Spiegelman: Depicting Maus Critical Thinking Sample

[Institution Title]
Art Spiegelman popularized by his graphic novel Maus, paved the way for a more comprehensive discussion of the use of comics in a compelling and serious issues such as the events discussing the Holocaust. While Spiegelman is already noted for his controversial covers for some of the most controversial issues, many still question his approach of presenting a story. Other claims that it trivialize the issue almost giving it a less serious appeal to a point that it is made less real and less relevant. However, many still find meaning and relevance to approach that Spiegelman use to narrate his story.
Opinion wise, Spiegelman approach is in fact creative and artistic. And while this is not the center of discussion, it can be used to defend his approach from critics who said that Spiegelman’s use of comic to narrate a serious issue is to trivialize and to make the scenario less real. Spiegelman’s approach was rather very useful for people who have trouble visualizing what is being narrated. There are people who understood concepts and abstracts through the use of visuals and symbolisms. Spiegelman approach was more directed for this audience. In addition, Spiegelman’s use of comic was just to make the narrative more interesting or a wider audience. While the story has historical and social sense, many might not be interested to sit down with a thick novel of almost 300pages with less than a font size of 10 and be forced to picture a scenario because frankly speaking majority of people are not actually trained readers. Technology allowed for today’s generation to be more visual . Hence, presenting an important story with graphics is actually more interesting and appealing for today’s readers.
Finally, the use of animated characters like animals in Maus, a graphic memoir of the events that transpired during the Holocaust was symbolical rather that it was artistic. The use of rodents to depict the lead characters were symbolical to representing them as lesser classes as what their actual human characters represent. People simply had to look beyond the standards and see this as an artistic and symbolical expression of an artist.

References

Hatfield, C. (2005). Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi.