Maus Book I Part II

The second half of the first book of Maus really did a great job of tying up the loose ends of the first half, while providing enough intrigue for the reader to want to continue reading the next book. In the concluding half, starting with Chapter Five, Artie comes back to Vladik's house to continue the story on Vladik's experience, only to find an angered and slightly depressed Vladik. When he asks Mala what has happened to him, Mala tells him that Vladik has read one of Artie's earlier comics about his mother, who apparently committed suicide. There is then an excerpt that shows the comic itself. Vladik comes into the house and states that while is was hard to read, the comic was true and just brought back bad memories of the time, and the slight confrontation was over. The flashbacks then return to continue where they had left off last time. One by one, Vladik's family member were being taken away to concentration camps until it was only them left. They spent a few months in hiding until Vladik took a chance to escape to Hungary, only to realize that it was a trap and they were taken to Auschwitz.

The second half of the book really starts to add more development to the characters of the present, more so I believe than the characters introduced in the past. Vladik has now shown that he does have a more sensitive and vulnerable side to him, and that the past hurts him more than he would usually let on. Artie has also now been shown as not so much of a narrator anymore, but as a character himself in the story. He has finally taken some sort of stand towards his father, and even some sort of resentment in regards to learning that his father has burned all of his mother's diaries and writings during a fit of depression. Mala as well has been a bit more fleshed out, although not necessarily positively or negatively. In some ways, she could even be considered a plot device, with how her friend's son was the one to find the comic and that is how Vladik was able to find out about it. The art in the novel is really starting to stand out on its own as another storytelling element. McCloud's amplification through simplification really shines through with Spiegelman. At any given time, if Spiegelman wants to express an emotion in his characters, it is very easily recognizable and gives the reader an even greater grasp of the feelings the characters are feeling. The "pig masks" are also a nice touch to portray the Jews as just a standard Pole. Another clever element I thought also was how lines are used through the character to express surprise.