Maus

I think a conscious choice that Art Spiegelman made was to depict the characters as animals. I think this is a brilliant choice because immersed in a story about the Holocaust can be tremendously difficult. Even though it was still difficult to read, it sort of created a barrier between the reader and the characters. I first read Maus in high school for my history class. I ate through the pages. I connected with the story, and could not stop reading. This was completely different from how I responded to a story like The Diary of Anne Frank. I connected with her story but it was extremely difficult to read, and I was constantly having to separate myself from it. I also love the way he starts the story. A simple story of a child asking their father about how they met their mother. It's a common question, and I think it starts such a huge and iconic story in a way that is simple and realistic. Some times these stories are so weighed down with facts that it loses the humanity from the time, and I think Spiegelman found a great way to write a story dealing with heavy subject matter in a way that is universally relatable, because at the end of the day it is a story about love and survival.