Maus Study Questions: Chapter 1: the Sheik (15 Points Total)

Maus Study Questions: Chapter 1: "The Sheik" (15 points total) 1. Why is Chapter One called "The Sheik"?

2. (3) What three things does Artie say have "taken their toll" on his father?

3. What evidence does Vladek still show from the concentration camps?

4. On page 12, the circular panel marks the beginning of Vladek's story. Where do we first interrupt that story, and come back to the present for a moment? (page and panel)

5. In what year did Vladek meet his future wife Anja?

6. True or False. Anja came from a very rich family.

7. True or False. Vladek married Anja for her money.

8. (2) What evidence do we have that Vladek is very worried about neatness?

9. (4) List any words/things you don't understand, or questions you have so far. Maus Study Questions: Chapter 2: "The Honeymoon" (5 points total) 1. True or False. Anja's father is a stingy skinflint: he does not want to help Vladek and Anja.

2. Where do Anja and Vladek go, when Anja is suffering from post-partum depression? a) Disneyland. b) a sanitarium in Czechoslovakia. c) the World's Fair in New York. d) Sosnowiec.

3. How can we easily tell that Richieu's governess, (nanny), is a non-Jewish Pole?

4. As an old man, what is unusual about Vladek's left eye? (Hint: this is his "perfect" eye).

5. Why doesn't Vladek tell the young doctor about his left eye? a) he doesn't want to embarrass the doctor. b) he is afraid the doctor will not want to fix his right eye. c) he figures the doctor should know what he is doing. d) he wants to make fun of the doctor. Maus Study Questions: Chapter 3: "Prisoner of War" (20 points total) 1. Why does Vladek leave Anja and Richieu? a) he was in the Polish Reserves Army. b) he received a draft notice to report for duty. c) Germany is ready to invade Poland. d) all of these.

2. Why doesn't Vladek's father want Vladek to join the army? a) he did not want any of his sons to join the army. b) he had pulled out 14 of his own teeth in order to avoid the army. c) When Vladek's father was young, Polish people were drafted into the Russian Army, where they had to serve for twenty-five years, in Siberia. d) all of the above.

3. As a soldier, Vladek fights in one battle. What does he do? a) gets in trouble for having cold gun. b) gets in trouble for having warm gun. c) shoots a "tree." d) gets captured. e) all of these.

4. On page 51, how does the German officer know that Vladek is not used to physical labor?

5. What kind of work does Vladek do for the Germans?

6. ( T / F ) Vladek is lazy: he works as little as he possibly can?

7. How often does "Parshas Truma" occur?

8. (3) List 3 important events in Vladek's life, which happened during a "Parshas Truma" week.

9. In the "Parshas Truma" episode on pages 57 to 59, we see an example of Vladek's sense of faith and fate. Later in the story, we will see and hear a similar story about Vladek's "number". We see that Vladek is being superstitious. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Support your choice.

10. Where is Sosnowiec located? a) in the Reich. b) in the Protectorate. c) in the part of Poland which used to be part of Germany. d) all of the above. e) both a and c.

11. Why does the Orbach family help Vladek? (support your opinion with references to the text).

12. When a person pretends to belong to a different race or nationality, we say they are trying to "pass". Why is Vladek able to "pass" as a non-Jewish Pole (Polish person)?

13. ( T / F ) Vladek actually wears a "Polish" mask on the train.

14. (2) On page 65, we hear about Vladek's father being humiliated by German soldiers. Why did the Germans act that way? What motivations might the Germans have had?

15. (3) What happens to Artie's coat? What motivates Vladek? Why is Artie upset?

Maus Study Questions: Chapter 4: "The Noose Tightens" (10 points total) 1. (2) In Chapter 4, on page 77, we see Vladek dealing in the "black market". How does he make money this way? Why would there be laws making this illegal?

2. On page 79, why is Anja's father "so unhappy!" He has already been cheated out of his factories. Why would a bit of furniture upset him so much?

3. (2) On page 82, we hear the term "ghetto". What does that word mean to you? What did it mean to the Jews in Poland?

4. (3) On 83, why are the men/mice hanging? Who are those men/mice? What was their crime?

