPadite: Probably not.

Landa: I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them; all you know is you find them repulsive. Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere he would hide. But there's so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Führer's brought me off my Alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity.

There is a consistent theme portrayed throughout the memoir, that being the utilization of animal personification. In this video, Landa (the Nazi detective) compares the Jew’s to a rat, and the Nazi to a hawk, searching for their prey; ‘A rat does not necessarily do anything wrong, they are just seen as repulsive, a prejudice and segregated species/ humans of society that are forever treated different, lack respect, and are continuously exterminated’. It seems as though reflecting back among the events that took place during World War II is to be best illustrated and understood through the format in which the majority of civillians witness in today’s day and age.  

Reference List |

Esipova, M. (2013, Oct 3). Landa’s rat speech / Inglorious Basterds [Video file]. Retrieved Mar 26, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTFdjs_QGWc

Annotated Bibliography

Part A (Author Biography):

Art Spiegelman. (2015). Comic Book DB. Retrieved from http://comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=5328

            This website discusses Art Spiegelman’s life story, including his upbringing, his growing up career, his accomplishments, and the work he has produced. It gives a good description of the people that Art Spiegelman has worked with and his most successful work that resulted in his career to take off.

Beale, Alicia. (2010, May 20). Review of Maus I. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15196.Maus_I.

Beale’s review provides useful insights into the overall reception of Maus I. In particular it presents an opinion with regards to the use of animals to portray the Jews, Nazis and so on using direct quotes from Spiegleman’s work.

Gopinath, Manu. (2012, November 5). About Art Spiegleman-Maus. Retrieved from http://artsmaus.blogspot.ca/2012/11/media-appearances.html.

This article delves into some of the early media appearances of Maus I. It goes through many of the key aspects that changed Art Spiegleman from simply a good writer to a great one. Also, it speaks to Spiegleman’s very interesting thoughts and feelings on religion.

Ray, Michael. (2013, October 10). Art Spiegelman. American author and illustrator. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/681048/Art-Spiegelman

            This is another website that discusses the life of Art Spiegelman. The website content gives a more specific description when explaining the beginning of his life as a student and the early years of his career. It then focuses more on his success during his career and continues to go into detail about the work that he has produced.

Smith, Christopher, Monte. (2014). Indie Bound. Retrieved from http://www.indiebound.org/author-interviews/spiegelmanart
              This is a good link as it is an interview with Art Spiegelmanart. The author is asked questions about how the comic book scene has changed since he started and specific questions based on particular work of his. More importantly he also is asked his earliest inspirations when it came to comics and his most continuing inspiration. At the end of the content, a brief description about who Art Spiegelmanart is and what projects he is currently working on is mentioned. 


Part B (Graphic Memoir Analysis): 

Esipova, M. (2013, Oct 3). Landa’s rat speech / Inglorious Basterds [Video file]. Retrieved Mar 26, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTFdjs_QGWc 

In this video, a Nazi Detective begins to explain to a French Civillian secretly hiding a Jewish family in his house about the true intentions of the War and the hostile treatment towards certain people. He approaches the topic in the same was Spiegelman perceived this event through the representation of animals. I plan to post and analyze this video under the theme of Maus: A Survivor's Tale, and will explain and utilize the similarities between the two in order to contrive a true understanding of this graphic memoir as a whole.
"Maus: Historical Background." Maus: Historical Background. Retrieved Apri 2, 2015, from http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/maus/background.htm
This article is about the historical background of maus and gives a brief insight as to what was going on at the time before and when World War II started. The sub headings like the rise of the Nazi Party, the ghettos, camps and resistance helped to initiate what was going on in the story. I used this knowledge to further expand on the historical context.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Maus: A Survivor's Tale What's Up With the Title?" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Retrieved Apr 1, 2015, from http://www.shmoop.com/maus/title.html

In this article they talk about the title of the memoir and what the title means. The author of the article talks about how Maus is German for mouse and how every one was forced to speak German at the time making t fitting for he title to be in German. This article gave me the information on what the titles means and allowed me to expand on what purpose behind the title and why it was so successful. 

