the author AND a character

MAUS: an introduction

Individually: 1. Answer

questions 1-32. Read &

Annotate the bottomAs a Group:

Discuss the answers to the questions on the back. You do not have to write anything down.

MAUS: an introduction

“I co-authored this book with Hitler” –

Art Spiegelman

America was using propaganda, too.

"Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed... Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal... Away with the Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika cross!"

-German newspaper article, mid-1930's

EXAMPLE of Spiegelman’s “Inspiration”

So, Spiegelman uses “anti-semitic” images to ATTACK anti-semitism.

SWASTIKA (symbol: _______)

MICE [symbol: (a negative one) Jews]

Juxtaposed: What effect is produced? Why would the author do this?

What is it?

So in MAUS….

When symbols are used to tell a second story (besides the main plot)….

The second story usually has a message (or moral)

The mice and cats are symbols….

What second story do these symbols tell?

English Literary StylesOld English [450-1100:Beowulf]

Middle English & Medieval [1100-1500: King Arthur Tales]

Renaissance [1500-1660: Shakespeare]Neo-Classical [1660-1798: John Locke, Newton, Bacon, gothic]Romanticism [1798-1837: Keats, Byron, Shelley]Victorian [1837-1901:Charles Dickens, Bronte sisters; Transcendentalists- Thoreau ,

Emerson, Whitman; Lewis Carroll]

Modernism [1900s: Freud, Kipling, HG Wells, Darwin, Virginia Woolf, TS Eliot]

Post-Modernism [WWII +: Truman Capote, Spiegelman, Hunter S. Thompson]

*the author makes you (the reader) aware of him/herself

*mixes genres --- that is called “pastiche”[a patchwork of genres]

*the author writes about writing --- that is called “metafiction”

*those in power create the reality for others [a main subject]

Turn to the Prologue

WHAT IT IS:~a form of dipping into the past~the purpose- to serve as a “fractal” (an

example of the whole) of the entire book~a “normal” childhood moment when Vladek’s

relationship with Art(Artie) is revealedMy Question to You: Based on this fractal, what is their relationship

like?

Turn to the page 12Read the Q’s, Examine the Page, Discuss, & Report Back to

me (4 min)

1. Where are we (the setting)? Be specific.

2. What does Vladek get on and what is he doing?

3. What do you notice specifically about the pictures?

Page 12 Answers

1. Artie’s childhood room (his room from the past).

2. Exercise bike… he’s pedaling… he’s talking about the past… he’s TRAVELING back into the past.

3. Vladek spans multiple panels; concentration camp tattoo; bottom right, JUXTAPOSITION between Old Vladek and Young Vladek (present and past).

Pages 13-18Read the question, examine the pages, discuss, &

report back (4 minutes)

1. What 3 main things should we make sure we know about this set of pages? In other words, what are the 3 most important things to know. [Evaluate]

Page 19Read the questions, examine the pages, discuss, &

report back (4 minutes)

1. What does Vladek do on this page?

2. What do we indirectly learn about his character?

3. Why is he doing what he is doing?

Page 23Read the questions, examine the page,

discuss, & report back

(2 minutes)1. Cite evidence of Post-Modernism.

2. Cite evidence of irony.

3. We’ve been talking about ethics… how are Art’s ethics tested here and how does he respond?

Page 23Answers

1. We are made aware of the writing process~ the “author” has made himself KNOWN as the author. They are TALKING about the story we are reading.

2. “…more real…more human.”

3. He defies his dad’s request. He lies to his dad.