Prisoner on the Hell Planet
The biggest theme that i noticed most when I was reading Maus was the comic Prisoner on the Hell Planet written by Artie. As i flipped to page 100 in the book it immediately caught my eye and struck me as different than the regular storyline. Instead of continuing to write in the same format, Spiegelman chose to illustrate differently to show the emotional pain he felt caused by the suicide of his mother. Spiegelman illustrates the characters as humans not as animals because is seems more graphic and real. The illustrations are much darker with shading and all of the character's faces are detailed and close up. The jail cells represent his guilt for blaming himself about his mother's suicide. His actions and lack of care for his mother in his early years were displayed so we can confirm this from within the scenes. Spiegelman did a great job displaying the inner theme from his change in style in Prisoner on the Hell Planet.
I also thought that by drawing human pictures instead of animals made the situation seem more real. The picture that really caught my eye was the one showing Artie's teardrops as they rolled down his face. It was a very genuine illustration that made me feel some of his pain as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the drawings I saw and felt so much more pain than i would have with just the mice used as the characters. It was a much darker and depressing illustration. The drawings and symbolic meaning of the jail and him being a prisoner really shows how tormented Artie feels about the suicide of his mother.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone on Speigelman's approach. The illustrations made the struggles more clear and much more emotional, really showing pain. The illustrations were a way to show his pain and guilt surrounding Artie's mothers death.
ReplyDeleteI would like to say I also agree with everyone speigelman made a good approach. Changing the illustrations was a pretty heavy impact. It made it feel very real. It also helped to make the reader understand what Artie is really going through.
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