Skip to main content

Maus: Attention to Detail

This week in class we read and talked about Maus by Art Spiegelman. Since it is a comic book, we were not only able to closely read the panels, but we were also able to examine each image in the panels. A specific example of this is on page 69 of volume 2, "And Here My Troubles Began". This example is the last 3 panels on the page. Vladek is talking to Art about the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Vladek says, "You heard about the gas, but I'm telling not rumors, but only what really I saw," (Spiegelman 69). There's a lot of speculation on what happened during the Holocaust and the extent of this atrocity. People say their theories and what they believed happened. Vladek on the other hand, he is the opposite of these people. He is telling Art not what he thinks happened, but what he knows happened because he saw it firsthand. Speigelman decides to bold the words "heard" and "saw" to put an emphasis on these terms. Anyone can hear things about the Holocaust. Hearing things is often associated with rumors and gossip. At any high school there will be someone that goes "oh my god, did you hear about what happened to [so and so]." This associates hearing things with exaggeration and false information, but if you see something it is different because you know it happened for a fact. This detail of bolding "heard" and "saw" is subtle at first, but furthers the meaning of the statement. Another detail on this page is with the chimney. Speigelman shows an image of a chimney to show what Vladek actually saw and it is meshed with the panel above it so the smoke from Art's cigarette is coming out of the chimney. This furthers the motif of smoke and the differing opinions on it between Art and Vladek. These details of bolding, using specific images, and meshing panels together show Speigelman's attention to detail and really makes Maus an intellectual read with deeper meanings.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Show & Tell: Important of Images

This week in class we read a piece called Show and Tell by Scott McCloud. This piece showed (and told) the importance of pictures in readings. It started off with a short anecdote of this kid in front of his class explaining how his robot toy transforms into an airplane. He uses a mixture of words and plain showing how it does what it does. This develops the author's main argument that "words and pictures have great powers to tell stories when creators fully exploit them both," (McCloud 809). I believe that images in books don't make a work of literature any less intellectual. If the content is meant to be intellectual, pictures aren't going to make it any less. Actually, images bring a different dynamic and can allow for more intellectual content. If an author were to include a statement where there could be many interpretations, that would be considered intellectual, but if you add an image to that and turn it into a comic, there could be an infinite amount of i...
2 comments
Read more

This I Learned

      The most relevant topic that I have learned throughout high school is the idea the importance of consistency, discipline, and time management. In middle school I had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted. Especially during the summer. We would bike around for hours and just hang out. I thought that this would end in high school. For the most part, it didn't. Freshman year I had a lot of free time. I would hang out with friends, go to the gym most nights, play basketball, all while doing extra curriculars. I had cross country in the fall and basketball in the winter. This, in addition to clubs like DECA, student government, and eventually NHS, I thought I would be super busy. Maybe my course load wasn't demanding enough and easing into high school is not too difficult, but sophomore year would be hard, right? Sophomore year was a bit harder for me, but it seemed to be nearly impossible for some. I took AP Calculus BC and AP Chemistry my sophomore year and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Colorblindness Promotes Ignorance

Colorblindness. When many people hear this term, they think of it in a red-blue colorblindness context. Most may not even know the racial definition of this term. Racial colorblindness is  belief that racism is no longer a problem and that we all have equal opportunities. Many people who practice this will say that they "do not see color", this is why it is called colorblindness. Although it may seem like this could work, this  ideology is counterproductive and shouldn't be practiced. Ignoring someone's race isn't right and promotes ignorance. Instead, people should view all colors and celebrate diversity and integration of colors. Talking about these racial topics ma de me think of another racial topic that has been trending in the past year. Affirmative action. Affirmative action is  the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously. This has been considered to be added into the college admissi...
1 comment
Read more