GPA (German Propaganda Art)

Smoke--I guess most people associate smoke as bad and dangerous. That truly is what I believe Art Spiegelman wanted his readers to believe when her illustrated his graphic novel Maus. In all honesty I think that Spiegelman made smoke and the Nazis go hand in hand. In almost every panel, smoke is in a jagged line that is much too similar to the symbol of the Nazis--the Swastika.
  All this smoke represents the stress, the pollution, the deaths, the misfortunes that the Nazis present the world. We can thank the Nazis for coming up with a stupid idea to give the planet earth a thicker ozone layer.


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This panel on page 23 show an image of art smoking. The look of death roams his face just like those dead from the Holocaust. Just like hows the smoke comes out of chimneys bring the Jews back out into the world, smoke comes out of Art's cigarette bringing his soul out along with it. Smoke kills.








Lastly I would like to bring to light why Vladek might just have been "lucky" enough to survive the horrid Holocaust.

Vladek has been very good about not smoking his whole life. The smoke in this scenario symbolizes the smoke and ashes the come out of the chimney at the camps. Unlike all Vladek's family and friends who smoked, Vladek did not allow the stress of the Nazis to overcome his strong will. He did not smoke, nor did he allow the smoke to get to him. Vladek saved himself buy saving cigarettes; he didn't smoke out his soul, so neither did the chimneys smoke out his body.