Mouse Trap, Part II

Why does Art Spiegelman choose to represent Jews as mice? The reason for this is that Jews were literally depicted as mice, representing that they were "vermin", in many Nazi propaganda posters. 

"Rats: Destroy them"

The chapter title pages stem from this sort of Nazi propaganda and are heavily symbolic. The above image is Chapter 6 of volume I.

On the poster, the rat is depicted as having the face of a Jew. What appears to be a crumpled piece of paper lies beside the rat, to further emphasize how unimportant and filthy the Jews were thought to be. On the cover page, two mice (Vladeck and Anja) are standing in a literal mouse trap. This is the chapter in which Vladeck and Anja are deceived by the smugglers, which is what the trap represents.

While the images are very different, there are similarities. The beam of light in the background of the cover page resembles the piece of paper on the poster.  Both images' title text looks somewhat similar in font and size.The poster is a command to "destroy" the Jews, and that is what the mouse trap looks like it's about to do.

Chapter 6 is also the chapter in which the rat scene takes place, where Vladeck and Anja discover a rat in the cellar. The rat depicted on that page looks very similar to the rat on the poster.

While the two images do not appear similar at first glance, they do have many figurative and symbolic similarities.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 22, 2017 at 1:55 PM

    I really like your analysis of Art Spielgelman's choice of mice for the Jews in Maus. I always wondered about his reasoning behind the decision and you did a great job of explaining it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 22, 2017 at 4:16 PM

    Love the connection of the titles. That is a very unique approach indeed!

    ReplyDelete

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