Interpretation of Maus: Vladek Wearing a Mask

(panel 2 on page 64 of Maus by Art Spiegelman)

On page 64 of Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a scene of Vladek trying to get on a train by pretending to be Polish. The panel is shaped as a circle, a motif which in class we have interpreted to represent the wheel of Vladek’s bicycle and a cycle back into his memories. The circle, however, can also represent the round spectacles that Vladek is wearing in the present time. Just like his glass eye, the lenses also signify how Vladek’s view of the world is largely shaped by his past memories in Poland.

As this panel shows Vladek viewing his memories through the circular lenses, it also parallels with the page’s focus of how racism creates bias. The train man, who was a Pole, only helped Vladek because he saw Vladek as another Pole. The circular lens represents how some view the world with “lenses” clouded by their racial prejudice. This flaw is highlighted especially because Maus focuses on the Holocaust, a catastrophe caused wholly by the twisted racism of Nazis.


Aside from the symbolism of glasses in the story, the circular panel also creates a metafictional effect reminding us readers that we are literally viewing and reading the story through fictional lenses that Spiegelman created for us. The framed lenses, in this case, are the panels and pages of the comic. By making Vladek wear a pig mask in the illustration, readers realize that if he literally wore a mask, it looks very obvious from the outside that his identity is fake. But the Pole could not distinguish Vladek from himself in terms of race, reminding the readers that even though portrayed differently in the story, humans are indeed one race. It also shows us how readers will never be able to see the entire picture of the Holocaust, which is made more mild with Spiegelman’s inclusion of animal allegory. By including this type of metafictional panel, Spiegelman reaches out to readers and makes them imagine the real story behind all the panels and attempts to fill the gap between fiction and the reality it portrays.


*side note* Hey, the symbol of lenses parallels with my blog name as well!

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 8, 2017 at 5:39 PM

    I really like how you analyzed the frame of the panel! The whole connection with lenses/glasses and the metafictional effect was something that I hadn't even thought of. I also really enjoyed your last sentence; there's that concept of filling in gaps between fiction and reality. (your connection to your blog name was nice as well lol)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can Derogatory Words Have Positive Meanings?

Image
In class this week, we had a short discussion on how certain words should belong to certain groups of individuals. In Song of Solomon , even Guitar, the character who is most protective of the African American race, used the n-word when saying how “every [white person] is a potential nigger-killer”(Morrison 155). It had always been something I knew subconsciously, how the n-word is only used when African Americans tease one another, or how the b-word is only used among good friends. However, I had never liked the idea of any derogatory words being used at all. I considered the n-word one of the greatest taboo words in our culture, and yet its frequent uses by the black community make the word impossible to ignore even in present days. The same goes for the b-word, even though some women do not get offended being called with the b-word or c-word. After doing some research, however, my perspectives began changing. While the n-word originated from slave owners, the ones who looke
Read more

Can You Be Consciously Self-Centered?

Image
This week in class, we read a speech by David Foster Wallace called “This Is Water,” which focused on how one should try to remove unconscious self-centeredness, or “water” in Wallace’s words. He compared complete self-centeredness and, if I shall name it, complete others-centeredness to emphasize the superiority of the latter. However when reading, it made me believe more that it would be extremely hard, if not impossible, to be 100% on either end of the spectrum. Although I am almost certain that Wallace made his argument with this thought in mind, I find myself disagreeing with his saying that one should be able “to sacrifice for [others]” (Wallace 237). Just like Wallace stated, it is just natural for human beings to be self-centered; in fact, self-centeredness is what maintains life in this world. Imagine a lion chasing a deer. The lion would not be blamed for taking another animal’s life, nor would the deer be blamed for the lion’s starvation. Of course, this
Read more