Week 7 Maus

IM SO ANGRY BLOGGER DIDN'T SAVE THIS. IT WAS DONE AND I HIT PUBLISH IT AND ????? NOW I HAVE TO RETYPE IT SO I'M SORRY IF THIS ISN'T AS COHERENT. I'm literally quaking cause this was longer cause I read both books.

I think Maus provides one of the most humanistic snap shots for world war two and the life of the jewish survivors due to its lack of a need to glorify the history or even inform all the facts. Rather, it chooses itself to feel more like a connection between a son and father that the reader gets tot peer into. I think that's why I had such a strong reaction to the second book  because it felt like people were trying to capitalize on this experience that was just meant to be read. Especially looking how personal his underground comic about his mother's death was. These book then felt like they were  made to honor the memory of his dad and their relationship. While the subject matter is important, we see flaws in the relationships with his father and everyone as well as the the father himself. It feels like a normal everyday story time between the two rather than a formal set up and reminds me of my grandparents. They were born 1926 and 1930 so they really save everything, have that sense of rugged individualism, and the repetition of words/actions. Sometimes I have a hard time connecting the father to his younger self, but they are the same. It is kind of amazing how the author gets us to relate to simple drawings or mice that sometimes even don't have eyebrows. Yet a lot could be said about it as it makes it have an element of the fantastic with a world of talking animals and it removes us to an area where "did that really happen?" "that doesn't seem right? Mice pretending to be pigs?" It reminds me of old Aesop fables. Yet there are times where we get grounded back to reality through photos every now and then. Plus in the beginning, when we see the author as a literal human form behind a mouse mask both child and adult.

Along the storyline though, It was interesting because it was such a set POV. We don't know what happened to everyone and if the chances they took were the right ones or was this option better. It felt very in the moment. We learn things we would have never known like how when his father became a war criminal, he showed where he shot someone in disguise. It was interesting to watch things escalate in the sense it all didn't suddenly get bad. I never knew how much food was a currency, but often in the books what he paid in food worked out better than when he tried to sell of jewelry or riches. It seems like a lot of the schemers karma got to, but even then people tried to defend themselves instead of looking ahead to see themselves on the chopping block. That being said, His fathers skills and handiness I think are what really saved him. The ability to teach and share knowledge really is something we take for granted. He did in a sense outlast, because even when he and Anja escaped they were visually stuck in swastika that was nazi inhabitance (pg 125). I've never seen a machine gun and I hope I never will. If anything.... I'm thinking also about his mother's journals. His father mentions that she writes a lot throughout the journey. what a loss not see it from her side, but I feel the connection between those two got stronger as human beings.