Maus

Maus explores the atrocities committed during the Holocaust through the eyes of mice, cats and pigs. Just like the racial disparity of this time, Spiegelman divides the social groups by animal species. The story also addresses the relationship between human ethics and animal abuse in the meat industry. In the documentary Earthlings, the narrator explains, “Though some will argue the suffering of animals cannot possibly compare with that of former Jews or slaves, there is, in fact, a parallel”.  For one, Spiegelman illustrates the social hierarchy during the Holocaust. Mice are representative of the Jews, while cats symbolize the Nazi forces. Pigs are seen as the Polish, who also played an important role in the story. These characters reinforce racial stereotypes through their discrimination towards each other. A Nazi guard screams, “You Jew! You’ve only been here a few days and you’re ready to do business?!” (33).  The injustice during the Holocaust is mirrored in other social equalities today.

Discrimination from the past versus the present
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The clips during Earthlings show animals herded into production lines awaiting their slaughter. Similarly, innocent men and women were packed in lines forced to perform gruesome tasks. The narrative depicts mice “So the march was going and going, forever we marched and the ones what didn’t fall down, we marched” (83). Both the characters of the book and the victims of the Holocaust genocide were oppressed and treated like slaves.

If anything, this more than obvious similarity shows that humans have repeated this unethical treatment over and over again. We tend to look at thinks like African American slavery and the Holocaust as a thing of the past. Yet, these are two instances of racial discrimination and hatred. Just like we react to the the Holocaust with disgust and remorse, will we look back at these animal slaughters with similar appall?