5 Insights on Maus by Felipe

1. Descriptions

On the graphic novel all the panels were white and black. The story was placed in a lot of different places. There were mice, cats and pigs in the panels. In all the panels, these animals have clothes on. Also, they stand in two legs. The animals in the graphic novel didn't had mouth. It was just eyes and eyebrows on the mice. 

2. Visual elements

The visual elements helped to create the story's meaning by the colors and the drawing techniques and objects. For example, All the story was in black and white because it could help us understood it wasn't a lovely story and that it was an old story. The technique to draw the mice and the cats were different. The drawing of the mice portrayed the mice as weak, innocent and tiny. The drawing of the cats portrayed the cats as mean, big and they had a mouth. Having a mouth could mean that they could say things to the mouse and they heard it but the mice, which didn't have a mouth, if they said anything, nobody of the cats would listen. Like what they said, didn't matter. The author used mice and cats to create a relationship of prey and predator and comparing it to Nazis and the Jews.

3. Narrative and Graphic Jumps

This graphic novel doesn't rely much on the readers ability to provide narrative information because the events between panels is very consequential. For example, in one panel, Vladek and Anja could be walking on the street, then in the next panel it shows them in front of some doors, then in the next panel it shows them opening the door, and then in the next panel it shows them inside the place. his doesn't means that it doesn't relies a little because at one time Vladek could be at the job and then in another panel he can be in a train. It relies a little bit. However, this work has narrative in boxes or below or above the panels which describes the scenes or what happened before the scene or what's happening on the scene. 

4. Meaning 

The meaning or purpose of this comic was to show the hard and horrible times of the holocaust. Vladek represented the Jews who survived the holocaust who didn't gave up never. Using a witness of the Holocaust, as Vladek, to tell the story was a very intelligent move because it gives credibility to the story and gives a much richer perspective to the comic. The pigs represented the persons who had nothing to do with the Nazi/Jews situations. Some of them were in favor of killing the Jews and some of them helped the Jews because they weren’t in favor of what the Nazis were doing.

5. Text and dialogues

The text in the panels have a significance too. Some of the words were in bold to give it more force to the text and emphasis to the words significance. Also, the shape of some bubbles of dialogue were different. The spiky bubbles meant that the message was told with agitation or desperation. Also, sometimes there were bubbles un a square shape. This meant that the message was told by a narrator which in this case would be Vladek because he is the one telling the story to his son. The font of the words was always the same and it fitted with the drawings because it was a simple one, and the drawings were simple too (the majority).           

 

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