This term, we began a new project, the first in PLP. Our project was centered around MAUS, a postmodern graphic novel about the Holocaust, and also about its own creation. The book was an interesting read, as all of the events actually happened and it gave me a unique perspective into a real person’s mind that I haven’t really gotten from a book, let alone a graphic novel. The book recounts the Holocaust from a personal perspective, showing how it affected the book’s characters. Due to the unique psychological perspective the book gives us, our final product was an essay analyzing the book and its characters.
Our project had what I’d say are three key points: Our reading of Holocaust articles, our visit to a Holocaust symposium, and our reading of MAUS.
Holocaust articles
At the beginning of our project we read articles and watched videos about the Holocaust, and one in particular stood out to me. There was an article we read called “The Holocaust in Pictures” that I wrote a paragraph about.
My writing was about the impact the article had on me as a reader, and I emphasized how well it did its job of making the reader uneasy and sorrowful.
The Holocaust Symposium
Our visit to the Holocaust Symposium was a very unique experience, as we heard from historians and Holocaust survivors. Listening to their recountings of event first hand was something that is indescribable. There was a specific video presented during the symposium that I thought was a very interesting and special way to present a documentary that had a lot of similarities to the book we were reading, MAUS. The video was a documentary was filmed at a very personal level, first showing just the daily life of the subject of the film, a Holocaust survivor.
MAUS
MAUS is the book we read for this project, and the source for our final product. MAUS is a very unique book, as it’s an adult graphic novel that deals with very heavy topics like trauma and the Holocaust. It’s also a very “meta” book, as it is not only about Vladek’s (one of the main characters) recollection of the Holocaust, but it is also about its own creation, showing us how the Holocaust has affected the characters today.