Maus Close reading

        After reading chapter five, I decided to do my close read on the comic strip written by Arty 'Prisoner on the Hell Planet' on Pages 100, 101, 102, and 103. This narrative portrayed by Arty is very personal and explores the personal struggles he has with generational trauma and his mother's death. 

        To start off with the obvious, Art Spiegelman drifts away from the anthropomorphic portrayal of characters in Maus and shifts to portraying the characters to appear more "human". This shift shows how personal the contents of the comic strip are to Arty. The rest of Maus talks about the broad influence the Holocaust had on the general population of Jews, focusing on the experiences Vladic has. Whereas in this comic strip, the story is focused on Arty's intense personal experiences and second-generational trauma. On all four pages, the author exaggerates the facial expressions to show the different emotions Arty experiences after his mother passes. Some examples can be his conversation with his cousin and the doctor, or the droopy look on his face throughout the strip. 

       The stripped pajamas were common uniforms worn by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps.  From pages 100-103, we see only Arty in striped pajamas, which showcases the generational trauma that comes with the Holocaust. Anja's death was a suicide, (without a note) and it can be reasonably inferred that a major reason for her suicide was the struggles she faced in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. Arty being in stripped pajamas showcases how even though the Holocaust didn't directly influence him, it got to him through his parents, in this case, his mother. This detail shows how major events continue to deeply affect generation to generation in some way or another.