Art tried to keep his father's story chronological, because otherwise he would "never keep it straight". [100] His mother Anja's memories are conspicuously absent from the narrative, given her suicide and Vladek's destruction of her diaries. Hirsch sees Maus in part as an attempt to reconstruct her memory. Vladek keeps her memory alive with the pictures on his desk, "like a shrine", according to Mala. [101] Guilt [ edit ] Defense of 'Maus' erupts online after McMinn County schools remove it from curriculum". Yahoo. January 28, 2022. Schwab, Gabriele (2010). Haunting Legacies: Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52635-7. Wirth-Nesher, Hana (2006). Call It English: The Languages of Jewish American Literature. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13844-2. Spiegelman struggled to find a publisher for a book edition of Maus, [41] but after a rave New York Times review of the serial in August 1986, Pantheon Books published the first six chapters in a volume [63] called Maus: A Survivor's Tale and subtitled My Father Bleeds History. Spiegelman was relieved that the book's publication preceded the theatrical release of the animated film An American Tail by three months, as he believed that the film, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, was inspired by Maus and wished to avoid comparisons with it. [64]

Scholar Paul Buhle asserted: "More than a few readers have described [ Maus] as the most compelling of any [Holocaust] depiction, perhaps because only the caricatured quality of comic art is equal to the seeming unreality of an experience beyond all reason". [192] Michael Rothberg opined: "By situating a nonfictional story in a highly mediated, unreal, 'comic' space, Spiegelman captures the hyperintensity of Auschwitz". [193] Parody [ edit ] It’s leaving me with my jaw open, like, ‘What?’” he said, adding that the board was acting in “Orwellian” fashion. Eisner Awards staff (2012). "Complete List of Eisner Award Winners". San Diego Comic-Con International. Archived from the original on April 27, 2011 . Retrieved January 31, 2012. Born Andzia Zylberberg, with the Hebrew name Hannah. Her name became Anna when she and Vladek arrived in the U.S. [30]

Art asks after Anja's diaries, which Vladek tells him were her account of her Holocaust experiences and the only record of what happened to her after her separation from Vladek at Auschwitz and which Vladek says she had wanted Art to read. Vladek comes to admit that he burned them after she killed herself. Art is enraged and calls Vladek a "murderer". [17] Kannenberg, Gene Jr. (February 1999). Groth, Gary (ed.). "#4: Maus". The Comics Journal. Fantagraphics Books (210). ISSN 0194-7869.

Hatfield, Charles (2005). Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-719-0. Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J (2009). The Power of Comics. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-2936-0. Brown, Joshua (1988). "Of Mice and Memory". Oral History Review. Oral History Association (Spring): 91–109. doi: 10.1093/ohr/16.1.91. ISSN 0094-0798. Abell, Catharine (2012). "Comics and Genre". In Meskin, Aaron; Cook, Roy T (eds.). The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-3464-7.Tout en BD staff (1998). "Le festival BD: Le palmarès 1988" (in French). Tout en BD. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012 . Retrieved January 31, 2012. Early installments of Maus that appeared in Raw inspired the young Chris Ware to "try to do comics that had a 'serious' tone to them". [154] Maus is cited as a primary influence on graphic novels such as Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. [47] Harvey, R. C. (1996). The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-0-87805-758-0.

Bolhafner, J. Stephen (October 1991). "Art for Art's Sake". The Comics Journal. Fantagraphics Books. 348 (145): 96–99. Bibcode: 1990Natur.348..280C. doi: 10.1038/348280d0. ISSN 0194-7869. The Mouse was enjoying himself and feeling very brave when he noticed that the Lion’s eye was open and looking straight at him. Vladek spoke Yiddish and Polish. He also learned English, German, and French while still in Poland. His knowledge of languages helps him several times during the story, both before and during his imprisonment. Vladek's recounting of the Holocaust, first to American soldiers, then to his son, is in English, [112] which became his daily language when he moved to America. [113] Vladek's English is fluent, but his phrasing is often non-native, showing the influence of Yiddish (and possibly also of Polish). For example, he asks Art, "But, tell me, how is it by you? How is going the comics business?" [114] Later, describing his internment, he tells Art, "[E]very day we prayed... I was very religious, and it wasn't else to do". [115] The passages where he is shown in Europe speaking Yiddish or Polish are in standard English, without the idiosyncratic phrasings Spiegelman records from their English-language conversations. Spiegelman does not show other Holocaust survivors (Vladek's second wife Mala, their friends, and Art's therapist Paul Pavel) using Yiddish-influenced constructions.Mozzocco, J. Caleb (December 1, 2011). "Balloonless | Art Spiegelman and Hillary Chute's MetaMaus". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on December 4, 2011 . Retrieved May 18, 2012. National Book Critics Circle staff (2012). "All Past National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists". National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on April 8, 2014 . Retrieved January 31, 2012. Spiegelman, like many of his critics, has expressed concern that "[r]eality is too much for comics... so much has to be left out or distorted", admitting that his presentation of the story may not be accurate. [84] He takes a postmodern approach; Maus "feeds on itself", telling the story of how the story was made. It examines the choices Spiegelman made in the retelling of his father's memories, and the artistic choices he had to make. For example, when his French wife converts to Judaism, Spiegelman's character frets over whether to depict her as a frog, a mouse, or another animal. [85] Fischer, Heinz Dietrich; Fischer, Erika J. (2002). "Spiegelman, Art". Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917–2000: Journalists, Writers and Composers on Their Ways to the Coveted Awards. Walter de Gruyter. p.230. ISBN 978-3-598-30186-5. Monnin, Katie (2010). Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA Classroom. Maupin House Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-1-934338-40-7.