Bizarre Take #9: Power Over the Mice: Painted by Spiegelman

For this blog, I decided to write about a section of the comic that I found particularly interesting, and prompted me to continue exploring this concealed issue that suddenly came to light on pages 87 to 88. These pages highlighted the idea of a power dynamic and how apparent it was throughout Spiegelman’s writing. Throughout Maus, Spiegelman makes an argument centered around power, and how its slow takeover over large groups of people can cause a huge divide, specifically between the “mice” and the “cats”.

Starting off, on page 87, we can see Vladek explaining his experiences with the German police, and how his family was forced to give up their grandparents and send them to Czechoslovakia, shown when they said, “If the Kamios don’t turn up in 3 days, YOU will be sent in their place!” (Page 87). This obviously caused a major ripple within their family, as they were all very interconnected and didn’t want to separate. This shows the power that the Germans had over the Jews, and how they could force them to do anything they wanted, sort of like puppets. This power dynamic caused many divides between families and relationships. This had a major impact on people, and brought to light the severity of the situation. This division of power was very unbalanced, and caused rippling effects to everyone. This wasn’t exclusive to Jews, either. Other people also faced struggles throughout this tyranny.

Throughout the page, the past is portrayed brightly, with things drawn out and clear images. However, the present is shown in the shadows. This brings forth the argument that the present is sort of viewing the past blindly. They have no power over what has happened; they can simply view it with grief in their hearts. The past, although no color, is drawn with faces and images to show the reality of the situation, and to accentuate certain ideas within the comic. Moving onto the next page (page 88), the past, where Vladek is telling the story to Artie, the characters are shaded in. This transition between completely black to shaded shows how they were slowly regaining their life back but were still powerless. These effects Spiegelman added emphasize the power dynamic and show how much control the Germans had. Throughout the panels, the crowds are shown as shaded in, and only certain characters are shaded in. This shows how they were all alike in some manner. Through the Germans' control, the jews had all become identical, experiencing the same things as each other. Spiegelman portrays this by drawing no faces, simply bodies of mice standing together.

All these effects work together to build the argument of power, and how one entity having control of it can cause a widespread impact over those affected. It can cause a huge divide within people, and can have varying effects over the future generations, such as trauma and PTSD. Overall, its safe to say that Spiegelman does an excellent job of portraying the distribution of power through the classic cat-and-mouse dynamic!

Comic Enthusiast,

• Prisha