Dara Brown

Mrs. Miller
AP Language and Composition
29 March 2014

Critical Response to Literature-Racial Formation Theory

Michael Omi and Harold Winant, in their Racial Formation in the

United States, make the point that, in learning to see race, we are
learning to ascribe social meanings to otherwise meaningless
biological features. This idea of race being a series of meaningless
biological features, which we have given social meaning, is one that is
solidified by the fact that differences between the races, or people in
general, do not signify social differences. The Holocaust is one of the
prime examples of the ways in which we place, to a sickening degree,
importance in race. The ways in which Art Spiegelman portrays the
different races in Maus takes the weight away from the actual social
meanings and places it more on looks and the ways in which these
social meanings affect different races. In his portrayal of the races as
different animals (Jewish people as mice, German people as cats, Polish
people as pigs, etc.), he gives insight into the ways the races relate,
and the physical differences, rather than social. Spiegelman tells this
story from his fathers point of view as a victim in the Holocaust, and

the story largely lacks the academic feeling that is given to most
writings on the time period. This first-person narrative explains the
experience with people rather than general stories of the different
races. In Maus, Spiegelman does not only focus on the differences
between races, but the similarities in the human experience.

By portraying the races as different animals, Spiegelman puts

emphasis on the physical differences between the races and the idea
of race as a whole. In portraying the races as different animals,
Spiegelman puts emphasis on the physical differences between the
races and the idea of race as a whole. Spiegelman portrays Germans
as cats, non-Jewish Poles as pigs, and Jews as mice. The metaphor
extends not only to their races, but also into the things they do.
Spiegelmans father and his wife try to disguise themselves as Poles
and, to do this successfully, put on pig masks with string showing in
the back. In creating such exact physical disparities between the
races, making them entirely different species, he solidifies the idea of
physical difference, but the social meaning is left to be created by the
story and the human beings who have created them. The German
media and public created an image of Jewish people as filthy vermin,
often characterized as rats. The difference between rats and mice is a
very distinct one, and Spiegelman talks about how often he noticed
Jewish people being characterized as rats. It seems that he wanted to

break away from this idea of Jewish people being rats, and make them
into a more victimized animal. By making Jewish people mice and
German people cats, Spiegelman creates a simplistic metaphor, which
deepens ones understanding of racial relations at the time. The
relationship between Germans and Jews is a predator-prey relationship
in this novel, and it explains a social meaning placed on race. This
social plague given to the Jews from the Germans did not come from a
biological difference in Jewish people, but from the mind of the
Germans leader and the Germans themselves in their belief. By
drawing this relationship in the way he does, Spiegelman intensifies, in
the simplest of ways, the social meanings placed on biological
differences.

The main story, the story of Spiegelman fathers experience in

the Holocaust, is told from Spiegelman father, Vladeks, point of view.
Vladek is a survivor of the Holocaust and tells the story of what has
happened to him and how it happened. Vladeks storytelling style
could be considered as a series of anecdotes, or one long story of the
Holocaust. Oftentimes, the way we learn about historical events is not
through first-hand knowledge or personal stories from those who lived
it, but from historians who add an academic touch to the experience or
historical event. In this case, we are often given broad generalizations
about races and what happened to entire races rather than to

individuals. By telling this story from his fathers point of view,

Spiegelman explains stories of human beings rather than different
races. He takes away the idea of Jewish people are the victim and
all Nazis are evil and instead explains the things that affect the
characters, how they respond, and what their stories are. Spiegelman
takes away his fathers innocence by showing the way he treats people
at times, and solidifies that not all Jewish people, or victims, are
entirely good. Vladek shows his fathers racism at one point, when
Vladek reprimands Franoise, Spiegelmans wife, for picking up a black
hitchhiker. Franoise asks him how he could be racist after being a
victim of such harsh anti-Semitism, and he says that Jewish people are
not as bad as black people. This short section of the book explains that
even those who have been discriminated against due to the social
meanings placed on biological differences can do the same to others.

Maus tells the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of a

survivor. Maus also tells the story of the Holocaust with mice as Jewish
people, cats as German people, and pigs as Polish people. The ways in
which Spiegelman portrays these animals and the natural relationships
between these animals in nature contribute to the idea of biological
differences being given social meanings that we give to biological
features and differences. Spiegelman also strips the story of the

regular general ideas of race and gives individual stories and

personalities to characters.

Works Cited

Spiegelman, Art. "Why Mice?" Why Mice? by Art Spiegelman. The New
York Review of Books, 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.