Maus 1 + 2 (12 points)

 I'd always wanted to read Maus ever since I heard about it in high school, but I never got around to actually reading it. It's somewhat a combination of what I expected (Holocaust survivor story), but also contained aspects that I didn't really expect (the relationship between Art and his father, the very shocking portrayal of his father, etc.)

Maus's style and portrayal of Jewish people and Nazis as mouses and cats respectively were what initially piqued my interest in it. Spiegelman could've easily portrayed everyone as humans, but the change created a contrast between the 'innocence' of animal characters vs. the graphic and depressing story. Along with Spiegelman's art style, the portrayal of people as animals made the comic hit harder than usual. I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I believe Spiegelman did this to counter a lot of peoples' detachment from the Holocaust. A lot of people don't really understand the gravity of how terrible the Holocaust was because they believe it was a long time ago, or simply detached themselves from it because of how bad it was. I felt that Spiegelman was directly commenting on this by making the characters animals.

Another aspect that really surprised me about Maus is the depiction of Art's father, Vladek. It was both interesting and shocking to see the good and bad parts of his father. I was especially surprised when Art depicted his father's racism towards black people and his hypocrisy when it came to prejudice/stereotyping. It made the book and Vladek's story more human in the sense that Spiegelman wasn't afraid to show his father's hypocrisy despite being a survivor of the Holocaust. This reminded me of something my grandfather mentioned about Indians being racist against Africans despite both parties being oppressed by the British for the same exact reason. I think Spiegelman had specifically written this in (along with his father's failed marriage) to illustrate that Vladek is still a human with prejudices and vices.