Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- How would Maus read differently if Spiegelman had used human figures instead of animals?
- The use of animal figures gives Maus the quality of a fable or an allegory. Is it possible to read Maus in light of other experiences of genocide or “ethnic cleansing”?
- In Maus, Art describes his own ambivalence about the commercial success of his book, and his refusal to turn the book into a movie. Do you think Maus would work as a movie? What do you think of other commercially successful Holocaust films, such as Schindler’s List?
- In one scene, Françoise asks Vladek how he can be racially intolerant after living through the Holocaust. Do you think Maus speaks to other forms of racism and genocide? Why or why not?
- Art mourns the loss of his mother’s diaries. Imagine that somewhere, a copy of her diaries miraculously turns up. What do you think the diaries say?