Art Spiegelman's Maus is a graphic novel which uses both pictures and words to create his work of art. Both pictures and words can create symbolic images that help to deepen the understanding of the reader on a more profound level. This is part of the reason why Spiegelman draws humans as different types of animals. The other reason for drawing humans as different types of animals is to create a historical allusion to how people saw each other during the time period. For example, Jews were drawn as rats and displayed in newspapers and on posters to mock common physical traits among Jews. Nazis seemed to be saying with these drawings that most Jewish men looked like rats because of their large noses and smaller-sized heads. Spiegelman changes this image slightly and draws Jews as mice rather than rats. Thus, if Jews are mice, then what would Nazis be? Cats! Another group of people who show up in the story is Polish people, who Spiegelman draws as pigs because of the way they treated Jewish people during the Holocaust. Americans, therefore, are drawn as dogs because they are the ones who conquer the cats (Nazis) by helping to win World War II.
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