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The Complete Maus – Cause and Effect Essay

The Complete Maus – Cause and Effect Essay

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The Complete Maus – Cause and Effect Essay

The Complete Maus is a product of Art Spiegelman, an American cartoonist who

reproduced the story in a graphical novel. It is a story about the interview that Spiegelman had

with his father about his experience during the world war two. Art Spiegelman was a survivor of

the Holocaust, as well as, a Polish Jew. The story covers all the experiences that his father had as

a sufferer and victim of the Second World War, and the effect of these experiences to their family.

Art never had a god relationship with his father from a long time. Furthermore, his family was

not the best example of a good and upright family because his mother was a suicide victim. She

committed suicide when Art was twenty years old. As such, he had to live in an estranged

relationship with his father who harbored post war nightmares.

In his, Book ‘The Complete Maus’, Art Spiegelman uses an exemplary art of writing

techniques of the post modern world in order to depict and present his objectives about the art of

war during the Holocaust period. He manages to produce a striking depiction of human races

using several postmodern techniques as a variety of different types of animals. This

differentiation placed the Jews as mice, the non-Jewish Poles as pigs, the Americans as dogs and

the Germans as cats. As such, ‘The Complete Maus’ covers a number of differentiated genres

including a memoir, an autobiography, fiction, a biography from a survivor, as well as, a

historical story plotting the events of what happened during the second world war and their effect

on the family members of the survivors of such ordeals, such as the father of Art Spiegelman.

The cause and effect of family and race from the Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

covers how the experiences of the people from the world war two affected their family lives at

the end of the war. The story attempts to confront the horrendous reality of the Holocaust in

German that happened during the World War 2. The Holocaust was a systematic genocide of

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millions upon millions of Jews in the concentration camps of the Nazi during the world war two.

As such, it depicts that the racial differences of prisoners of war in the Nazi concentration camps

depicted their fates, as well as, determined their colloquial representations. For instance, the

Jewish were rats while the Germans were the cats. In a normal world setting, the cats usually

hunt down cats and at them as food, or use them as play toys if they are satisfied, but eventually

kills them or leaves them for the dead.

“I cannot forget it…ever since Hitler I don’t like to throw out even a crumb”

Art Spiegelman, The Complete Maus, p.238.

This is a meaningful quote in the novel as it helps readers understand the character of

Vladek. The quote is instrumental in elaborating the everlasting struggle left in the life of Vladek

after the Holocaust. The traumatic effects of the Holocaust forever remained present in the day-

to-day mindset and interactions of Vladek.

This is exactly what happened in the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World

War. The Nazi majorities, who were Germans and harbored a deep resentment for the Jews,

killed and tortured them as rats. The deep-seated resentment of the Jews by the Germans aroused

from the hatred that the German supreme leader and president during the time of war, His

Excellency Adolf Hitler, had for the Jews. In addition to this hatred and resentment, President

Adolf Hitler was a serious racist who oppressed and discriminated anyone not from his social

class or race. This is why these concentration camps also had prisoners from other races, such as

the non-Jews Polish. Consequently, the German cats liked mistreating all preys around their

environment, as they were predators to both pigs and rats. Millions of Jews died ruthlessly in the

hands of the Nazi regime, a sign of total racism and racial discrimination propelled by mere

hatred and discontentment.

All survivors of the Holocaust, such as the father to Art Spiegelman, suffered traumatic

experiences from the memories they carried over what happened to them, and what they saw

done to their friends and people from other races by the Nazi regime in German. He was a polish

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Name Instructor Task Date The Complete Maus - Cause and Effect Essay The Complete Maus is a product of Art Spiegelman, an American cartoonist who reproduced the story in a graphical novel. It is a story about the interview that Spiegelman had with his father about his experience during the world war two. Art Spiegelman was a survivor of the Holocaust, as well as, a Polish Jew. The story covers all the experiences that his father had as a sufferer and victim of the Second World War, and the effect of these experiences to their family. Art never had a god relationship with his father from a long time. Furthermore, his family was not the best example of a good and upright family because his mother was a suicide victim. She committed suicide when Art was twenty years old. As such, he had to live in an estranged relationship with his father who harbored post war nightmares. In his, Book 'The Complete Maus', Art Spiegelman uses an exemplary art of writing techniques of the post modern world in order to depict and present his objectives about the art of war during the Holocaust period. He manages to produce a striking depiction of human races using several postmodern techniques as a variety of different types of animals. This differentiation placed the Jews as mice, the non-Jewish Poles as pigs, the Americans as dogs and the Germans as cats. As such, 'The Complete Maus' covers a number of differentiated genres including a memoir, an autobiography, fiction, a biography from a sur ...
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