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In Maus the different animals are used to portray different races and different nationalities. In Maus, Jews are portrayed as mice, while Germans are portrayed as cats. The metaphor to choose to portray Jews as mice is taken directly from Nazi propaganda, which portrayed the Jews as a kind of vermin to be exterminated. The cat/mouse relationship is also a metaphor for the relationship between the Nazis and Jews: the Nazis toyed with the Jews before ultimately killing them. Dogs symbolize Americans. This could be an attempt to emphasize the “rescue part”. Dogs are supposed to be the best friend of human being and try to rescue them. Like the Americans did with the Jews. Polish people are drawn as pigs which could be to resemble the traditional, agricultural way of life, we think, Polish people lead. Parshas Truma (the Jewish holiday) stands for all the good events in Vladek’s life e.g. the day he was released from the prisoners’ of war camp, when he married Anja and when Artie’s Bar Mitzwa. (p. 57- 59) Important symbols to understand Artie character are comics. Drawing comics help him to get over the past. He can reflect on his mother’s suicide for instance. (p. 99 – 104) The swastika in chapter two seems to overshadow their honeymoon. It symbolizes the gradual threat of this new dictatorship. (p. 25) For Vladek pills represent a sense of security and he thinks they are part of the reason why he is still alive. They show his inner weakness and his inner scars. Another symbol for the scars the war left on Vladek is his glass eye (p.40) The pigs' mask is another important symbol in the book. This clearly symbolizes how Jewish people have to hide their identity to survive. It is dangerous for them to show their identity. In real live a pigs mask might have been substituted by typical Polish clothing, or accessoires. Swastika road (p. 125) symbolizes how no matter which way they take they risk their lives and the threat of dying surrounds them always Jewish star (p.82 and 109) starts labeling Jewish people to make it easier to tell them apart from other people On page 113 we see a good picture to portray the cat and mouse metaphor. The cats are portrayed as strong animals that stand over the weak mice. Page 82 shows a Jewish star with the head of a mouse in it. This again shows how Jewish people are starting to be labeled and this particular metaphor is also used to emphasize the “head money” or “bounty” you can get for reporting Jews. Another major symbol is food, which is directly connected with the theme of survival. Vladek risks his life several times in order to provide his family with food. “At night we sneaked out to look for what to eat…but it was nothing to find.”(p. 123) On page 116 the telephone wire is a symbol for Vladek personality of collecting everything. The war taught him that everything can be useful some time and that you have to save money to survive. Page 127 first tells the reader about the wedding ring for Anja. The ring is a symbol for the connectedness Vladek still feels to his past and to Anja in particular. The cigarettes Artie is smoking are a symbol for the new luxury his generation has. Vladek tells him that he never smoked because he had to save money in order to survive. He can’t understand why Artie wastes his money on smoking.
Symbols
