I have to say, Maus II was certainly better than the first, however, it had nothing to do with Auschwitz. I really appreciated Spiegelman’s integrations of the real world, into Maus II. To be honest, before I even finished with Maus I, I was already tired of hearing of the Holocaust. What can I say? Maus I provided no real new information to me; I needed something fresh. Aside from the comical pictures of mice (which only lasted for about 10 pages and then I hardly noticed), Maus I struggled to keep my attention. Then comes Maus II…different, and I will even venture to say, Better.
Maus II provided a fair depiction of our protagonists, and I a breath of fresh air from the camps of Auschwitz. I needed it. It had nothing to do with the content of the camp; as i’ve stated, I believe the Holocaust / Auschwitz story has been worked into the fabric of history so much so that i’m often amazed when people say that the Holocaust was the worst genocide ever, as if they forgot we lost over 4 times as many blacks in slavery. No, the content received a fair distribution but I loved the view into Spiegelman’s world. I appreciate the numerous pages of dialogue with him and his wife, and I was thrilled to see that we could take enough breaks from Auschwitz to see what was actually on Art’s mind. Not Vladek’s.
I think it’s important to note that as much as we may forget (in a stretched way of seeing it) Art is a survivor of the Holocaust. The events that shaped his mother and father (aside from their union) are a direct input and result into the initial fabric of Art’s character and either through acceptance, or in his case, rejection, I really wanted to see how he dealt with the events. I loved the images of Art growing smaller and smaller and smaller, and to read the comments: beautiful! I loved dialogue between Art and the psychiatrist, without it, (unless the reader did some character background) the reader may have never known of Art’s psychiatrist and that he was also a Holocaust survivor.
We are all survivor’s of something, and for the fortunate souls, I would like to hope that they are simply survivor’s of life, as that is a great leap as it is. However, I can still remember when my great-grandmother used to always say that my cousins and I were survivors of slavery, and I did not understand. My grand-parents and parents survived segregation and worlds of other hindrances that I hardly call myself a survivor of, but knowledge is passed down. I learned from my parents, who learned from their experiences and their parents, who learned from their experiences and their parents, and I can’t help but notice that quite a few of my decisions (based on the knowledge of my parents) are directly related to their experiences. Of course, like Art, I find myself rejecting a lot of my great-grandparents’s and parents’s views on things, but I am so glad he afforded us the opportunity to see that side of him. His story.