Maus is filled with emotions. Art Spiegelman is frustrated at his father for not keeping his mother's journals and other personal items. Vladek is saddened when he remembers his family.
What literary and artistic techniques does Art Speigelman use to get these emotions across to the readers?
I think he uses a sympathetic technique. Because when Art was told that he threw away all of his mother's personal belongings he was furious. Mainly because that is very important, plus it talked a lot about his mom. Because of his dad getting rid of all of her diaries and letters, Art has nothing to go off of about his mother and what she went through.
ReplyDeleteHe relates to his readers. Most people have experienced the death of a family member or someone very close and they know what it's like to cling on to what's left of them. Art probably wanted the journals to hold on to what he had left of his mother. He related to that soft spot that all people have for the ones that they have lost and will always have. Relating to this helps the readers understand what Art was trying to portray.
ReplyDeleteArt uses an approach that most people can understand, which is a way to where he writes as if you knew his mom. I for one feel bad when he talks about her. Art was very angry with his Dad when he found out he had thrown away her diaries, I think he was mad because that was something he could have kept to remember his mom and to cherish.
ReplyDelete@Nate
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nate a lot of people have experienced death in their lives and that really helps relate to Art's opinion in Maus. He wished that he had the diaries so that he could include more information in his book but more importantly so he could know his mother better.
@Garret
ReplyDeleteVladek did not throw out all of the personal belongings of his wife for he only threw out her diaries. Art only complained about the diaries and I don't think any other personal belongings were even mentioned in the book.
@Nate
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Nate, Art did relate to his readers the sadness and grieving that comes along with losing a family member, or even someone that is close to you. Art used the diaries to show that people want to hang on the even the smallest thing that will remind you of somebody you love.
@ garret
ReplyDeleteim sorry too pick on you pal but he did not throw out all of his mothers belongings from the Holocaust.
I do agree with Nate though i too felt like the author tocuhed me by the story with the gruesome situations that were portrayed in the story
ReplyDeleteI found that i had many different emotions throughout the story.
ReplyDelete@ Nate S.
ReplyDeleteI believe Nate made a very good point by stating that many people have lost some one close to them at some point in their life and know how hard it is to cope with these tough emotions. he knew that he would be able to connect wth his readers by using something that many people have expierenced at one time.
Also, the diaries that were lost represent how other people do not understand the connection that we have to our personal items and what they truely mean to us. Only we can understand the meaning of our own materials goods.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Nate. I would be in pain if the one thing i have to read about my mother was gone. I believe Art thought his father was trying to push the memory of his mother away, but that was not the case at all. Both Art and his father were grieving and were filled with mixed emotions.
ReplyDelete@ Nate
ReplyDeleteI agree that when people lose someone they love, they try to hold on to any memories they have of that person. Art would've wanted to keep his moms things as something to remember her by, or as something to learn more about her.
Art lost his mother, just as many of us have probably lost someone close to them, and Art most likely wanted the journals so that he had something tanglible to remember her by, not just memories of her, which he may not even know that well. By connecting wiht us through an unfortunatly common theme of losing a loved one, he creates an understanding of what he was going through when he remembered his mother.
ReplyDeleteI believe the author uses a method in which in a way in which he can relate the conflict with the reader. Art did lose someone close to him (his mother. Those diaries that were thrown out could of been used by Art to help him relate to remember his mother. I do not know if any of you guys lost someone special close to you yet, but if & when you do, think about it. Would you want something that you can keep to help you remember and always relate to that special person? I am pretty sure all of us would. Well that is how Art felt about his mother. Those diaries were his source of getting a better understanding of her and her feelings.
ReplyDeleteI agree with basically everyone has stated above. The author does a great job expressing the way that Art's father felt while going through his mothers death. It is understandable for his father to throw his mothers journals away because at the time of a sudden loss of a loved one people will do anything to try and take their mind off of that person. His father's way was by throwing away the journals of his wife. Art used a lot of sad drawings ti undicate the way his father felt.
ReplyDeleteArt uses many techniques to get emotions across to his readers, but what stands out to me the most is the facial expressions and body language. Whenever somebody in the book becomes upset their faces change to a frown and you notice movement of anxiety from one comic strip to the next. Art also made a terribly sad comic relating to his mothers suicide, which actually gave me goose-bumps. I believe that in every goose-bump and memory is stored. I also believe that Nate made a very accurate interpretation on how Art portrayed the emotions he and his father went through to the reader.
ReplyDelete@ Nate
ReplyDeleteYes, I also noticed that Art related the death Vladek experienced to the death of one of our own family members.
@Pablo
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. I felt that the facial expressions and actions that the characters showed was a brilliant way to reach out to the reader. I was amazed on page 108 how spieglman showed the expression of the children crying.
Literary techniques he used were the way he depicts the sadness in his father with dialog and imagery.