5. (2) After seeing his business associates hanging, why does Vladek continue with his "black market" dealings? Does he consider his dealings to be immoral or just illegal? Maus Chapter 4: "Vocabulary Words" True/False A-Go-Go: (15 points total) 1. ( T / F ) Vladek knew Mala, back when he and Anja lived in Poland. (hint: see page 11).

2. ( T / F ) Vladek's subjective opinion is that he had a very happy marriage with Anja.

3. ( T / F ) Vladek's subjective opinion is that he has a very happy marriage with Mala.

4. ( T / F ) Vladek is a diligent, fussy, old man with many idiosyncrasies.

5. ( T / F ) An objective observer might view questions 2, 3, and 4 differently than Vladek.

6. ( T / F ) According to your own subjective opinion, Vladek is an easy guy to live with.

7. ( T / F ) Question 6 has only one right answer.

8. ( T / F ) Brother-in-law Wolfe collaborates with the Nazi occupying force.

9. ( T / F ) Vladek would rather risk his own life, and Richieu's, than collaborate with Nazi's.

10. ( T / F ) You could consider the situation in question 9 a dilemma.

11. ( T / F ) In Maus, we see that Germans and (non-Jewish) Poles discriminate against Jews.

12. ( T / F ) In Maus, we see the Germans devise many ways to segregate the Jews in Poland.

13. ( T / F ) Vladek can dissemble gracefully, even in very dangerous situations.

14. ( T / F ) Vladek's father will probably die if he chooses to help his daughter Fela.

15. ( T / F ) Fela and her children will probably die, even if Vladek's father tries to help them. Maus Study Questions: Chapter 5: "Mouse Holes" (35 points total) 1. (2) List two reasons why is Artie unwilling to help Vladek fix the drain pipe?

2. (2) Why is Vladek unfriendly to Artie on page 98? What is going on here?

3. ( T / F ) On pages 100 to 103, Anja is presented to us as the antagonist of the story.

4. ( T / F ) Those pages allow us to see that Artie views his mother Anja with ambivalence.

5. Do you think that Vladek ever views Anja with ambivalence? Support your viewpoint.

6. (2) Why does Anja's suicide seem so much more disturbing to us than the other deaths we have seen in Maus? Do the "mouse faces" allow us to reconcile those earlier deaths?

7. (2) Why do you think Art Spiegelman chose to include "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" in Maus? Couldn't he have just mentioned that comic, instead of showing it to us?

8. Is Maus a better book, because Art Spiegelman chose to share his mother's suicide? Support your opinion now, then return to this question after reading all of Maus II.

9. The Village of Srodula, in 1943, is converted to this by the German occupiers.

10. ( T / F ) Wolfe's Uncle Persis is a collaborator with the Germans.

11. ( T / F ) Wolfe's Uncle Persis uses his power wisely, and genuinely tries to help the Jewish Community in Zawiercie.

12. (2) What do the previous questions help you understand about the we labels we place on one another? Vladek despises collaborators; yet he admires Uncle Persis. How can this be?

13. (3) How does Richieu die? What is Tosha's motivation? How does Vladek feel about this?

14. (4) Describe three separate hide-away bunkers that we see in Chapter 5. Which works best?

15. (2) What happens to the informer who betrays Vladek's family? What was your reaction?

16. (2) Vladek does not approve of his Cousin Haskel? Is it just because Haskel is always looking for ways to make a profit? (like Vladek, himself). Or is more going on here?

17. (4) Vladek calls Haskel a "Kombinator." What does he mean by this? Give two examples of Haskel acting like a "Kombinator." What term might we use today to describe him?

18. (3) How do Vladek and Anja escape from Srodula? Did this surprise you? Why or why not?

Maus Study Questions: Chapter 6: "Mouse Trap" (40 points total) 1. On pages 130 to 134 How would you describe the relationship between Artie and Mala? a) sympathetic. b) comfortable. c) thoughtful. d) understanding. e) all of these.

2. (3) How do Artie & Mala view Vladek? Do they have the same viewpoint? Why might they?

3. (2) They both have so many issues with Vladek, yet they continue to spend time with him.

-What does Artie need from Vladek? -What does Mala need from Vladek?

4. (4) Compare this passage with the conversation between Vladek and Artie on pages 125 to 127, at the end of Chapter 5. How does Vladek view Mala? How does Vladek view Artie? Does he have issues with each of them? If so, why does he continue to deal with them?

