Maus I

         From the first graphic to the last, this novel kept my attention. It was very interesting to hear and visually see Vladek's experiences during the holocaust. Although the characters in the story are represented by animals, you knew that the events that took place in the novel were real during this time in history. There were many themes that I noticed while reading MausI.
         One of the most prominent themes was Vladek's personality and his relationships with other characters in the book. At first, he seems like he is a loving father and husband because he hugs Artie and shows affection towards him when he gets called a rotten egg by his friends. Further on in the novel we learn about his first wife Anja. I feel that most of his story was about protecting her and making sure she would get out safe and alive. He cared about their family and did whatever he could to save their lives. However, when we are drawn back to "current" times with his marriage to Mala, he does not treat her as well. In fact, they hate each other and fight about money constantly. It also seems that he is unhappy with Artie. Every time Artie comes over to talk to his father, Vladek is very cold to him when he first arrives. He blames him for a lot of his troubles, like knocking over his pills and miscounting them, and makes fun of the coat Artie wears. Throughout Vladek's journey to survive he met many people, some were Jews, some were Poles, and some were Germans. Specifically, on pg. 118 Vladek gets stopped by a German officer and is demanded to hand over his I.D. papers. When the officer realizes that he is part of the Spiegelman family, and is related to Haskel, he is let go. This really showed me that it mattered who you knew at this point. However, towards the end of the novel it was interesting to me to see that everybody fought for themselves and did not really care about others, even family.
            I thought this novel was very interesting. In my opinion it is a good depiction of the Holocaust. It does not describe in depth what happened in Auschwitz but by retelling Vladek's experience we get a glimpse of the horrors the Jews and many others faced. Every day they lived in fear for their lives and they were constantly on the move to find new hiding places. All in all I thought this novel was good and the graphics really helped to explain the situations and portray the characters feelings throughout Vladek's story.