ReplyDeletei personally felt the pain from not only Vladek but the frustration from Art. Vladek with a diary of his wife would of killed him inside but the story regret and the book does a great job of showing the guilt.
ReplyDeleteThe combination of facial expressions, lines that look like steam rising from the person, body posture, zig-zag style lines instead of round lines for the speech bubbles, and bolden letters show emphasis on the emotions or emphasis on the words being said help show the emotions to the reader.
ReplyDeleteArt really A technique by the comics and the different emotions he gave Vladek and him. This really showed their true emotion that he felt. Like when you see the children crying or the pain in his eyes, it really is almost like reading body language in our everyday lives, and thats what having drawings and such helps with the imagery of the book.
ReplyDeleteArt does a phenomenal job at expressing the emotions of the story through his style of putting many pictures in the story so we can get a glimpse of what exactly was going on in each part of the story. The were different types of body language that gave an examples of how people felt in the story.
ReplyDeleteArt expresses feelings through the facial features of his drawings and relating himself to the reader. He makes you relate by using the death of a family member which is an easily relateable topic to get your emotions to pour into the story.
ReplyDeleteArt not only uses his artistic talent but he also uses dialogue to get the emotions of his mother's death across to the reader. He does a brilliant job at using distinct facial expressions that the characters had during their grief to show their sadness. Quotes and thought bubbles also help the reader understand the pain that Vladek, Art, and others went through when she died.
ReplyDelete@ Nate, because he thought of this idea first! Art not only uses the comic to add emotion but he attempts and succeeds with most people in relating to us about the death of a family member. Since i have had family pass away this makes me wonder how I would feel if somebody passed away due to a suicide. I do not know how I would feel apart from being devastated. I also found it interesting on why Art did not use color for his comics because color can be a very powerful tool used to display emotions.
ReplyDeleteArt does a phenomenal job artistically. The part that struck me the most was when he described to us a few pages of his book "Prisoner on the Hell Planet". The pictures in that part talked for themselves. The way the pictures were drawn made you feel like you were part of this story.
ReplyDeleteArt does an astounding job conveying the emotion becuase, well... like the saying goes, "A picture is worth 1,000 words". He made excellent use of color.
ReplyDeleteCertain times in the book when different "intensities" are used by a character in talking the way the speech bubble is drawn may vary, like if a character were to be yelling, the lines may be zig-zagged as to add a "Loud" or "sharp" feel to the characters words.
ReplyDeleteArt used many literary and artistic techniques to get emotion through to the readers. One way he shows emotion is, like Ian said, through the speech bubble and the image. The drawing shows there actions toward each other and the text, usually bold or big, shows the frustration at each other. You could tell how angry and sad felt his father felt when his wife died in the comic Art's comic. It shows his father yelling and crawling on his wife's casket. I also agree with Nate. He states that Art helps get to the characters soft spot. Throughout the story, Art does this in a few ways. One way he does this is how much Art implies and begs to his father how much he would like to see his mother's diary and how his father always dislikes bringing up topics about his mother.
ReplyDeleteArt does a phenominal job in this book with the art. The pictures speak for themselves. Ive never read a book with such amazing and real art that decribes the story like that.
ReplyDeleteThis book really gets to you. Ive never seen pictures that make you feel such crazy emotions. Just how Vlad lost i family member, I too have lost family members. It is easy for me to relate to this book.
ReplyDelete@Nick Allard
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you about Vladek only throwing away the diary of his wife, Anja. On page 158 and beginning of 159, Vladek states, "these notebooks, and other really nice things of mother..." This meant that the belonging of Anja were destroyed because it reminded him of her so much and the fond memories they shared with each other. It always reminded him of what had happened to her. This is why I think that Vladek threw away more than just Anja's diaries.
I think Art tries to appeal to his readers through each and every drawing in the novel. He gives you something to go from instead of having to imagine what is going on in the story yourself. He uses the death of a loved one to bring out the emotion across to the readers.
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten to also mention that Art used masks to represent them pretending to be someone else. This was effective because it showed a little comical view of how they went around through people who would turn them in and pretended to be just like they were. And @Nick I do agree with Pascual.
ReplyDelete@ nate sennett
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nate when he says its hard to let go to something when it reminds you of someone special in your life. And the author relates to his readers because he also has had family in his life that have died. It is always hard to let go of someone, this is why it was so hard for Art to let go of the journals.
Art emphazises the feeling you have after a loss. He focuses on the loss of his mother, the diaries, and the losses his father had in the war. People can easily relate to this feeling because everyone has lost someone or something. The fact that Valdek destroyed his wife's diaries out of love shows how much he had lost in her death
ReplyDeleteArt uses pictures of his father's family and his mothers. From that we can relate because we tend to look at pictures as memories we had with that person. He felt angry that his father threw out his mother's journals because those were the memoriesof his mother.
ReplyDelete