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How are stylistic features and generic conventions used effectively in MAUS by Art Spiegelman?
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In Maus, Art Spiegelman effectively uses stylistic features and generic conventions by employing the traditional comic book format with panels and dialogue, yet subverts expectations through its serious content. Unlike typical comics with superheroes and vibrant colors, Maus is in black and white, addressing historical realities and human despair. Spiegelman also breaks the fourth wall to express his creative struggles, while using animal figures for races to maintain a fantastical element, enhancing its impact as a graphic novel.
Art Spiegelman's Maus definitely uses the conventional comic book format that employs the use of panels and dialogue to tell his and his father's story, but for first-time readers especially, the content can be surprising. When one thinks of "comic books," the first thoughts might be of superheroes, glossy pages, and brilliant colors that accompany exotic stories of fantasy. The content of Maus, on the other hand, deals with terrifying historical facts, examples of deep despair, and ugliness found in humanity. Furthermore, there are no exciting colors throughout the book because the story is composed completely in black and white. This work of art certainly takes the ideas behind the comic book genre to a different level, though, and makes it worthy of being called a graphic novel. For example, as though he is breaking the fourth wall, Spiegelman breaks with tradition by addressing his feelings of inadequacy...
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while making the book in a scene with his fiancé in chapter one ofMaus II:
I feel so inadequate trying to reconstruct a reality that was worse than my darkest dreams. And trying to do it as a comic strip! I guess I bit off more than I can chew. Maybe I ought to forget the whole thing. There's so much I'll never be able to understand or visualize. I mean, reality is too complex for comics. . . so much has to be left out or distorted (176).
Clearly, Spiegelman breaks with traditional fantasy found in comic books by providing raw honesty as shown in the passage. Thus, not only does the author create a graphic novel with content that pushes against genre conventions, but he also follows traditional formatting that comics use (such as panels and dialogue as suggested above). Spiegelman keeps some comic book fantasy alive, however, by assigning different animal figures to different races. Not only is this symbolic and useful in making a social statement about our society, but it brings in a little bit of the fantastic, which adds to the brilliant phenomenon that is Maus.