Maus Literature Circle Packet Addendum

Calendar clarification:

Complete “Characterization” chart on Day 3 Complete Static/Dynamic Round/Flat activity on Day 4 Complete “Maus Animals and Symbolism” on Day 6

Graphic novel schedule:

Refer to directions for graphic novel activity. Complete steps 1 & 2 on Day 1; steps 3 & 4 on Day 2; step 5 on Days 3 & 4; step 6 on Day 5. Edit your graphic novel and complete the reflection by the end of Day 6.

Maus II - Days 7-9

Day 7 – Chapters 1 & 2 *For days 7-9, the first chapter will be read in anticipation of that day’s class and the second in class.

Do not create discussion questions for your reading today. See below.

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

2. 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.

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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? Read the following review of Maus I with your group members. Create discussion questions from this text rather than from your reading today.

Compose a letter to the writer of the review at least one handwritten page in length. You must agree with and disagree with at least one point in the article. Use diction and tone appropriate for such a letter. Finish on Day 8.

BOOKS OF THE TIMES By Christopher Lehmann-Haupt Published: November 10, 1986 • MAUS: A Survivor's Tale. By Art Spiegelman. Illustrated. 159 pages. Pantheon. Paper, $8.95. ART SPIEGELMAN'S ''Maus:

A Survivor's Tale'' is a Holocaust memoir with a remarkable difference. True, one thread of it recapitulates the all-too-familiar story of the Spiegelman family in Poland from 1935 to 1944 struggling to avoid the inevitable fate of Auschwitz. There are the loss of property, the dawning sense of peril, the black markets, the ''selections,'' the cellar hiding places, the briberies, the betrayals and finally the truck to the gate with the sign over it reading, ''Arbeit macht frei.''

But there are four unusual innovations to the way Mr. Spiegelman has told his story. In ascending order of surprise, these are as follows: First, he explores the relations of the surviving generation and its children, especially the guilt visited by the former upon the latter. The adventures of the Spiegelmans in Poland are told by Vladek, the surviving family member, to his grown-up son, Artie, who begins his narrative: ''I went out to see my Father in Rego Park. I hadn't seen him in a long time - we weren't that close. He had aged a lot since I saw him last. My Mother's suicide and his two heart attacks had taken their toll.''

Second, Mr. Spiegelman brings considerable humor to the telling of his story. Scarcely has Artie removed his coat and handed it to Mala, his father's present wife, when Vladek begins to berate her: ''Acch, Mala! A wire hanger you give him! I haven't seen Artie in almost two years. We have plenty wooden hangers.'' Vladek recounts much of his Holocaust memories while working out on an exercise bike or counting out his daily ration of pills. So crotchety and irrational is Vladek's behavior that when Artie wonders if ''the war made him that way,'' Mala responds: ''FAH! I went through the camps . . . All our friends went through the camps. Nobody is like him!''

Third, ''Maus'' is a comic book! Yes, a comic book complete with word balloons, speed lines, exclamations such as ''sob,'' ''wah,'' ''whew'' and ''?!,'' and dozens of techniques for which I simply lack the terminology. The average frame is two to three inches square and crowded, even shaggily drawn (except for one starker section, called ''Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History,'' involving the author's mother's suicide) though subtly elegant and expressive if one pays attention to details. The style is eclectic, echoing everything from ''Krazy Kat'' to ''Gasoline Alley.'' Naturally, the effect of treating such a subject this way is shocking at first. But with a speed that is almost embarrassing to confess, this reader was transported back to the experience of reading World War II comics such as ''Blackhawk'' or ''Captain Marvel.''

Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, the Jewish characters in the book are all portrayed as mice (''Maus'' is, of course, German for ''mouse''), while the Nazis are cats, the Poles are pigs and the few non-Jewish Americans that appear are dogs. To portray a game of cat and mouse is one obvious purpose of Mr. Spiegelman's provocative gambit, as well as ironically to echo the book's epigraph, which is Adolf Hitler's remark, ''The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.''

But the impact of what Mr. Spiegelman has done here is so complex and self-contradictory that it nearly defies analysis. One obvious point would seem to be that by scaling down the Holocaust to the dimensions of an animal fable - or approaching ''the unspeakable through the diminutive,'' as the jacket copy so felicitously puts it - the experience of European Jewry becomes something to be contemplated in less than apocalyptic terms. But leaving aside whether such an effect is desirable, I don't think that it is the main purpose of ''Maus,'' and even if it is, then it remains somewhat beside the point.

Instead, the medium is the message. By claiming the Holocaust as a subject fit for comic-book art, Mr. Spiegelman is saying that the children of the survivors have a right to the subject too and have their own unique problems, which are comic as well as tragic. Even the narrative content reflects that point. By having Vladek recount the farcical elements of his prewar courtship of the author's mother, Mr. Spiegelman is saying that life went on before catastrophe struck. By making bittersweet comedy of life in Rego Park with Vladek, he is saying that life continues to go on.

The ultimate irony lies in the closing anecdote of ''Maus.'' Artie presses his father to produce his mother's diary, so he can trace her experiences after his parents were separated upon their arrival at Auschwitz. Vladek finally admits: ''After Anja died I had to make an order with everything . . . these papers had too many memories. So I burned them.'' Artie is enraged. After promising his father that he'll visit more often, he heads for home, muttering to himself, ''Murderer.''

The irony of this utterance - in the light of the six million - does not diminish the enormity of the Holocaust. Yet given Mr. Spiegelman's art, it asserts the right of succeeding generations to treat their ancestors' experience with less than awe-filled reverence. For those who survived, life goes on. And for their children, life, for all its unusual complications, can have its moments of humor.

Day 8 – Chapters 3 & 4

1. What is Vladek counting at the beginning of Chapter 3? Why is this funny? Why is it sad?

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

3. Where do Vladek's troubles begin? (hint: not in Auschwitz)

4. 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?

5. Why do the American soldiers like Vladek?

6. What treasure does Vladek find for Artie? List six things that Vladek's treasure teaches Artie about his family's history. A Fable of the Holocaust

Date: November 3, 1991, Sunday, Late Edition - Final Byline: By Lawrence L. Langer; Lead: MAUS A Survivor's Tale II. And Here My Troubles Began. By Art Spiegelman. Illustrated. 136 pp. New York: Pantheon Books. $18. Text:

Art Spiegelman doesn't draw comics. It might be clever to say he draws tragics, but that would be inaccurate too. Like its predecessor, "Maus: A Survivor's Tale II. And Here My Troubles Began" is a serious form of pictorial literature, sustaining and even intensifying the power of the first volume. It resists defining labels.

The author and artist Art Spiegelman continues the story of the character Artie Spiegelman, who is trying to reconstruct in cartoon form the lives of his father, Vladek, and his mother, Anja, both survivors of Auschwitz. In 1968 Anja committed suicide, and the first part of "Maus" ends with the young Artie calling his father a "murderer" for having destroyed Anja's wartime memoirs without even having read them. Early in the sequel, Artie confesses to his wife, Francoise, "When I was a kid I used to think about which of my parents I'd let the Nazis take to the ovens if I could only save one of them. Usually I saved my mother. Do you think that's normal?" His wife dryly replies, "Nobody's normal," leaving the reader wondering how to redefine "normal" for a family whose Holocaust legacy still exerts its influence over father and son.

With a distinctly post-modern flourish, Mr. Spiegelman reminds us throughout his text that "Maus II" is a narrative about incidents that, in many of their details, may be incommunicable. Artie admits to his wife, "I can't even make any sense out of my relationship with my father. How am I supposed to make any sense out of Auschwitz?" One might conclude that a "comic strip" portraying the Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, the Poles as pigs, the French as frogs, the Americans as dogs and the Swedes as reindeer would divert the reader from a meaningful pursuit of Artie's troubled questions -- but this is not at all the case.

The "meaning" is in the effort, not the results, and the animal characters create a distancing effect that allows us to follow the fable without being drowned in its grim, inhuman horrors. Tensions abound: Vladek has forgotten little of his ordeal, but he doesn't like to think about it and he only speaks of it at Artie's prodding. Some need beyond mere curiosity or professional interest drives Artie to record and draw his parents' Holocaust experience, while at the same time, as he confesses to his psychiatrist, "Some part of me doesn't want to draw or think about Auschwitz." And whatever he does accomplish, he concedes, doesn't seem like much compared to surviving the death camp.

The struggle to transform history and testimony into art is thus a central part of the drama of the text, and the reader is constantly sucked into the maelstrom of the conflict. Who can fail to sympathize with Vladek, an Auschwitz survivor reunited with his wife after the war, only to face her suicide nearly a quarter of a century later in Rego Park, Queens? But who can fail to chide him for being so stingy that he leaves the gas burner lit all day at his summer bungalow because the cost of the gas is included in the rental and he can light his cigarettes without wasting a match? (And who can fail to conjecture about that ominous conjunction of gas with flame, over which Vladek today exerts complete control?) Artie despises his father's frugality, and with some justice, but Mr. Spiegelman constantly reminds us that Vladek's behavior in the present cannot be separated from his anguish in the past. The reader thus develops insights that Mr. Spiegelman's persona, Artie, can't always achieve, and this is one of the many striking examples of the author's expert handling of narrative.

