Today, I decided to present you a famous American graphic novel. It’s Maus, written and drawn by Art Spiegelman, published between 1970 and 1980. It was the first graphic novel to receive the Pullitzer Prize. Spiegelman deals with the palce of the Polish Jews during World War 2. Exactly, Spiegelman presents us his father’s story, as a Holocaust survivor. Spiegelman stages himself in the story, he is nicknamed Artie.

The particularity of the story is the representation of characters as animals. Nazist people are cats, Polish jews are mice (hence the title « maus » which means mice in German), and Polish non-jews are pigs. Spiegelman shows this story with embedded narrative : it’s Vladek who tells his story to Artie, now he’s in the USA. He is talking about his situation as a Jew, his passage in Auschwitz, face to Gestapo..

You should read this book, it’s awesome, and very interresting. The black and white drawings emphasizes the dark time that is the World War 2, with the genocide. Reality of this period is well-despicted.