Symbolism in Maus

Art Spiegelman's usage of pictures in his graphic novel "Maus" is crucial in conveying his father's abhorrent Holocaust survival story. On page 137, Art writes

 

 

Vladek and Anja are walking through Mr. Lukowski’s courtyard discussing how they are thankful there are still good people left in the world, when ironically a neighbor spots Anja by her mouse tail and exclaims, “A JEWESS!!” The Polish woman has nothing better to do with her time except hunt down potential Jews and report them. A mouse’s tail is an identifying characteristic of the animal, similar to how there were certain traits that allowed for Jewish people to be identifiable by others. Spiegelman discreetly weaves this into his work without offending any of his potentially Jewish audience. In addition, the author depicts the “old witch” in the window as a pig since she is Polish. He draws all the Poles as pigs, most probably to convey how horrible it was of them to turn a blind eye to Hitler’s regime and thus label them as pigs for doing so. The Poles ultimately became victims to Hitler as well, so using pigs to symbolize them shows they are destined for slaughter regardless. We can also note that the shed is colored in stripes, and stripes are a motif throughout the novel that represents prison. The two mice are running directly into the shed, which could foreshadow the fact that they are running right into their imminent deaths (the concentration camps). Furthermore, the mice are running there because they believe it is a safe spot for them to be in. Similarly, the Jews were tricked by the Nazis into the concentration camps through the Nazi’s propaganda, which stated they would be taken to comfortable homes for the elderly/better living and working conditions for the others. They willingly went to these areas in hopes of safety, even though they were going to prison - just like Anja and Vladek run to the shed for safety even though it is symbolic of the prison they will eventually be in.