Maus

At first glance I thought that Maus was going to be like most of the books on the Holocaust that we had read in grade school, like Boy in the Stripped Pajamas or Night, but after reading some of it I was very impressed with how it was done. It was so captivating, and what really got me the most was the simplicity of everything especially the features of the characters. They are so simple and void of defining features that they became more like symbols, such as what was talked about by Scott McCloud. It narrows down the distinction to just outfits and different species of animal, and this becomes the vehicle for the message.

With each of these different types of people being depicted in varying animal groups, its interesting to see the author’s own prejudices come out, for example the Polish being depicted as pigs. Even though  the characters for the most part are very simple there is still some uniqueness to them, it was very entertaining to get to know them through each of their quirks. Through these quirks the reader can sort of relate to the characters, and it allows the reader to feel reminded that this happened to real people.