A descriptive analysis of the work Mous
Introduction.
We can observe in the illustrations as Art, it represents Jewish, German and Polish society through hybrid characters composed of a human body and an animal head. Jewish society is represented through mouse -headed beings. The mouse is considered an animal that transmits diseases, a plague and must be eliminated. Hitler considered the Jews a plague, a parasite that spreads, that has no nation and that must be exterminated. This representation of the Jew as a mouse is very timely, since it allows us to clearly see that he was a Jew in Nazism time.
Polish society is represented through beings with pork. The pig is characterized by being an animal that rejoices in the mud, which attracts dirt. If we relate this dirt to betrayal, we understand why art made this choice. The Poles were used by the Nazis to end the Jewish people, betraying it and delivering it to the Nazis.
German society is represented through cat beings. These beings are beautiful and corpulent as the badge of the Aryan race. Cats dominate mice, which meant how the Nazis dominate the Jews. In the work Art draws the Germans Aryans as powerful, muscular and suitcased cats. Instead, non -Aryan Germans are represented as street cats. This representation is linked to how Hitler considered the Aryan race as a superior and pure breed with muscular and perfect bodies.
Developing.
Spiegelman, chose black and white for the work Mous, thus reflects the hardness of reality embodied on paper. Art., transmits horror through the roughness of drawing. In addition to eliminating detailed features, without excluding visual forms of an expressionist nature. Uses the modulated line that we sometimes see more thickened and in another more stylized. In this way the figure figure separates and allows you to work the distance. In his vignettes he plays with the Luz/Shadow combination, depending on the lighting he wants to give him a method of lines or other. This makes the story in more visual detail.
Art, choose basic features for iconicity (appearance relationship between the image itself and its referent) but maintains the masses of black and manual plots. Spiegelman uses the filling in its vignettes using regularly scratched surfaces, more or less dense. In this way, you can lose some depth in the plans, being able to observe that sometimes a chaotic image can be. Sometimes Spiegelman uses black spot to reflect harder lights, giving an expressiveness to the most indicated image.
In this same way it grants drama and contrast. We can see how this technique uses in vignettes where the protagonists are seen for example, in the background, hidden or away from the main action. In addition, black also appears in the silhouettes of Valdek and Art when he does the interviews about the experiences that you had in the extermination fields. In this way the black connotes the tragic of the topic that is being treated. Spiegelman makes use of the target in the bodies of the mice, except when he draws them with certain traffickers.
Use white in the bodies of mice, especially when they stand out for the abundance of details and staging. Black, White, different types of plots and shadowers are resources widely used by the author throughout the work. The type of planes that Spiegelman uses are varied. We find abundant panoramic planes vertical, most of them show the concentration camps. This way of illustrating events could have a documentary value, since all the details that make up Spiegelman’s drawings reflect countless details.
This documentary value is due to the plans that the author incorporates, making the reader a witness of the barbarisms committed in the extermination fields. The first planes use them to highlight the different types of feelings that the characters show throughout history such as suffering, pain, anger or fear. The plans, details that reflect a part of the work in which the author wants us to look especially. On the other hand, the panoramic planes as we have previously appointed, appear in situations where the reader is witnessing the event that is being narrated.
It is important to know the type of vignettes that Spiegelman uses. Since they are the margin that encompasses a scene in history. The vast majority of vignettes are square or rectangular, but they are not necessarily all. In the work we find very diverse vignettes, composed of dialogues. Specifically we can find;
- Open vignettes: the drawing leaves the edges creating the sensation of space.
- Orthogonal vignettes: which are found horizontally on the page.
- Diagonal vignette: we see it vertically on the page.
- Interior vignette: on some occasion we see how Spiegelman uses vignettes inside another vignette showing a fact that occurs at the same time.
- External vignette: we see how the drawing is without a vignette, that is, without edges around it.
- Psychological vignette: creating sensations in the reader making him understand the illustrated situation. We find this type rarely in Maus.
- Rota vignette: where we can see how an image is divided as a puzzle or a drawing on top of the vignettes. Widely used in the work.
- Decorative vignette: where the external frame and space of the vignette is used as a decorative element. We find in abundance this type of vignettes throughout the work.
THE Cartela: Place where the narrator’s voice appears.
Cartridge: When we see a conversation that links two vignettes.
As in the types of vignettes, we can find a variety of types of balloon or snacks. Spiegelman also uses variety of them for their dialogues. In the work we can observe;Of dialogue or conversation: which are the most used, those that we are used to seeing in any conversation of the vignette of a comic. They show what the characters say.
Thought snacks: in which what the character thinks without saying it is shown. They are usually represented as a discontinuous line snack or a cloud -shaped balloon. In this way the reader understands that it is a thought. Grito snacks: that are usually used when a character shouts, a strong sound is heard, or reflects an onomatopoeia. They are represented as a spared or starry snack with an irregular shape.
Llty sandwiches: that we find on occasion of the work, when a character is crying. Spiegelman uses the same crash snacks, for crying. Although we can find crying snacks represented in the form of drops, as if it were a splashed balloon reflecting the tears or suffering of the character. Conversation snacks followed: we see them when the character speaks, and then intervene again, in this way the reader makes him understand that there is a small pause between intervention and intervention.
conclusion.
And finally, the American plans show us the protagonists in a background on occasions, who need the story of the story to know the place where it is located. Art, exceeds the limits of the vignette, uses the juxtaposition of flat, the overlap of vignettes, the non -use of these, their location and the incorporation of objects drawn in a striking way to avoid the possibility of bringing the reader to a confusion due toThe immense amount of details.
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