5. On page 131, Artie brings up the issue of stereotypes. Why is it important to him that in his book Maus, Vladek should not appear as simply "the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew"?

6. (2) Why should we avoid lumping people together by stereotypes? What might we miss?

7. (2) On page 133, Vladek says "Yes. I know already my story by heart, and even I am interested". What does he mean? Why did Mala assume that Vladek would be interested?

8. (3) Vladek compares Artie to Walt Disney. Why does this seem so funny to Artie? Would Artie ever think of himself as similar to Walt Disney? Why might we compare those two cartoonists?

9. Chapter 6 shows us how Vladek and Anja hid from the Nazis, once they were separated from the rest of their family. Could they have hid in all the same places if they still had Richieu with them?

10. On page 136, why does Richieu's old governess, Janina, refuse to help Vladek and Anja?

11. Yet Mr. Lukowski, the janitor, does help them. What is different about the two situations?

12. (3) Vladek has many opportunities to use his dissembling, "passing", and black market skills in Chapter 6. What is your impression of his amazing natural ability? What does Anja think of it? What is Vladek's justification for these, somewhat less than legal, activities?

13. (4) Mrs. Motonowa, a seller of black market goods, hides Vladek and Anja in her own home.

Why does she choose to take such a risk? What is her primary motivation? What hints do we get which help us to determine this? What other hints do we get that might change our view?

14. (2) Even though Vladek and Anja have a hiding place with Mrs. Motonowa, Vladek decides to go to Hungary. Why is this important to him? Why is Anja so afraid of leaving Poland?

15. Why does Vladek choose to trust the smugglers? What mistake has Vladek made? How is this situation similar to when Vladek's cousin first introduces him to Anja, back on page 16?

16. Spiegelman is using a technique known as foreshadowing. Why is this effective in helping us to better understand Vladek's strengths and weaknesses as a character?

17. (2) After Vladek and Anja are arrested, Vladek still finds a way to make himself useful. Why is this always such an important thing to Vladek? What does he gain by his actions? ______By page 157, Vladek has told Artie the whole story leading up to how he and Anja ended up in Auschwitz. We also know that, somehow, both he and Anja survived Auschwitz. On page 158, Vladek tells Artie that he destroyed Anja's diaries, after her suicide. Artie is so upset by this, that he yells and curses at Vladek and calls him a "murderer." Art Spiegelman dedicates Maus to Anja. He also thanks Mala, his wife Francoise, and six other friends who gave moral support and encouragement to him while he wrote Maus. Surprisingly, Spiegelman does not thank Vladek. He ends Maus with Artie walking away, still calling Vladek a "murderer." ______

18. What does this ending tell us about the relationship between Artie and Vladek?

19. Do you think that Anja and Vladek would approve of this ending? (why, or why not).

20. Why do you like, or dislike, the ending of Maus?

21. Do you feel that you have heard the whole story? (why, or why not).

22. Why might you want to read Maus II?

23. Why do you think Art Spiegelman chose this particular ending for Maus? Maus II Study Questions: Chapter 1: "Mauschwitz" (40 points total) 1. (2) Maus II is dedicated to Richieu and Nadja. For 1 point each, identify these two children.

2. What is the significance of the number 175113?

3. (2) Who is Francoise? Why is Art Spiegelman unsure of how to draw her?

4. Vladek calls and says that he has had a heart attack. What really happened?

5. What is your reaction to Mala's sudden departure?

6. How does Artie feel about Richieu?

7. (12) Compare Francoise to Anja and Mala: (the other two major female characters in Maus).

-List positive attributes of each of these characters. -List any negative attributes of each of these characters. -List the reasons that each of these characters might appeal to Artie.

8. (2) Vladek makes a huge fuss about matches and salt, even though they are very inexpensive.

-Why is this so important to Vladek? -Why might this be a problem for him in his life?

9. (2) The Karps are also Auschwitz survivors.

-How are they similar to Vladek? -How is their situation different than Vladek's?

10. (2) Do Artie and Francoise have a restful vacation at Vladek's bungalow in the Catskills?

-Why or why not?

11. (2) Vladek continues to tell his story to Artie. We see our first glimpses of the living nightmare which was Auschwitz. Vladek says: "They took from us our papers, our clothes and our hair..."

