It's interesting evaluating Spielman's reason for writing these novels. At first it seems like he's just interesting in recording his father's story to educate people about the Holocaust through a very personal media. The interruption of his father's story with his old comic about his mother's suicide was quite disturbing in itself. The style and tone were so different I felt like I had to read through it a few times to digest everything it was saying. The picture of his mother at the top also pulled me out of this world of animals, of mice and cats and pigs, and reminded me that everything in this novel happened to people. Real people that were slaughtered by other people. His mother was a real woman that chose to kill herself. And with that interruption came the idea that maybe his real reason for making these novels was to discover why his mother killed herself. Was it her past experiences? something his father had said? something Spielman had maybe done himself? was this a way to also tell her story?
I felt like a common trait that each character shared was selfishness. Spielman's father looked at himself a lot, in his new marriage, in his the decisions he made whether it was based on money or the way he felt, he put himself first. He wouldn't buy things for his new wife because he didn't want to spend money. He burnt Spielman's mother's journals because he had felt terribly sad and didn't want to have them. Was this way a thinking brought upon him because of the "survival mode" he was thrown into to make it through the Holocaust? Spielman's mother ultimately killed herself and though we don't know her exact reasoning we know the act of suicide is selfish. It's an easy way out, an escape, and a way to abandon everyone in your life. His father's new wife continues to complain about his father, how he doesn't treat her well, how cheap he is, and though her complaints are relevant she doesn't seem to look beyond herself. And more of Spielman's character is revealed at the end of the first book when he discovers his father burned all of his mother's old journals. The whole novel ends on such a sour note it made me think further about his character. Ultimately his reason for writing his father's story doesn't seem to be for his father, but to discover more about his mother. And when his father doesn't help to make that happen it leaves him angry and frustrated. Each character wants something from the others but none of them are willing to be completely selfless.
All in all I would recommend Maus to everyone. Spielman does a great job composing his father's stories and giving readers a new way to look into the Holocaust.
