Summative Blog Post #2

Andrew Fischer
Humanities Block 3
December 5, 2014

Book: Maus 

Historical Context Question:

     How did historical events influence the ideas in the novel?  What cultural issues may have influenced, challenged, or inspired the author?

Link

Response: 

      Maus has a lot of influences from historical events. One of the biggest events was when the Nazis started to take over the Jewish communities. This historical event was major in the book, because the citizens haven't heard that the Nazis were invading. They were surprised, because they only heard of the Nazis from a stand point that isn't so bad. He related the Nazis attacking one of the Jewish communities in the book and showed how it happened in this book. 
     Also, cultural issues helped inspire the author, Art Spieglman. Some of the cultural issues are when the Nazis gang up on the Jews. He showed how they did it and what the Jewish community did to stop it.

Literary Analysis Question: 

     What theme or themes does the author explore in the novel?  Which passages in the text connect to theme?

Link

Response: 

     There was a lot of themes in Maus. These are the themes that are the most important in the book, warfare, race, and memories from the past. All of these themes create the book and bring it all together. Warfare is all about the war going on while the Nazis were trying to take over the Jews and other countries. Race, is more about racism coming from the Nazis towards the Jewish communities. Also memories from the past is about the stories in the book coming from a generation before us. 

     Warfare, was a big theme in this book. This is because all the Nazis were at war with all the countries they tried to take over and other countries that want to stop them. The countries declared war on the Nazis for killing tons of Jews and for taking over other countries. Germany had created another World War, which crated the biggest warfare in history.

     Another theme was racism. Most of the racism in the book was from the Nazis killing, capturing, and torturing the Jewish community. They did this to them for no reason, they just wanted to do it. That is racist and that was a big part of the book. It was a big part because half of the warfare was from the Nazis racism towards the Jewish community. 

     The biggest theme in the book is memories. Memories are a big part in the book because the whole book is based off of memories from war veterans that had experienced the war itself. The person telling the story was a World War II veteran and had experienced a lot through the warfare. He tells about everything that happened to him. He made it through the war, the concentration camps, and all the other horrible things happening in World War II.