This story was a groundbreaking story. Maus is a story about the time in Germany where the Jews were a target, the Holocaust. One thing I noticed with the story is the abundance of words. It's a comic book style read, but the expression in the drawings are lacking. Unlike a lot of comics up to this point, it's not really considered a 'fun' or 'light' read. It highlights topics that can be considered controversial and is seen as extremely serious. If anything this book can be seen as a teaching tool or aid to conversation on the Holocaust.
One thing I thought about while reading this was why the author chose mice instead of any other kind of depiction. One thought I had was that he was trying to symbolize with a creature that comes in numbers. Where there is one mouse, there's most likely a family or colony of hundreds or more. For more perspective I like to think of maybe 5 mice to every human, so that in fact would be a lot of mice.
This is a nice transition from Underground Comics which were seen as vulgar and inappropriate. Underground comics sort of broke the stereotype that all comics are light easy reads for children. Underground comics paved the way for comics to cater to more than one audience. Maus set the stage for themes that are a bit more serious. Maybe the aren't quite inappropriate but it's meant for a more mature audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment