Art Spiegelman’s Maus is based in his father’s experiences
during the Second World War. Vladek, his father, was a Jewish man who survived
the holocaust, the biggest genocide in which Jewish were murdered by Nazis.
Even though there are many
biographical sources about what Jewish lived while they were on concentration
camps, few of them can be used to teach that particular moment in history, and I
believe that Maus is one of them
because it contains many details that can be used so that the students can
learn not only what happened, but also can understand and draw their own
conclusion about it.
The way the author presents his characters can be one aspect to consider if we, as teachers, want
to teach them the holocaust. All characters are presented in form of animals: Jewish
are illustrated by mice, Germans illustrated by cats, and Poland (non-Jewish)
illustrated as Pigs. The first two aforementioned are the most important one
because of the metaphor that represents; cats always chase mice, they are
natural enemies of the animal kingdom, fact that can be used in order to
explain why Nazis chased Jewish, gypsies, and different human races as there is
no a logical reason for chasing them.
Another aspect that I
consider important is how he presents the story, Maus is not only the story of Art's parents but also how he decides
to write about it, and how he deals with his parents' past. This can be used in
order to teach young generations put up with past family events that indirectly
may have consequences on them. Imagine for a moment that the novel is not about Holocaust but about the Military dictatorship of Chile written by the son of somebody who was detained during that period; the person who would be writing the novel would evaluate the event differently from someone who writes about it but its family never lived something like that.
Although there are many novels that are based on historical events, I belive that some of them can be used while you are theacing the event mentioned. As novel have fiction and non fiction, it is very blurred the line between understanding something that really happen and something that fit with what happen but did not really happened.
Do you think that the
novel present other aspects that can be used for teaching the Holocaust?
Really interesting and engaging entry, María Josefa. I'm really interested in your suggestion of using Maus as a teaching resource to give lessons about the holocaust. It could be something acceptable and quite thought-provoking.
ResponderEliminarAlthough, I believe that the real question is: how can we use Maus? The holocaust was a horrible moment of human history. Becasue of that reason we have to be very delicate and smart of how we use the different sources of information about that period.
Personally, I consider teaching the holocaust through this graphic novel is a really good idea, but we have to be aware of not creating any kind of "propaganda" with it. (As an example: look how Israel use this kind of resources to justify their occupation on Palestinian territories.)
As Eduardo said is a really intresting entry! I have not think about it until I read your post. I believe that teaching though this graphic novel it would be entretaining and engaging for students, due to the fact that is not as the traditionals stories. Actually , is told in a different way, for instance as you said used animals to explain it.
ResponderEliminarWhat´s more, from my point of view is quite relevant that as future teachers start thinking about how we can use all the things that we are learning for our students. Furthermoe, by using this kinds of novels maybe we can increase the love for reading, since as we all know Chile is in a reading crisis.