Week 7: Spiegelman's Complete Maus

This week I read Maus by Art Spiegelman. This comic is about war and death, family and friends, father and son. The story is told through the interview between the father and the son. The story goes through the whole life of the father. I really enjoy reading this story through the father's POV. At the beginning of the story, I felt the character in his story is so different from himself in reality. I think the author is really clever to mix the real-life and the story together. After reading more about the story, I start to see the similarities between father and the young handsome man. 

In the story, this young man is ambitious and energetic. He is very confident to do anything. He wants to build his own business and family. He wants to show himself off to the girl he loves. But I can also see how irresponsible he is. He didn't refuse Lucia when she showed her love to him. Even after he started a relationship with the author's mom, he still didn't reject her completely. In the real-life, the father is the same person. He blamed Wala for a lot of things. He always gives orders and never wants to obey. When the author dropped cigarette ashes on the carpet, he was very angry and started giving orders. 

I also really like how the author depicts the war. He mixed the real-life and the stories together. So the audience can see how the war changed father obviously. He was ordered and tortured by soldiers. But now he threw his son's coat. He started to force other people to follow his orders. He was changed by the war. 

When the author depicted his father, I think he wanted to create a real human. So he gave his father bad temper and personality. But he also described how his father cared about his family, how clever he was and how brave he was. All these things make him look more like a human. I think why this book is so attractive.