Representation Of Racial Stereotypes In Maus By Art Spiegelman

The author’s choice in which animal to represent each race helps us understand the stereotypes that is linked with each race in the book, In his comics he depicts animals such as mice and pigs and other animals because the author Spiegelman is playing off the anti-semitic stereotype of Jews as vermin or pets, as less than human. Many times throughout the war the Germans would refer to the Jewish people as “vermins” or “pets”. The hatred and overall disgust of Jewish People many refer to them as “ the ghetto swarming in tight quarters” they were bearded creatures that how they were often compared to rats or mice. For example, the Germans would use the fact that they were just like rats swimming around in sewers, they were than labelled; “Jews are the rats” or “The Vermin of Mankind”. As a result of all this hatred and dehumanization was the very core of this genocide project.

Secondly, the author of Maus plays off the racial stereotypes, and even stereotypical thinking in general, by indicating where the story falls apart. In the book the mice are not generally very good, the same with pigs they are not good yet they aren’t bad. In the book the mice are constantly wearing masks so that they can hide themselves and pass themselves off as someone else. The story does fall apart at many points in the story which can contradict why he uses animals in the first place. When the animal-humans deal with actual animals, for example when the Art’s Jewish Therapist has a pet cat. This can get confusing understanding which one is a animal-human and which one is an animal. The whole concept of which animal represent either a human or just a pet can contradict each other and the allegory falls apart. Another example is when are and Francoise have to use bug spray to get rid of some bug when they’re having a vacation in the Catskills, this is seen as a reference to Zyklon B understand that the mice used in the story are sometimes used with this pesticide is a connection between the killing of the Jewish people who are represented as mice in the story and the murder of the mice from the same thing that was made from Zyklon B.

Spiegelman spoke about how the perceived grace and nobility of cats ties in to the supposed Aryan supremacy which was part of the Nazi German ideology. There was one cat in the book that was sort of presented as noble and savage as a version of the Nazi’s, which was making them look more superior than everyone else. The book already presented that the “mice are jews” and the “cats are Germans”. This can be seen as a symbol representation for the Holocaust. While the Germans have been hunting down Jewish people this is a perfect example of the cat and mouse situation. As we already know that the German Cats are the predators that are preying on the mouses. The use of animals instead of humans can give a deeper understanding into racial stereotypes therefore, a better understanding of Spiegelman's on it.