-What does he specifically mean by this statement? -Why did the Germans process new arrivals to Auschwitz in this manner?

12. Consider how clothes were given to the prisoners. Why did the Germans use this method?

13. (4) A fellow prisoner, who is a Polish priest, tells Vladek about his number.

-List three reasons why Vladek's number is auspicious. -How do these details help Vladek to better cope with the conditions of Auschwitz?

14. (2) Why is Mandelbaum's situation funny? Why is it sad?

15. (3) How is Vladek able to help the Kapo? How does this benefit Vladek? Mandelbaum?

16. (2) Vladek tells Artie a story about playing Bingo at The Pines.

-Why is this story important enough to include in Maus II? -How might it help us to have more sympathy for the old man version of Vladek? Maus II Study Questions: Chapter 2: "Auschwitz (Time Flies)" (26 points total) 1. ( T / F ) In just nine days, May 16 to May 24, 1944, over 100,000 Hungarian Jews were gassed at Auschwitz.

2. ( T / F ) Art Spiegelman did not want to adapt Maus into a movie or television special.

3. (2) When was Nadja Mouly Spiegelman born? Did Vladek or Anja ever get to see her during their lifetimes?

4. (2) Why do you think Artie has "shrunk-down" to child size? What point is Spiegelman trying to make?

5. (2) Artie's therapist, Pavel, says:

"You think it's admirable to survive. Does that mean it's not admirable to not survive?" -What does he mean by this? Do you agree with him?

6. Artie quotes a line by Samuel Beckett: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness."

-What does he mean by this? Do you agree with him?

7. After the session with Pavel, Artie "grows-back" into his normal size. How can you explain this?

8. (2) Artie listens to his conversation with Vladek, hears himself yell at Vladek, and becomes small again.

-Why does Spiegelman choose to keep drawing attention to this? Do you think this technique is effective?

9. (2) Why does the tin shop foreman, Yidl, dislike Vladek? What does Vladek do to change Yidl's opinion?

10. (2) Who helps Vladek establish and maintain contact with Anja? Why does she help Vladek and Anja?

11. (2) How does Vladek become a shoemaker? Why is this a good job for him to have?

12. (2) How is Vladek able to help Anja survive Auschwitz? Would she have survived without his assistance?

13. (2) What is Vladek's second job as a tin man? What were the Germans trying to do then?

14. Vladek sees the gas chambers and crematoriums at Auschwitz, yet he was able to live to tell the story.

-Does Vladek's description of those places help you to better understand what happened at Auschwitz?

15. (3) Is the scene with Artie and Francoise, on page 74, ironic? What is Spiegelman reminding us about?

-Why do we not care about the mosquitos that Artie kills with his can of poison gas? Maus II Study Questions: Chapter 3: "...And Here My Troubles Began..." (20 points total) 1. (3) What is Vladek counting at the beginning of Chapter 3? Why is this funny? Why is it sad?

2. (2) Why is Vladek so concerned about not wasting food? Do you agree with him?

3. (3) Artie wonders why the Jews in Auschwitz did not try harder to resist the Nazis.

-What risks were connected to resisting the Nazis? -What were the advantages of cooperating with the Nazis? -What was an obvious disadvantage of always cooperating with the Nazis?

4. Why does Vladek's plan to escape from Auschwitz fail?

5. Vladek marches nearly 200 miles from Auschwitz to Gross-Rosen.

-What happens to the people who cannot keep up?

6. (2) Next, Vladek is packed into a train cattle car with about 200 other prisoners.

-How does he survive that ordeal? (hint: there is no food or water in the train car). -Does it surprise you that Vladek shows little concern for all those who died in his train car? (he says "They closed us again. We were very happy, we had now room where to stand.")

7. On page 89, Francoise says, "I'll bet you that Anja's notebooks were written on both sides of the page..."

-What does her comment tell you about how she views Vladek?

8. Where do Vladek's troubles begin? (hint: not in Auschwitz) . 9. What is the number one killer in Dachau? (hint: it is what almost kills Vladek).

10. How does Vladek "organize" so that he and his French friend were always able to get soup?

11. How is Vladek able to get on the train which carries him away from Dachau?

-(hint: how does he "pay" for the assistance of others).

