Maus Class Discussion by https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5 en-us 2024-02-23 03:36:54 UTC 2024-04-17 04:03:17 UTC hello@padlet.com What does Maus do that pure text narratives cannot? In what ways do Spiegelman’s crude drawings help us visualize things that words alone, or more "realistic" images, might be unable to portray? peachesjane https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957901908 2024-04-17 04:01:37 UTC https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957901908 One of the problems inherent in representing human beings as cats and mice is that animals have a narrower range of facial expression. Are Spiegelman’s animals as emotionally expressive as human characters might be? If so, what means does the cartoonist use to endow his mice and cats with "human" characteristics? peachesjane https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957902381 2024-04-17 04:02:04 UTC https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957902381 On page 23, Vladek asks his son to refrain from telling the story of his youthful involvement with Lucia Greenberg, claiming that "it has nothing to do with Hitler, with the Holocaust." Artie argues that this story "makes everything more human." Which of these statements do you agree with? Should the Holocaust be treated as an event so catastrophic that it makes private experience irrelevant? peachesjane https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957902941 2024-04-17 04:02:32 UTC https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957902941 Why do you think some Jews assisted the Germans, either by policing the ghettos or by informing on their people (see pp. 113 and 117)? Why might Vladek still send gift packages to Haskel, who betrayed his in-laws (p. 118)? In Vladek’s place, would you do the same thing? peachesjane https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957903365 2024-04-17 04:02:56 UTC https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957903365 Maus contains several moments of comedy. Most of these take place during the exchanges between Artie, Vladek, and Mala. But humor even finds a place in the ghetto and the bunker, for example on page 119, when the cake sold to the starving Jews of Srodula turns out to have been made with laundry soap. What is the effect of this humor? Was it inaccurate or "wrong" of Spiegelman to have included such episodes within his survivor’s tale? peachesjane https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957903742 2024-04-17 04:03:22 UTC https://padlet.com/peachesjane/6jyueuqsf4ligee5/wish/2957903742