Often when I read a book, I imagine what it would be like to be the characters and live in their time. For instance, in The Great Gatsby, I would imagine being Gatsby and living in an extravagant house trying to find Daisy. Or I would imagine being Myrtle and fleeing Wilson only to get ripped open by a car. It's morbid, but I can still imagine it. Usually these scenes can come easily to me. Nick and Jordan conversing at a party comes naturally to me. Gatsby's death was a bit more difficult because he was unaware of what exactly was happening to him. In the end though, I could still picture being in his place. However in Maus, I can barely imagine any of it. It might be the pictures the idea that everybody is an animal, but the events in the book are all so unimaginable. Of course this is a real story based off of real people and places and events, but just having characters like Vladek portrayed as mice, I can't even imagine the scenarios he describes himself being in. I'm unable to even conjure up the idea of a Nazi officer throwing my hat away and shooting me as I race to get it. It might be because I've already seen the comic picture and can't un-see the animal characters, or it's just too inhumane of an act to possibly even imagine. It really gives in to the idea that during this time, unspeakable and unbelievable things occurred. Seeing as how Animal Farm turned out, everything is in utter chaos when everybody turns into animals. The pigs in Animal Farm, parallel to the cats in Maus have created a vicious jungle.
I can only see Art as he is on the top, not the bottom.
Great post! Definitely got me thinking about the question, is Art helping or hurting the book's relatability of Maus by portraying his characters as animals? Obviously, one of his major goals in writing was to allow others to empathize, but it is difficult as a human to empathize with a mouse on a page.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Jenny. There were so many instances while reading this book that I had to stop and convince myself that this is a story about humans, not animals. It was quite difficult to imagine. When Art included the pictures of his brother, mother, and father, it shocked me because then it hit me that these are real people.
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