The story describes Speigelman’s perspective of his mother’s suicide in 1968. Importantly, Speigelman portray’s himself in concentration camp clothes…which seems to position Spiegelman as a kind of psychological prisoner in Germany, feeling responsible for his mother’s death while also seeing his dead mother as the producer of that guilt (Laga, 2001, pg. 77).
Art shows how he felt like it was his duty to comfort his father, how the funeral was too much for him and how he believed that the family blamed him for his mother’s suicide. In one frame (pg. 105), where he wrote out the thoughts he was having at the time, the reader can clearly see: “Hitler Did It!”, blaming the events of the Holocaust to have scared his mother mentally. In dressing his character in the clothes from a …show more content…
On page 127, there is a panel where Anja and Vladek begin their journey of trying to find another place to hide. Their pathway is illustrated as a large swastika, showing the reader that no matter where they go, they will run into the Nazis. The power of this panel would have been lost in any other medium. Page 159 has the same effect. The page shows Vladek’s first time seeing the gates of Auschwitz. The drawing of the gate is not contained by a frame like the others, but instead, takes up the whole page. The reader gets the impression that this sight is overwhelming. Art, as the artist, to give the reader information through the images he creates. The panels of Maus also give the reader an emotional connection as they witness this tragic