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Maus - Devices

There is one device that the author uses that is not actually a literary device but is quite distinctive and unique, given the fact that the book is a graphic novel; the characters are all different kinds of animals, and the kind of animal is determined by certain identity traits. The Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, and Poles are pigs. For part of the novel, the artist's father is hiding his identity and attempting to appear Polish and, when he does that, he is drawn with a mask of a pig on. If he is ever found out or reveals himself, the mask comes off. Later in the book, after the artist's father dies and he has published the first part of his book, he depicted wearing the mouse mask. I think there are many interpretations for why this is the case, but to me it seems that he feels like an imposter. He has published this book about his father's life in the Holocaust, and now that his father is dead he feels lost and confused. He is seeing a psychologist, but it is hard for him to process not only his life but also his father's life.

One very strong literary device is irony. There is a very special kind of irony in historical stories for anyone who is familiar with the subsequent events. In Maus, the author's father is constantly making remarks about people thinking that their lives are going to go one way when it is apparent that they will end up in a concentration camp or killed in a ghetto. The irony is bitter and coats every aspect of hope that is expressed.

There is an interesting juxtaposition of conflicts in the story. The main conflict in the past is that of the mice attempting to survive the Holocaust, with them working against the cats and the pigs and even each other. In the present, there is conflict between the father and his son, the father and his second wife, and even the father against himself. His health is faltering, and there is even the conflict between him as he fights to survive in the ghetto and in a concentration camp versus him as an old man battling ailments and becoming weaker over time. We watch the artist deal with hearing about his father's triumph over the Holocaust and witnessing his father slowly dying from old age. 

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