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Me and my bro Mason
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Blog # 2 - Maus Themes
While I was reading Maus, I came upon Prisoner of the Hell Planet. I felt that this section was very different because Spiegelman chose to illustrate humans rather than animals that had been consistent throughout the whole book. I feel that by doing this he is showing just how deeply he was injured by the suicide of his mother. He obviously blames himself for his mother's suicide and has or had tremendous internal turmoil that leads him to believe that everybody blames him. The fact that he shows himself behind bars shows but doesn't specifically say that he is behind bars in his own mind and that he is being put on trial by everyone around him. The dark borders and the menacing characters show the feelings he felt at the time and what he thought people were thinking about him. When I came to this part of the novel, it really let me get into the head of Spiegelman and experience what it would feel like to lose somebody close to you. The most important thing I noticed though was that he chose to use humans rather than animals. I think he did this so he could accurately portray just how terrible and emotional of a time this was in his life.
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I also found it interesting when this section was of humans rather than animals. At first I was just thought well it makes sense that this section would be different since it was a story within a story, but now that I think about it, maybe Spiegelman used humans to that we could relate more to his sorrow over his mother's suicide. That maybe the effect would be more lasting if he showed his true self.
ReplyDeleteI think you brought up a good point that he wanted to portray the real life situation. He wanted the readers to have an emotional effect on how Artie's mother died. He wanted to the readers to connect more with Artie's struggle.
ReplyDeleteThere is something very undeniable and truthful and raw about Artie's portrayal of himself in these off-set black pages. Perhaps to make us, as readers, feel this "truth" he decided to draw himself in true form, rather than in symbol, as he chooses with the "cat and mice" in the rest of the novel. It is difficult to turn away from Artie's pain. We are forced to see it unhindered. I think it's one of the most powerful and disturbing sections of the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe bars were an interesting thing to notice. As I read it again I also noticed that there seemed to be a reoccurring bar/stripe motif throughout the whole section.
ReplyDelete