Week 7- Maus ( 6 pts.)

 Going into Maus, I had never really heard of it before, but the illustrations did look somewhat familiar. I was slightly nervous yet interested upon discovering that it was an allegory for the Holocaust, yet at the same time, I know that it is important for everyone to be reminded of the horrors of the past, as we shouldn't just ignore history. I believe that displaying this piece of history in a creative and narrative driven manner is one of the best ways for more people to read and understand. Its more interesting to read it through the lens of characters that feel like real people sharing their experiences among their family (in this case, The main lead's father). It made me forget that most of the characters were animal people half the time, I never felt like it got in the way of anything. Its's just as the son said in the story, "It makes everything more real- more human." I feel that the parallel between Mice and Cats was created as an easy to understand allegory to lure people into discovering a deeper story to complement the history.

The artwork is really well done. Even though the mice characters have limited facial expressions, I feel that the dialogue and actions combined make for a clear and understandable set of events. The line work is fairly clean, though they often use crosshatching to shade in various rooms and characters. The environments and proportions of the characters bodies were fairly realistic. In a way, it reminds of of an extended children's book style, but made more adult. The more violent scenes were handled with care and in a way that wasn't too graphic, but clearly did not shy away from the tragedy.