12. (3) Francoise picks up a friendly hitch-hiker; but Vladek is outraged.

-Why does Vladek object so strongly to the hitch-hiker? (hint: what characteristic of the hitch-hiker?) -What does Vladek think the hitch-hiker will do? -Does this incident surprise you, considering how well Vladek usually gets along with strangers?

Maus II Study Questions: Chapter 4: "Saved" (25 points total) 1. (4) On pages 102 and 103 we once again see conflict between Artie and Vladek.

-What is Vladek's main concern? -What blocks Vladek from readily achieving his goal? -What is Artie's main concern? -What blocks Artie from readily achieving his own goal?

2. (5) On page 105 we learn that the war is over; yet Vladek does not immediately gain his freedom.

-Why not? Why didn't the German soldiers put down their weapons and surrender? -The German soldiers had planned to kill Vladek and his comrades at the lake. Why didn't they? -After their reprieve, why didn't Vladek and his comrades keep the abandoned Nazi machine guns? -Does it surprise you that Vladek and his comrades get captured again by the Nazis?

3. (3) Pages 109 to 111 find Vladek once again hiding from the Nazis.

-For 1 bonus point each, list all the places that Vladek has hidden in Maus and Maus II. -How does this fit in with Spiegelman's sustained anthropomorphic metaphors? -Can a mouse ever be a heroic character, or are they necessarily passive creatures? Why or why not?

4. Why do the American soldiers like Vladek?

5. What treasure does Vladek find for Artie?

6. (6) For 1 point each, list six things that Vladek's treasure teaches Artie about his family's history.

7. (2) These items are priceless, yet Vladek wants to keep the cigar box where he has been storing them.

-Why does this seem so odd to us? -Why would this seem like perfectly acceptable behavior to Vladek?

8. What do you think really happened to the other valuables which Vladek and Anja left with Richieu's Polish governess, Janina?

9. Given the choice, would you prefer to have the treasure Artie gets, or those other valuables that "the Nazi's grabbed away"?

10. Chapter 4 ends with Vladek worrying about storm windows. Why does this matter so much to him?

Maus II Study Questions: Chapter 5: "The Second Honeymoon" (30 points total) 1. (3) Chapter 5 begins with Artie listening to a tape recording of Vladek describing Richieu's death.

-What literary device is Art Spiegelman using here? -Why is that portion of Vladek's tape so important to the story as a whole? -How might things have been different if Tosha and the children had survived the war?

2. On page 121, why does Mala call Artie?

3. (2) How did Mala and Vladek get back together?

-Do you consider their reunion a good thing? (why or why not?).

4. (2) Vladek sees a small plane, which reminds him of when he and Anja left Poland after the war.

-Why didn't Vladek and Anja just stay in Poland? -Why do you think Jewish people might have instinctively chosen to leave Poland after the war?

5. Vladek is a successful businessman in Sweden, and Artie is born as a Swedish citizen.

-If Sweden is such a good place, why does Anja insist on moving to New York? (hint: see page 114).

6. Shivek's brother is happily married to a gentile. What is different about his children? (hint: see page 131).

7. Anja has her fortune told by a Gypsy moth. Why does that experience give her hope?

8. On page 136, when Vladek is finally reunited with Anja, he says with great sincerity: "More I don't need to tell you. We were both very happy, and lived happy, happy ever after".

-Considering what you have read in Maus and Maus II, why is this such a sad and ironic statement?

9. (4) Vladek's last line in the book is "I'm tired from talking, Richieu, and it's enough stories for now..."

-Why is this such a great line? -What does it tell us about Vladek? -What does it tell us about Artie? -Why do you think Art Spiegelman chose to end his Maus books in this manner?

10. (12) On page 136, we learn that Art Spiegelman worked on Maus and Maus II for 14 years: (1978- 1991). We also learn that neither Anja nor Vladek lived long enough to see their stories published in book form.

-List three reasons why Vladek would approve of these books? -List three reasons why Vladek would not approve of these books? -List three reasons why Anja would approve of these books? -List three reasons why Anja would not approve of these books?

11. (2) Considering your answers to the previous question:

-Would Vladek and Anja be pleased to know that you have learned so much about their lives? -Does your knowing their stories attach greater meaning and/or value to their lives?