Friday, September 23, 2011

Men as Mice in Maus: A Survivor's Tale

    Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a graphic narrative-biography based on the author's relationship with his father and his father's experience as a holocaust survivor.  Before I get into the metaphor analysis, I'd like to point out this is one of the most enjoyable and interesting books I've ever read.  I even like it almost as much as the Harry Potter series! With that important and pertinent information aside, let us discuss the many metaphors present in Maus.
    The most apparent metaphors in Maus are the representations of people as animals.  Jews are represented as mice, the Nazis are cats, the French are frogs, Poles are pigs, and Americans are dogs.  Spiegelman chose certain aspects of the different nationalities, religions, and races present in this narrative and their role in the Holocaust to determine what animal to assign that group.  Spiegelman chose animals that have stereotypes associated with them when these animals interact with one another.  At one point in the book, Spiegelman's father retells an incident where he acts like a Polish person in order to avoid being captured as a Jew. Spiegelman illustrates a mouse wearing a pig mask to show that the only actual difference was the way that his father looked. Readers are able to see the dangers of classifying people within these rigid lines, as in the way the Nazis persecuted the Jews as a whole during the Holocaust.
    The Jews represented as mice is to be mainly from the perception of the Nazi regime. To clarify, representing a Jew as a mouse is something that would seem fitting in the mind of the Nazis.  Mice are dirty, scared, nuisances to people, and need to be exterminated.  People don't get attached to mice (normally) and can distance themselves from the death of a mouse.  Jews are shown tortured and killed throughout the narrative while a smirking cat with a Nazi uniform paces in the background, taking pleasure in the pain and suffering of the Jews. Mice are always victims, and Spiegelman represents the Jews as helpless mice during the Holocaust.  Many things that Vladek and his family did during the Holocaust are similar to the actions of a mouse.  His family hid to avoid capture, only to eventually be captured and killed or sent to a concentration camp.  Although readers have many negative perceptions about mice, there is a more important quality in mice that I believe Spiegelman highlights in the narrative.  Mice have a remarkably strong will to live, just the way Vladek described the efforts of the Jewish population to live after being captured by the Nazis.  Vladek sold his belongings, worked many jobs in the concentration camps, and did everything he could to keep himself and his wife alive.
    Relationships between the animals in the narrative are similar to the interactions they have in real life.  For instance, Spiegelman chose to represent Jews as mice and Nazis as cats knowing that cats chase and kill mice in real life.  He chose to represent the Americans as dogs knowing that dogs chase and (given the opportunity) kill cats in real life.  Spiegelman did more than metaphorically designate characteristics about each of the animals to people.  He applied relationships between animals to relationships between the good, the bad, and the victimized groups of the Holocaust and World War II.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Romantic-Comedies.. Thanks and Gig 'em

  It is typical of romantic-comedies to have most, if not all, of the drama revolve around or involve the leading female character.  Women involved in drama? It's a shocking claim, I know. Some examples, such as the classic battle between the father and the daughter's boyfriend, the male lead chasing the female lead, and the once womanizing male character renouncing his old ways to win the girl all provide support to this sound, and might I add, credible argument.
    The epic father-future son-in-law battle is consistently used in romantic-comedies and often the major conflict in the film.  Take Meet the Fockers, starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.  Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) is introduced to his soon-to-be fiance's father, Jack Byrne (Robert De Niro), is ex-CIA counterintelligence.  Because of Jack's disapproval of Greg's occupation as a nurse and feelings that Greg is unworthy of his daughter, Jack constantly tries to belittle Greg and find fault in him.  Greg does an excellent job digging an even deeper hole for himself through many failed attempts at fitting in with the family.  The conflict culminates to a final showdown with the two men facing off across a lie-detector discussing Greg and Pam's (Jack's daughter) relationship, and Jack ultimately gives Greg his blessing to marry his daughter.
    This battle over the prized daughter appears in Crazy, Stupid, Love as well.  (For those who have not seen this movie, skip this paragraph and continue reading at the next. Actually, skip the next also. I'd hate to be a lowly spoiler) Cal (Steve Carell) will not allow his friend/relationship coach, Jacob (Ryan Gosling) to be in a relationship with his daughter, Hannah (Emma Stone).  Cal does not approve of their relationship until the end of the film because he has seen Jacob's womanizing ways.
    Womanizing is a popular theme in the genre of romantic-comedies.  In Crazy, Stupid, Love, Jacob sleeps with (this is a very rough estimate) hundreds of girls prior to ultimately falling in love with Hannah.  Cal is actually coached by Jacob in the ways of picking up women solely to have sex with them, and Cal is successful if you agree that the practice of womanizing can have a successful ending.  Another example of a womanizer-gone-soft can be scene in the romantic-comedy 50 First Dates, starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler.  Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a womanizer prior to meeting his future wife Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore).  Henry stops his womanizing ways in order to try to win over Lucy, and devises new ways to meet her everyday since her medical condition causes her to forget her memory overnight.
    The last point relinquishing of womanizing ways ties into this next example, which is the typical inclusion of the boy chasing the girl in romantic-comedies. This applies to all of the films provided above.  Cal tries to win his wife back and Jacob pursues Hannah in Crazy, Stupid, Love.  Henry Roth faces a lot of adversity in chasing Lucy in 50 First Dates, with challenges ranging from shear persistence to winning over Lucy's father and brother.  Greg comes back Pam's house to try to fix their relationship in Meet the Parents.  The list of examples could go on and on because this is such a popular and important aspect of this genre.