Maus Exiled From Home

“Maus” Exiled From Home

Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus” describes War II and what happened between the Nazi’s and the Jews during the time. Due to the comic book style of the novel it is like you are actually listening to a Holocaust survivor describe his tail of survival and hope. Using his own father’s story, Spiegelman shows the reader, step by step, how his father, Vladek and mother, Anja struggled to survive in Nazi Germany.

Vladek and Anja are exiles in their own country, forced out of their homes and into ghetto’s where they can be with others “their kind”. Not only were they exiled from their country but they were exiled from being viewed as a human. They were no longer equals, they were Jews. Their identity was marked with a pin of the Star of David and all had to wear this symbol or they would be killed. Spiegelman shows the reader this labeling system by drawing them in on all of his Mice. This is one of the advantages he has with writing in this graphic novel style, he can show something as well as write it for the reader to get a clearer picture of what really happened.