Sunday, October 18, 2015
KEEP STRAIGHT! DON'T MOVE!
Motion is carefully depicted in both volumes of Maus. The motion on the page literally represents the actions that were taken for each character during the Holocaust, but what not on the page--the choice of where to place stillness--represent the carefully planned out actions that would help a Jew survive through the Holocaust. One must work diligently when ordered to work, but MUST remain Extremely Still when organized in rows.
Art displays both motion and still on one page not only to show distress on behave of the victims but also to contracts the different perspective--the bully and the bullied. Focusing on page 108 of volume 1, motion and stillness contrast like black and white. Like foils, having the contrasting counterpart emphasis the power withheld in the other: still only still and movement that much more forceful.
The upper half of the page is very static and motionless because the mice are scared and worried. They remain still and silent as they watch their fellow Jews meet Death. As the reader climbs over the fence to the bottom half of the page they see things through the demon eyes of the Nazis. As the perspective changes abruptly, the movement starts. Through the eyes of the cats readers experience the excessive beating on the Jews. The panel on the left corner of the last row shows the force and the inhumane activities taken place all over Germany. Art shows his audience that everywhere, Jews were in fear of facing these monsters. All of them had only a fence to hide behind and it was only a matter of time before the Nazi came marching in.
The stillness and motion surface two distinct emotions. Art uses pathos to feel extreme worry and sorrow towards the still mice and extreme detest and anger towards the forceful monsters.
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Wow. I really liked that you connected motion and emotions. I had never thought of it like that! I had always attributed his use of motion to wanting to place readers deeper into the story and contribute to verisimilitude. That is, until you changed the way that I looked at Maus! Great job this week :-)
ReplyDeleteThe varied language throughout your post makes it such a beautiful analysis. I felt like the post contained the view points of many different Jessies all over the world, not just one person. I felt like your language itself had a hint of motion in it with your use of dashes and capitals. As for the content, I feel extremely enlightened by your analysis of this piece. I liked how you saw that the black and white juxtaposition speaks to the change in perspective and I adored your viewpoint regarding forced movement and forced stillness. Finally, I loved your statement in the reader "climbing over the fence" and it spoke to how close Art Spiegelman really got to showing his readers the true brutality of hebholocaust. Brilliantly executed Ms Li!
ReplyDeleteHolocaust* ^^
DeleteGreat job with this piece! I really liked how you contrasted motion and stillness with black and white, while on the page the Nazi beating the Jew was black and the Jews standing still were white. I also liked how you put in a real picture from the Holocaust. It adds a lot of pathos to your piece. I can't wait to see what you post next week!
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