One thing about Art Speigelman’s ‘Maus’ that has gotten my attention is the personal story of his mother’s suicide. Upon reading the section of Maus book 1 where Speigelman voices his feelings of guilt and frustration about the suicide, I realized that Art was deeply affected by the suicide. He apparently feels that he neglected his mother and her emotional needs. As a result, he feels depressed and imprisoned by the guilt. I found it fascinating that this section of the graphic novel was not illustrated with the use of mice. It almost seems like Speigelman was trying to emphasize that this was a personal tragedy aside from the Holocaust tale that his father tells.
Lisa Naomi Mulman addresses this theme in her article in ‘The Jewish Graphic Novel’. I agree with her statement that Art is troubled by the fact that he is unaware of his mother’s account of the tale. I think that Art is disappointed in himself that he had not spent more time with his mother. He clearly shows his frustration at the end of book 1, when he discovers that his father burned his mother’s diaries. To Art, the memories of his mother are seemingly lost forever.
It is certainly easy to understand how Anna could feel depressed after enduring the tragedies of losing most of her family to the Holocaust. It is unfortunate that after surviving all of that Anna got so depressed that she felt she can’t go on, and committed suicide. This is definitely a thought provoking theme in the story.
This idea really grabbed my attention to. Art goes out of his way to show that his mothers death greatly impacted him and his father's lives forever. I think that Art does in a sense blame himself for his mother's death; at the same time, he has a hard time with trying to help his grieving father. I also agree with the writer of this paper when he says that after all she went through her depression got the best of her and she killed herself. Very sad.
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