If "Maus II" chronicles Vladek Spiegelman's journey from Auschwitz to Dachau and beyond, it also recounts the impact of that voyage on his son. The story alternates between past and present, but so does the inner life of its characters, reflecting the confused sense of time so many former Holocaust victims and their families have today. In the first part of "Maus" we learned that Artie's parents had a previous son, Richieu, who at the age of 3 was poisoned by Anja's sister together with her own children, to prevent the Gestapo from taking them away. Artie has lived beneath the shadow of this lost brother, whose framed picture hangs prominently in his parents' bedroom, a periodic source of remorse, shame, grief, guilt and despair. Indeed, the presence of Richieu frames the narrative, since that picture also appears on the dedication page of "Maus II." There the words "For Richieu" seem to be meant to ease the burden of memory for the brother born after the war.

But if Richieu has the first word, who has the last? As if to confirm his doubts about making any sense out of Auschwitz, Mr. Spiegelman ends his tale with the same melancholy answer that nearly every Holocaust testimony, written or oral, provides: the dead, those who did not return, have the last word. How could it be otherwise? Once Vladek has finished his testimony with an account of how he was reunited with Anja after the war, he asks Artie to turn off the tape recorder -- he wants to sleep. The old man's last utterance, in the final panel of the text, is "I'm tired from talking, Richieu, and it's enough stories for now." So the past has conquered the present, and in Vladek's mind, the living Artie has been replaced by the dead Richieu. This panel is followed by an image of a gravestone, informing us that the real Vladek Spiegelman died in 1982. "Maus II" is his testament.

But this book is not his transfiguration, and it is to Art Spiegelman's credit that he scrupulously avoids sentimentalizing or melodramatizing his tale. He writes with restraint and a relentless honesty, sparing neither his father nor himself. Given his brother's death and his mother's suicide, to say nothing of the other extensive family losses, there is little to celebrate. We are offered a whisper of hope for the future, since the book is also dedicated to his daughter, Nadja (born in 1987), but we are left wondering what kind of shadow her father's narrative will cast over her life, when she grows old enough to read it. Like the other questions raised in "Maus II," the answer remains shrouded in uncertainty. Perhaps no Holocaust narrative will ever contain the whole experience. But Art Spiegelman has found an original and authentic form to draw us closer to its bleak heart. BEHIND THE WORD BALLOONS

Twenty years ago Art Spiegelman published a short, primitive version of the "Maus" tale -- the "Ur Maus," as he put it -- in an underground comic magazine called Funny Aminals. "It was based," he said in an interview in his SoHo studio, "on memories of stories told to me when I was younger.

"With both my father and mother, stories would come up casually. I might be walking with my mother to the supermarket and she would have to go to the bathroom. While dragging me along she would tell me that in the camps they could only go to the bathroom at certain times. If she had to go while working in the fields her friends would form a circle around her" so the guards couldn't see.

But these stories "were decontextualized. I didn't know when they happened," he said. In writing "Maus," "I tried to inhabit the experience, to fix it in my own brain." In 1978, at the age of 30, he began what was to become a 13-year project. He taped more than 40 hours of interviews with his father, Vladek, dredged up conversations he had had with his mother, Anja, talked to other survivors and their children, read histories and traveled to Auschwitz, Dachau and his father's Polish hometown, Sosnowiec.

Trouble was, said Mr. Spiegelman, sometimes "my father's history didn't converge with what I found elsewhere." For instance, he learned from other survivors that when the Jews in Auschwitz marched from the camp to work each day there was an orchestra playing. His father, though, remembered only the sound of guards shouting. In "Maus" the father and son disagree about this, said Mr. Spiegelman, but in the end, "I win. The orchestra is there."

The dialogue, too, is boiled down from the real thing. There were only a few times, said Mr. Spiegelman, "when the way something was said was so perfect" it had to be preserved. The subtitle of the second volume, "And Here My Troubles Began," was one such sentence. Vladek utters this while telling of his life after Auschwitz -- obviously long after his troubles began. "The dissonance of that appearing in the middle," said Mr. Spiegelman, was part of its strength.

Still, no matter how a tale is told, "loss is inevitable," he said. "What my father articulated is less than what he went through. And, because I am an American kid who grew up with Howdy Doody and Mad magazine, what I can understand is less than what he articulated. What I can articulate is less than what I understand. And what readers understand is less than what I can articulate." If an artist's studio is any indication of his mind, Mr. Spiegelman is still absorbed with cats and mice. On his wall is an original Krazy Kat drawing, on a shelf a tiny stuffed mouse. And prowling around the place, a large, orange and very real cat. -- SARAH BOXER

Day 9 – Chapter 5

Discussion topic: Which book is the superior work?

1. Chapter 5 begins with Artie listening to a tape recording of Vladek describing Richieu's death. 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 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?

3. 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?

Choose one of your groupmates’ graphic stories and write a 300-word review of the product use the above reviews as a basis for your work and the guidelines below to navigate the process. This is the second major grade for this packet, after the graphic story itself.

The following are standard procedures for writing book reviews; they are suggestions, not formulae that must be used.

