Playing Cat and MAUS

Art Spiegelman has taken a very interestingly symbolic approach to Holocaust storytelling that really captures, in my opinion, the more subtle aspects of Jewish life in this period. The most prevelant is obviously the personification of different domestic animals, particularly the cat (Germans) and the mouse (Jews), and at times the pig (Poles). This illuminated for me a very sad truth about Nazi persecution of the Jews, that is its similarity to a game of "cat and mouse," in that the German and Polish population under the manipulation of Aryan superiority concepts preyed on the small Jewish population as if they were sworn enemies. An advantage of great power and quantity was on the side of the Nazis, much like when a mouse is trapped in a corner, it has no chance against the hungry feline and its ferocious claws..

The story of Art's mother and father is a hopeless tale of suffering, accomplanied by many hardships and devestation, much like any other persecuted group at the time. But Spiegleman's interpretation is very unique in that it depends on symbolic imagery and the structure of the very entertaining framework of a son interviewing his elderly father on the subject of his Holocaust experience to create a certain ambience in which one can understand the Holocaust in a new light. The images related aspects of everyday life (familial interaction, pure actions of children, body language and facial expression) that would normally be drowned out by the more imposing narrative of suffering. In short, i commend Spiegleman on his masterful use of symolism and look forward to the rest of his work.