I’ve heard about MAUS before from friends that read it in high school, but I didn’t really know what to think going into it. I really liked how the characters were portrayed as animals. It helps show really how the Jews and Nazis were playing a game of cat and mouse. The Jews running away and hiding as best as they could only to be found eventually by the predator. The Poles being shown as Pigs, I didn’t know what to think of at first, but I suppose you can say how pigs and rats can live in harmony with no problem, just as pigs and cats. What I really liked, though, was how the story is told through the author’s father’s stream of consciousness. How it goes from Holocaust to the father’s house really made the story seem like a first hand account. The way the author portrays his characters also really makes them seem real. His father talks like and has all the mannerisms of an old Jewish man. along with his younger self. As a young bachelor he chooses a richer, duller looking woman over a fun, poor woman.
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Going off of your point about how Spiegelman’s portrayal of his father comes off as “real,” I thought this was true about Spiegelman’s portrayal of himself in the novel as well. He isn’t afraid to show us his own human flaws, and even gives us insight into some of his own embarrassing moments. He doesn’t try to draw himself as a perfect son, but I think it makes us sympathize with him and his plight to re-tell his father’s story. For example, I kept getting really annoyed with how impatient he would get with his poor old father! But of course, we all have those moments with our parents. Also, there were moments where I questioned his ethics in gathering the information for this story, particularly when he divulged information that his father had requested him not to. But I forgave him when I remembered the amazing service he did to his father by immortalizing his story and allowing it to have such an incredible impact on the world. To me, it showed how Spiegelman was able to step back and look at the situation objectively, and I think more importantly, this made us trust him as a reliable narrator–something that is so important in telling such a personal story in this graphic novel.