1. Write a statement giving essential information about the book: title, author, first copyright date, type of book, general subject matter, special features (maps, color plates, etc.), price and ISBN.

2. State the author’s purpose in writing the book. Sometimes authors state their purpose in the preface or the first chapter. When they do not, you may arrive at an understanding of the book’s purpose by asking yourself these questions: a. Why did the author write on this subject rather than on some other subject? b. From what point of view is the work written? c. Was the author trying to give information, to explain something technical, to convince the reader of a belief’s validity by dramatizing it in action? d. What is the general field or genre, and how does the book fit into it? (Use outside sources to familiarize yourself with the field, if necessary.) Knowledge of the genre means understanding the art form. and how it functions. e. Who is the intended audience? f. What is the author's style? Is it formal or informal? Evaluate the quality of the writing style by using some of the following standards: coherence, clarity, originality, forcefulness, correct use of technical words, conciseness, fullness of development, fluidity. Does it suit the intended audience? g. Scan the Table of Contents, it can help understand how the book is organized and will aid in determining the author's main ideas and how they are developed - chronologically, topically, etc. g. How did the book affect you? Were any previous ideas you had on the subject changed, abandoned, or reinforced due to this book? How is the book related to your own course or personal agenda? What personal experiences you've had relate to the subject? h. How well has the book achieved its goal? i. Would you recommend this book or article to others? Why?

3. State the theme and the thesis of the book. a. Theme: The theme is the subject or topic. It is not necessarily the title, and it is usually not expressed in a complete sentence. It expresses a specific phase of the general subject matter. b. Thesis: The thesis is an author’s generalization about the theme, the author’s beliefs about something important, the book’s philosophical conclusion, or the proposition the author means to prove. Express it without metaphor or other figurative language, in one declarative sentence. Example Title: We Had it Made General Subject Matter: Religious Intolerance Theme: The effects of religious intolerance on a small town Thesis: Religious intolerance, a sickness of individuals, contaminates an entire social group

4. Explain the method of development-the way the author supports the thesis. Illustrate your remarks with specific references and quotations. In general, authors tend to use the following methods, exclusively or in combination. a. Description: The author presents word-pictures of scenes and events by giving specific details that appeal to the five senses, or to the reader’s imagination. Description presents background and setting. Its primary purpose is to help the reader realize, through as many sensuous details as possible, the way things (and people) are, in the episodes being described. b. Narration: The author tells the story of a series of events, usually presented in chronological order. In a novel however, chronological order may be violated for the sake of the plot. The emphasis in narration, in both fiction and non-fiction, is on the events. Narration tells what has happened. Its primary purpose is to tell a story. c. Exposition: The author uses explanation and analysis to present a subject or to clarify an idea. Exposition presents the facts about a subject or an issue as clearly and impartially as possible. Its primary purpose is to explain. d. Argument: The author uses the techniques of persuasion to establish the truth of a statement or to convince the reader of its falsity. The purpose is to persuade the reader to believe something and perhaps to act on that belief. Argument takes sides on an issue. Its primary purpose is to convince.

5. Evaluate the book for interest, accuracy, objectivity, importance, thoroughness, and usefulness to its intended audience. Show whether the author's main arguments are true. Respond to the author's opinions. What do you agree or disagree with? And why? Illustrate whether or not any conclusions drawn are derived logically from the evidence. Explore issues the book raises. What possibilities does the book suggest? What has the author omitted or what problems were left unsolved? What specific points are not convincing? Compare it with other books on similar subjects or other books by the same as well as different authors. Is it only a reworking of earlier books; a refutation of previous positions? Have newly uncovered sources justified a new approach by the author? Comment on parts of particular interest, and point out anything that seems to give the book literary merit. Relate the book to larger issues.

6. Try to find further information about the author - reputation, qualifications, influences, biographical, etc. - any information that is relevant to the book being reviewed and that would help to establish the author's authority. Can you discern any connections between the author's philosophy, life experience and the reviewed book?

7. If relevant, make note of the book's format - layout, binding, typography, etc. Are there maps, illustrations? Do they aid understanding?

8. Check the back matter. Is the index accurate? Check any end notes or footnotes as you read from chapter to chapter. Do they provide important additional information? Do they clarify or extend points made in the body of the text? Check any bibliography the author may provide. What kinds of sources, primary or secondary, appear in the bibliography? How does the author make use of them? Make note of important omissions.

9. Summarize (briefly), analyze, and comment on the book’s content. State your general conclusions. Pay particular attention to the author's concluding chapter. Is the summary convincing? List the principal topics, and briefly summarize the author’s ideas about these topics, main points, and conclusions. Use specific references and quotations to support your statements. If your thesis has been well argued, the conclusion should follow naturally. It can include a final assessment or simply restate your thesis. Do not introduce new material at this point.