Maus
Art Spiegelman
Risk Taking Researcher
Rotation #1
Pages 5-71
On this graphic novel, I felt like the author was really incorporated into the story, not only because I saw its last name mentioned several times in the book, but I also see references about him. Due to that I decided to research on it. So what I found was born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev on February 15, 1948. He was a comic strip writer, but then he started working on very long comic books, about his father's experience as a Holocaust survivor. On the book Maus, he makes Nazis as Cats, Jews as Mice, and ethnic Poles as pigs. He took thirteen years to complete the book, so he finished it in 1991.
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Now that I knew a little bit more about the author, I wanted to know more about the book, so I researched about the book. So on the book it is the story about Spiegelman interviewing his father on how he had survived the Holocaust. Also, Maus was described as a mix of many different genres. The story also revolves around his relationship with his father. The story also depicts to the part since before the World War II. before Maus was a three page strip in 1972, but now it has been developed into a whole book.
Jorge,
ReplyDeleteI read you blog post and it made me wonder. Why did the author choose to make jews mice, polish pigs and nazis as cats? It is obvious that he chose cats to hunt mice, but I think the connection is deeper than that. I would like to hear your opinion on the topic.
Hope this help push your understanding,
Heitor
Great post,
ReplyDeleteWhile doing my own research I have found that the book weaves through two time periods of him interviewing his father and the time period his father was in. Why do you think this is? I think that he decided to show the effects the Holocaust had on people in the present time as well as the past. Spiegelmans father has lived in both periods and has been influenced greatly by it but he can still be talked to as a normal person. This is something that shows the impact of these terrible times in the past but even though this happened it doesn't make the people any different then how they used to be.
Jorge, I thought that your post was very guiding because your research was very accurate. I thought that the way that you researched first about the book and then about the author was really great. You had two parts to the response, and that initiative was very creative. After all I just have a question, why do you think that author chose the Polish to be pigs? I understand the metaphor between cats and mice, but why pigs? Is it because they are also an intelligent animal race or was it just any random animal chosen? Well, overall, good post and thank you for pushing my thinking forward and clearing somethings out for me.
ReplyDeleteJorge,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! There are some information in your post that I didn't know about.
To begin with, you mentioned that you wanted to research about the author, since he appears throughout the whole book. With what I have read about the book, I can agree that he appears often throughout the story. An example would be in basically any page. The reason being is because the entire book is about the narration of the author's story, so if he is missing in a certain part, it will not make sense.
Now, something that isn't in the post, but I think is interesting is the reason the author might have put himself in the entire book. I didn't research about this reason, but I can hypothesize. I think the author puts himself in the book to transform the audience. Going back to the "This I Believe" project, if you want to transform your audience with your belief, you have to know how to deliver a message. Furthermore, if you deliver the message with evidence, then the audience will be transformed, since there is present evidence to support your thinking, making other people hearing your message to see another point of view, which will transform them. If evidence changes people's ways of thinking, then the author put himself in the book to transform the readers with the evidence containing inside the book.
Another thing you mentioned was that it took 13 years for the author to finish the book. I think this is shocking, since billions of things can be created in 13 years. One example is the iphone. Developers from Apple only took 8 years to design and sell the first iphone, meaning that the author accomplished a lot while writing this book. The reason the author might have taken so long might be because he wanted the illustrations and words proofread and perfect since then the lesson sent from the book would be more impacting to the reader, due to the amazing details it contains.
I hope this enhanced your thinking, and I ask, did the second paragraph I wrote enhance your thinking? The reason I ask this is because your post didn't contain "why the author put himself on the book," so I decided to infer a reason why he might have done that.
In conclusion, I would say that your research made me question more about the author and more curious.
Daniel