Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus”, used anthropomorphism to represented nationality groups as certain animals. The use of animals helped create relational imagery between groups based on their animal representative. For instance, those of Jewish descent were represented as mice, the Germans were represented as cats, Polish as pigs and Americans as dogs.
Those who were Jewish were represented as mice in “Maus”, which coincidentally translates to mouse. This is because Jews were considered the lowest kind people and were treated in a ways that were inhumane. Nazi’s goal was to exterminate Jews due to eugenics, the elimination of “abnormalities and illnesses” from their own race. They were left in concentration camps to essentially starve and fight for food scraps. The camps were extremely unhygienic as it was littered in feces, bodies and pests; such as fleas and rats. In respect to mice, cats are considered their worst enemies hence the Nazi were drawn as cats. Jews were belittled, tortured and left to work in hard condition. Jewish people and were left in the mercy of the Nazi’s claws and forced to bow and perform at their will. Unfortunately children, were treated as lab experiments that would either leave them deformed or dead.
In a documentary Spiegelman watched he recalled that “Jews [were in] a ghetto swarming in tight quarters, bearded caftaned creatures, and then a cut to Jews as mice—or rather rats—swarming in a sewer”. Jews were often represented as rodents in literature and media, and it was this that drew Spiegelman to finalize his decision to draw Jews as mice/rats.
On the other hand, Nazi were powerful cats that dominated “mice infested” territories. Spiegelman drew the Nazi as cats to illustrate the mouse and cat relationship between the Jews and Nazi. Due to the Nazi ideology, The German army stripped many of the Jewish people of their possessions and title leaving them with nothing. The cats are seen to be drawn with an evil atmosphere and bigger than all the mice.
The Polish were represented by pigs, and often Jews are seen wearing pigs mask to disguise themselves as regular Polish people. During World War 2, Poland was defeated within 2 months of being invaded and the residences were forced under the will of the Nazi. Some followed under the Nazi army, agreeing to their ideology, others helped the Jews hide and escape from the army and some stayed neutral.
