Predicting the Class Novel Six Years Prior

     When I saw the cover of Maus, I was immediately taken back to elementary school. I remember being at the Scholastic book fair and being confused by the cover of a particular book. It was obvious the girl was trapped, and there was a symbol surrounding her, but what did it mean? After reading, and rereading, and rereading again, I was captivated by Lida’s fight to survive in “Making Bombs for Hitler” by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Lida, a ten-year-old Ukrainian girl, was taken away from her little sister to a slave labor camp in Germany. There, when forced to make bombs with some other girls, she and the others came up with the creative plan to use dirt instead of gunpowder in the bombs they made, writing letters of hope and putting them inside. This act of defiance could’ve costed their lives, but when the only certain thing in their lives was death, they were willing to risk it all to prove something.

(My personal beat-up copy)
    

This story sounds similar to what happened to Vladek, being torn away from family and ending up at a slave labor camp. Although one is Christian and the other Jewish, both show perseverance during WWII. On the cover of both books, someone is trapped by the swastika. In Maus I, Vladek and Anja are shown cowering under the spotlight of a swastika. On Making Bombs for Hitler, Lida is surrounded by weapons of her own making, trapping her in a swastika. This motif of being trapped is demonstrated in both novels through plots and images. 

A lingering question I still have is why was Artie always mean to his father? I understand that Artie created the book and could choose to portray himself as the perfect son, but he only showed bad moments between them. There was never really a happy moment between Artie and Vladek. Could it be to show his constant resentment for being neglected in comparison to Richieu? Could it be to show how he felt like he was exploiting his father for his story but never helped him? I still can’t tell, but it was heartbreaking seeing Vladek say “So, never mind, darling. Always it’s a pleasure when you visit,” (Maus II, 117).

Another detail I noticed were the dedications and epigraphs of the books. The dedication of the book is showing how these books were made to heal Artie. While telling his father’s story, he dedicates Maus I to Anja and Maus II to Richieu (and Nadja, his daughter). Artie is telling the stories of the living while dedicating them to the dead, the past, and the future. In this way, he not only heals what is in his present, but what has haunted his past. He is telling all their stories, including his own. But these meaningful dedications are a stark contrast to the epigraphs, both of which were Nazi propaganda, “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human,” (Maus I, Adolf Hitler), and “…Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!” (Maus II, newspaper article, Pomerania, Germany, mid-1930s).

    And how could I possibly forget to mention how Panera has to do with my Maus experience? While studying with two friends at Panera, I was just doing my daily Maus reading. But remember, after taking the SAT, no one is truly themselves. Well, that includes me, and when I got to the moment of selflessness of Vladek and the characters’ later deaths (Maus I, p124-125), that was it for me, and I was crying at Panera. 0/10, would not do the school reading in public again. 

(Maus I, p124-125)