Question Commander- Round 3- Mari Hopp

Maus
Art Spiegelman
Round 3
Mari Hopp

http://images.vectorhq.com/images/premium/thumbs/148/funny-running-dog-cat-and-mouse_148184471.jpg

1. Why did the author choose the animals to be to the certain animals they are.

What I mean by this question is, that each group of people are a certain animal. Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Polish are pigs, and Americans are dogs. The reason why the author and illustrator decided to use those specific animals is because of how, "theoretically", go after one another outside the book. For example, dogs go after cats, and in the book the americans are the dogs because during the war they went after the Nazis who are the cats. Also, the Nazis go after the mice, that are the Jews. However, the Poles are neutral between all of this, which explains why the author had them be pigs.

image link

2. Why did the author chose to write the story of also showing how it was like to get the story from his father?

I think that the author choose to tell that story too because he wanted to show how his father's life turn out to be. In other words, he wanted to show how the Holocaust had impacted his life, and how he lived during the time that the book was written. In my opinion, I think that it is very important that he wrote about, not only the circumstances his father had to live in during the war, and also how he lives now. Because he chose to show us that there is more to his father's way to live, than just during the Holocaust, it erases some questions from our minds. For example: How does he live now?; What happened to him after the Holocaust and when he came back to America?; And does he live happily ever after now that he is in America?

3. What came through Tocha's head when she decided to kill herself, and the three kids?

What I imagine coming through her head is the thought that she would be saving them from the gas chambers. One thing that is clear, is that Tosha didn't wan't to suffer in the gas chambers because on page 109 she says: "No! I won't go to their gas chambers!... And my children won't go to their gas chambers." The circumstances they were in were horrible, and she had no choice because either way they would die. Going to Auschwitz into the gas chambers, or killing themselves with the poison.