THE COMPLETE MAUS MINI-ESSAY
The Reading Response: The Assignment -- Write a reading response based upon your reading of Maus (approximately 800+ words) adopting either Option #1 or Option #2 below.
Option #1 -- The Integrated Mini-Essay: Write a reading response to Maus in which you explore some of the book's core ideas and connect them to the theme of War and Memory. What did you take away from this book and how would you begin to organize your own thoughts about it? The questions below may serve as useful prods but you do not need to answer them directly.
Option #2 -- Some Questions To Consider: Answer at least 6 of the 11 sets of questions below in paragraph form. You should draw directly from the book in developing thoughtful, well-constructed, and analytical answers to the questions in a way which demonstrates that you have read the book with care. Do not hesitate to expand an answer beyond a single paragraph if there are one or two questions that seem to merit a lengthier response.
1. Is the graphic novel form appropriate to the telling of Holocaust narrative? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think Spiegelman chose to represent the different nationalities by animal types and how did you respond to his choices here?
3. To what extent is Vladek defined by his status as a Holocaust survivor?
4. To what extent, in turn, is Art shaped by the Holocaust and its memory?
5. How would you describe the relationship between father and son? Between Art and his dead mother? Between Art and his dead brother? Between Vladek and his two wives?
6. How would you compare Maus with Spiegelman’s earlier "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" comic?
7. To what degree were there meaningful differences in tone and style between the first and second halves of Maus?
8. What role does guilt play in this account?
9. How and why were Vladek and Anja able to survive the Holocaust?
10. What are the "lessons" of the Holocaust? What would Vladek say here? Art? You?
11. How would you compare and contrast Spiegelman’s book with O’Brien’s? What stands out as some important points of comparison and contrast here in terms of approach and issues?
E-Text Editions Of Maus
***Please read both Volume I and Volume 2. I found two different e-texts of each:
Volume 1 (My Father Bleeds History): Maus I: My Father Bleeds History or Maus I: My Father Bleeds History -- Copy 2
Volume 2 (And Here My Troubles Began): Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began or Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began -- Copy 2
Some Extra Resources (***These optional items are intended to provide you with some additional background and context. There is no expectation that you access these and they are not a substitute for your reading of and response to the two volumes of the Complete Maus)
Possible Starting Places
"Art Spiegelman Discusses Maus And MetaMaus," BBC News, December 9, 2011.
Rachel Cooke, "Art Spiegelman: 'Auschwitz Became For Us A Safe Place,'" Observer, October 23, 2011.
Audio And Video Resources
"Art Spiegelman Reflects On 60 Years Of Pen And Ink," Weekend Edition Saturday, NPR, September 14, 2013.
"'MetaMaus': The Story Behind Spiegelman's Classic," Talk Of The Nation, NPR, October 5, 2011.
"'Maus' Creator Spiegelman Tries Sept. 11 Comic," NPR Weekend Edition Saturday, June 7, 2003.
Other Resources
Questions And Resources For Art Spiegelman's Maus:
Kasia Boddy, "MetaMaus By Art Spiegelman: Review," Telegraph, November 25, 2011.
"Art Spiegelman's Meta Tour Of 'Meta Maus,'" Laist, October 13, 2011.
Ruth Franklin, "Art Spiegelman's Genre-Defying Holocaust Work, Revisited," New Republic (October 5, 2011).