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

In this article it talks about the type of writing style used in Maus. This brief analysis helped me to start my own analysis if voice and tone in the text. The article talks about how the writing is conversational and the use of capitals, bold and italics help to set the tone of the speech.
Stein, A., Gorlewski, K. (2015). Maus - A Survivor's Tale - My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman. [virtual image]. Retrieved Apr 5, 2015 from https://yareviews.wikispaces.com/Maus+-+A+Survivor%27s+Tale+-+My+Father+Bleeds+History+by+Art+Spiegelman  
In this synopses, part 1 of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is summarized as well as analyzed through the scheme and layout of the overall memoir. The information contains a grasp on the content of the memoir that will allow me to put into words of my own interpretation, allowing me a more in-depth understanding of the information given. I plan to utilize the information described about the layout of how the memoir was written; past and present, and apply it to the structural component of of the memoir Maus: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History.

Wikipedia. (2015). Plot (narrative). Retrieved Mar 26, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_%28narrative%29 
Prior to replying to what the overall plot of Maus: A Survivor's Tale I further analyzed what the meaning of a plot was. The definition as well as background information allowed for me to deepen my analyses of the content within the graphic memoir as well as unravel the overall plot of the storey being told. I plan to apply this definition in the beginning of my analyses of Maus: A Survivor's Tale and the overall events that make up this remarkable graphic memoir.

Yahoo, Crow. (2011). Best answer: what was the author’s purpose for writing the book Maus?. Received Apr 5, 2015 from https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110710133338AAPcMae 
In this blog-like website, otherwise known as Yahoo Answers, a person posted a question regarding what the purpose of Maus: A Survivor's Tale was, as a result an in-depth answer was given. A viewer commented on how the purpose of Maus was to allow for the viewer to understand the content of historical events, and envision them through a Holocaust Surviver’s perspective. Reading discussions and questionnaires regarding the content of Maus: A Survivor's Tale allows for me to broader my analyses of the overall purpose of the graphic memoir. I plan to implement this users answer within the perfex of my discussion regarding the overall purpose of Maus: A Survivor's Tale.

Historical Context

The memoir takes place over two timelines. The present, which was during the 1980’s in the United Sates when Art Spiegelman is writing about his fathers story and around 1935 a few years before the beginning of the war until around 1944 in Poland as memories or flashbacks. The major historical event that takes place in this memoir is World War II. They experience the rise of the Nazi Party and the discrimination taken towards the Jews. At first the lower class of Jews who didn’t have money to protect them were slowly taken. This then increased if you were an older citizen, or was sick and didn’t have a lot of prospect of surviving anyways. Homes were taken control of, food was being rationed and every thing that was of great value was hidden so the Nazi’s wouldn’t take it. Once the war finally started and they knew it was time to get out of Poland they spent a lot of their time trying moving form place to place trying to find places to hide and not knowing who they could trust along the way. It was at this time that most Jews were being taken to the concentration camps in Auschwitz where they would be starved and worked until they died or when it was getting too crowded they would be sent to the gas chambers. The first part of the memoir doesn’t reach the end of the war nor does it talk about situations happening in other places in Europe. This being one of the major events in the world’s history makes it interesting to experience the point of view of someone who actually lived through that terrible event. The number of lives lost in the holocaust and the genocide alone makes this story both moving and agonizing at the same time.

Figure 2

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Maus: A Survivor's Tale Book I, Chapter 6 Summary." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/maus/book-1-chapter-6-summary.html>.

"Maus: Historical Background." Maus: Historical Background. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. <http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/maus/background.htm>.

Figure 1: The Hooded Utilitarian. (2011). #5: Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman. [virtual image]. Retrieved Apr 1, 2015 from http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2011/08/5-maus-a-survivors-tale-art-spiegelman/ 

Figure 2: USHMM. (n.d.). Death Marches. [virtual image]. Retrieved Apr 1, 2015 from http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007734