Book Review #4

 
  In the intriguing novel, "The Complete Maus" by Art Spiegelman, Art uses the medium of a graphic text-a comic book-to relate the biographical memoir of Vladek and Anja Spiengelman, his parents. The Spiegelmans are Jews, originally from Poland, who survived the Nazi Holocaust and internment at Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenua, Gross-Rosen Dachau, Ravensbruck, and other concentration camps. After the war the Spiegelmans lived briefly in Stockholm before emigrating to the United States of America and settling in Rego Park, New York. The graphic text uses the extended allegory of anthropomorphized mice-Maus in German- to represent Jews, cats to represent Germans, and other suitable animals to represent other nationalities.
   Vladek Spiegelman, born in 1906, meets Anja Zylberberg, born in 1912, in the town of Sosnowiec, Poland. They court and wed in 1937 and live in various small Polish towns in the Sownowiec area. Their first son, Richieu, is born in 1937 as Vladek becomes commercially successful establishing a textile factory which is initially largely funded by Anja's affluent father. After the couple have their first child. Richieu, Anja suffers a nervous collapse. During this experience, they hear news of Nazism and are then warned of what is to come. They go through many brutal and horrific accidents, for example, Vladek being drafted in 1939. He becomes a prisoner of war in difficult circumstances and performs manual labor for the Nazis. This worries Anja but luckily, he returns home to his family. Over the next months the Nazi Holocaust begins to unfold and the couple are forced to move into various ghettos. Due to these many experiences, the couple hone their genius qualities. In many ways, the always try to demonstrate the genius quality of joy and wisdom. They try to look for the light at the end of every tunnel; the light referring to freedom and the tunnel would be their problems due to their nationality. Wisdom is also a major part of this story because without it, they wouldn't have been survivors of the Holocaust. To clarify such statement, they had to take the best options or paths available in order to have lived through the perilous actions. Vladek is mainly about wonder and inventiveness, which are two other genius qualities, He displays such by having and running a factory. Before any of the hurtful events, he was getting big due to him thinking things out and trying to make himself big. He would try anything to become an even bigger-in-rank guy. On the other hand, Anja consistently shows sensitivity, either emotionally or physically. She was very fragile and many things got to her internally, meaning mentally. She would over think various things such that she took her own life due to her being traumatized of the Holocaust. 
  In conclusion, Vladek and Anja's life had inflicted Art's feelings. Art's parents are very relevant to him and so he describes and illustrates many of the horrific experiences. Personally, I can't connect to Art's parents or himself, but all I can say is that I am positive till' the end of the tunnel, such as Art's parents. They demonstrate this quality throughout most of the scenes and it reminds me a lot of myself since I'm a determined person. Overall, I learned many qualities from Art's parents and made me have a better insight on other perspectives.