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The Pig Morgan Youngblut (110853810)
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale instead of drawing the characters as humans they are different animals depending on where they are from. This makes the different nationalities very clear and creates symbolism with the animals as well as between them. The Americans are the loyal and brave dogs and the Germans are hissing, mean cats rounding up the Jewish people drawn as scared, nervous mice. The Polish prisoners in the book are shown as pigs.
The pig is a very ambivalent symbol and this works very well in this story as pigs represent the Polish people. An ambivalent symbol holds more then one meaning and usually opposing ones. In some cultures pigs are seen as symbols of good things like in the Celtic culture they represent abundance. Pigs also symbolize prosperity, fertility and usefulness. This represents how the Jewish prisoners saw them. As comrades in a way, who were sharing the same struggles and were able to help them in big ways like protecting them and helping them escape and in small ways, for instance, offer them food. At the same time in some cultures pigs are seen as symbols of bad things. For instance in Christianity pigs represent gluttony. Pigs can also represent greed, lust, and anger and may be considered unclean. These representations demonstrate what the German soldiers in charge of the camps must have thought about the Polish prisoners. Even though they weren’t Jewish the Germans felt that everyone was below them. The pig is a great symbol within the story because it’s not a natural enemy of the German’s who are cats or the Jewish people who are mice. It’s very neutral, compared to cats and mice, which are seen as natural enemies.
It should be noted that although the effects of the Holocaust on the Polish people aren’t as discussed as how the Jewish people were affected they suffered greatly at the hands of the Germans. After Poland was defeated by Germany in September 1939 they were terrorized and millions were killed as well as sent to the concentration camps. The German’s also exiled their leaders in an attempt the make their leadership crumble.
The biggest theme in this novel and in the historical events it depicts is “othering”. This means taking certain characteristics that a society does not wish to be associated with and projecting them onto another society or even group within society. This is precisely what Adolf Hitler did mostly with the Jewish people and other races since he felt that everyone was below the Germans. He systematically took away the rights of others and made them less than human. This is interesting because this is also what Spiegelman did by drawing the characters as animals. By drawing the characters as different animals there is also a very simplistic symbolism of othering. Some animals get along more then others like the mice and the frogs but they will always remain in their separate groups. A dog won’t be fully accepted into a group of deer no matter how friendly they are with each other.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is a very touching, informative and easy to follow rendition of a Holocaust survivor’s story. It is awash with symbolism and carries strong lessons about human nature.
References
· Cooper, J. C. (20041978). An illustrated encyclopedia of traditional symbols. New York: Thames and Hudson.
· (2007,Nov, 3). Symbolic Meanings of Pigs. Symbolic-Meanings.com. Retrieved from http://www.symbolic-meanings.com/2007/11/03/symbolic-meaning-of-pigs/
· Polish Victims. (n.d.). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473
In Art Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale instead of drawing the characters as humans they are different animals depending on where they are from. This makes the different nationalities very clear and creates symbolism with the animals as well as between them. The Americans are the loyal and brave dogs and the Germans are hissing, mean cats rounding up the Jewish people drawn as scared, nervous mice. The Polish prisoners in the book are shown as pigs.
The pig is a very ambivalent symbol and this works very well in this story as pigs represent the Polish people. An ambivalent symbol holds more then one meaning and usually opposing ones. In some cultures pigs are seen as symbols of good things like in the Celtic culture they represent abundance. Pigs also symbolize prosperity, fertility and usefulness. This represents how the Jewish prisoners saw them. As comrades in a way, who were sharing the same struggles and were able to help them in big ways like protecting them and helping them escape and in small ways, for instance, offer them food. At the same time in some cultures pigs are seen as symbols of bad things. For instance in Christianity pigs represent gluttony. Pigs can also represent greed, lust, and anger and may be considered unclean. These representations demonstrate what the German soldiers in charge of the camps must have thought about the Polish prisoners. Even though they weren’t Jewish the Germans felt that everyone was below them. The pig is a great symbol within the story because it’s not a natural enemy of the German’s who are cats or the Jewish people who are mice. It’s very neutral, compared to cats and mice, which are seen as natural enemies.
It should be noted that although the effects of the Holocaust on the Polish people aren’t as discussed as how the Jewish people were affected they suffered greatly at the hands of the Germans. After Poland was defeated by Germany in September 1939 they were terrorized and millions were killed as well as sent to the concentration camps. The German’s also exiled their leaders in an attempt the make their leadership crumble.
The biggest theme in this novel and in the historical events it depicts is “othering”. This means taking certain characteristics that a society does not wish to be associated with and projecting them onto another society or even group within society. This is precisely what Adolf Hitler did mostly with the Jewish people and other races since he felt that everyone was below the Germans. He systematically took away the rights of others and made them less than human. This is interesting because this is also what Spiegelman did by drawing the characters as animals. By drawing the characters as different animals there is also a very simplistic symbolism of othering. Some animals get along more then others like the mice and the frogs but they will always remain in their separate groups. A dog won’t be fully accepted into a group of deer no matter how friendly they are with each other.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale is a very touching, informative and easy to follow rendition of a Holocaust survivor’s story. It is awash with symbolism and carries strong lessons about human nature.
References
· Cooper, J. C. (20041978). An illustrated encyclopedia of traditional symbols. New York: Thames and Hudson.
· (2007,Nov, 3). Symbolic Meanings of Pigs. Symbolic-Meanings.com. Retrieved from http://www.symbolic-meanings.com/2007/11/03/symbolic-meaning-of-pigs/
· Polish Victims. (n.d.). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473