Since I haven’t
finished reading the comic, I would like to comment what has caught my
attention about it so far.
First of
all, there are many movies, books and documentaries which have tried to make us
imagine how horrible the Nazi holocaust was, and I have to admit, that it was
hard for me to connect a comic with this deplorable episode of history.
There are
two aspects which I would like to emphasize about this master piece, which are
how it relates the story of the holocaust and how its characters are
represented using animals as a metaphor.
In this
comic, Art Spiegelman narrates how terrible was the holocaust providing us with
details which were provided by his father, who is a survivor of Auschwitz. It is
interesting how he makes us to understand how awful and devastating this time
in history was with clear and realistic examples of events, without sanguinary
and sadistic details. I think it Art was really smart, since I personally
believe that bloody details would make us morbid readers, losing the real sense
of the story.
Also, what caught
my attention was that I have seen different movies and documentaries related to
the Nazi holocaust and also I read a book related to the atrocities of
Auschwitz and none of them use metaphors as the comic does. The use of animals
which represent the different character gives the novel and special and
catching touch.
As a final
comment, I have to admit that I have never read a comic before, since I prefer
books than comics. However, I have enjoyed reading this comic and I would
totally recommend it since it provides historical facts with a special taste.
I see your point Evelyn: I also have seen a few movies about Holocaust and it was a bit hard to make the connection between the images of the movie and the images from the graphic novel, without mention that since this is a comic it could be more complicated to keep in mind that those events really happened and what history books tell is just a tiny part of that reality.
ResponderEliminarAlthough all the previous ideas, I totally recommend this novel and also if I have the chance I would use this type of graphic novel to teach adolescents, due to the fact that they would be able to learn better through images and characters that they could easily remember; moreover, this particular novel has a rich content about history and postmodernist characteristics that can be used to teach students, and in a way, has a soften representation of this horrible event.
I agree with both of you since I believe that the drawings and the way things are shown is simply amazing. Actually, the first time I read Maus, it was really hard to stop.
ResponderEliminarAlthough I agree with Cristina on the fact that this material would be interesting for teenagers, I must say I think this is good for adults too because its style is easy to follow while it does not take long to read, which is something extremely valuable for those whose time is scarce.
All in all, I think this is by far the most original way I have ever seen to tell a Nazi story.