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Art Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, was a holocaust survivor during the Nazis war on the Jews. He writes Maus, a nonfictional book, to describe the horror that the Jews were subjected to during the Holocaust through the narration of his father. Spiegelman story intends to appeal to the American audience who are not familiar with the experiences of the Holocaust. As a result, he uses plethora of rhetorical charms intending to present the horrible scenes that characterized the Holocaust to the reads. In chapter three of the first part of the book, Spiegelman narrates the experiences of Vladek as a prisoner of war in both the Nazi and Polish camps. The events are depicted in various ways in the novel especially through information on the caption, speech balloons, and emanata to express the emotions of the narrator. This rhetoric analysis argues that Art Spiegelman uses vivid imagery, contrast, and anecdote evidence to emotionally intrigue the listeners and the notions of discrimination and violation of human rights that the Jews experienced to make an ethical interest to the readers.
Spiegelman effectively uses pathos to emotionally appeal to the audience using anecdotal evidence through the narration of his father’s life. Evidently, Spiegelman gives firsthand accounts of the horrible experiences of the Jews during the Holocaust. For instance, Vladek narrates that he was captured by the German soldiers who made him carry the dead and the wounded. “And all from us what weren’t injured they marched over to their side of the river to look for the dead soldiers” (Spiegelman 49). While in Lublin, Vladek witnessed the killing of more than six hundred Jews who were marched in the forest and shot by the Germans.
Based on how Spiegelman uses pathos, the strategy makes sense in how he shows a genuine image of the events that occurred during his father’s life. Spiegelman shows that while at the camp, Vladek is shot while trying to go to the bathroom. The Jews were not supposed to live freely but only follow orders. When he finally succeeds in leaving the camp by pretending to be a Polish citizen, he finds his mother seriously ill from cancer. His religious father forced to shave his beards by the Nazis. Vladek’s experiences enable Spiegelman to appeal to the audience’s emotions by allowing them to sympathize with Vladek for experiencing horrible events.
Spiegelman uses contrast to demonstrate the Jews’ brevity compared to other prisoners during the Holocaust. For instance, Vladek maintained cleanliness at the camp by taking regular baths despite the unfavorable weather conditions that forced most prisoners to remain in their tents. “It was terrible cold that autumn. All over Europe, it was so freezing that birds fell from trees” (Spiegelman 53). By comparing the conditions faced between those who cleaned themselves to those who failed to clean, Spiegelman shows that often, the unclean developed frostbite wounds that grew into infections. It is captioned that, “Many others got frostbite wounds. In the wound was pus, and in the pus was lice” (Spiegelman 53). In so doing, Spiegelman paints the reality of what the Jews faced during the war that required them to be courageous to survive.
In another instance, there was a mixed reaction when the prisoners saw a signpost advertising that workers were needed in Germany and that they would be treated better. The majority chose to stay in the camp because they feared being executed by the Germans. However, Vladek decides to make good use of the chance and find meaningful life. He says, “I’m not going to die, and I won’t die here! I want to be treated like a human being!” (Spiegelman 54). Overall, Spiegelman shows his father’s determination and brevity resulted in a bold decision that saw him and his fellow Jews leave for Germany, where they were treated better than at the Polish camp. By comparing the conditions faced by the Jewish prisoners and the other prisoners Spiegelman’s appeals to the audience’s emotions by creating a sense of sympathy. That helps the audience understand the Jewish ability to endure the harsh conditions they were subjected to.
Spiegelman uses imagery to describe the scenes that Vladek encounters to paint a picture of the suffering and horror that characterized the Holocaust. Vladek describes how they dug trenches to hide from the Germans. “… we were all digged into trenches near a river. On the other side, it was Germans” (Spiegelman 44). The strategy of incorporating such a visual image of Vladek’s description of how his father avoided being dragged from the war by pulling his teeth to make himself ineligible to join the army enhances the audience’s understanding of the events. Through this, Spiegelman creates an emotional connection between Vladek and the readers, which makes it easy to realize the challenges and circumstances faced by the Jews. “My father pulled out 14 of his teeth to escape. If you missed 12 teeth, they left you go” (Spiegelman 45). This paints a vivid image in the minds of the readers since it indicates how desperate the Jews wanted to avoid the war and its consequences.
Vivid imagery is used in this chapter when Vladek describes the crowd in the stadium where Jews were ordered to line up for new registration. Different panels in the book portray the Jews lining up for registration. This was a strategy to reduce the number of Jews in Sosnowiec. Vladek describes that while the Jews flooded the stadium, soldiers with machine guns surrounded the stadium. Spiegelman sympathetically appeals with the audience to emotionally connect with what trauma the Jews in the stadium were subjected when they saw soldiers with machine guns pointed at them. Vladek describes how people came dressed well to have a good stamp on their passports. He says, “Everyone came very nicely dressed. They tried so that they would look young and able to work, in order to get a good stamp on their passport” (Spiegelman 90). How Spiegelman uses imagery in this scenario portrays the desperation faced by the Jews as they tried to survive.
On the ethics, Spiegelman makes an ethical appeal to the audience by presenting elements of inequality, injustice, and racial discrimination that the Jews were subjected to. These atrocities demonstrate the anti-sematic beliefs which the Nazis used to justify the torture and killing of the Jewish people. Spiegelman paints a picture of political and social injustice that the Jews experienced during the Holocaust throughout the text. The discrimination is portrayed at the Lublin camp, where other prisoners were given two meals a day while the Jewish prisoners were only given a crust of bread and a little soup (Spiegelman 53). Spiegelman’s ability to paint the political and social injustice against the Jews, as portrayed in Vladek’s accounts appeals to the ethics of the audience by demonstrating how the Jews were denied their basic rights.
Vladek claims through a speech balloon that the international law on the protection of prisoners only applied to Polish Prisoners. By showing how the Jewish prisoners could be killed on the streets without hesitation, Spiegelman enables the audience to imagine the inhumane nature of their condition as prisoners and how everything worked to eliminate them (Spiegelman 61). The deplorable conditions at the stadium where the Jews were ordered to congregate for new registration indicate the loss of human values and degradation of human life that the Jews had to experience during the Holocaust. Therefore, the ethical appeal enables the audience to imagine the elements of inequality and understand how the rights and basic human principles of the Jews were violated.
Spiegelman effectively uses rhetorical appeals, including ethos and pathos, to establish an understanding of chapter three’s message to the audience. The use of anecdote, contrast, and vivid imagery in presenting an emotional appeal to the audience about the circumstances faced by the Jews during the Holocaust. Moreover, Spiegelman builds on the notion of discrimination and violation of human rights to make his ethical appeal by demonstrating the Jews’ atrocities during the Holocaust. His authority as an author, borrowed from Spiegelman’s use of his father’s accounts, Vladek, enables him to present firsthand information to the audience to paint a clear picture of the experiences. That makes it possible for the author to emotionally connect with his audience and sympathize with the narrator.
Work Cited
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I. Pantheon Books, 1997.
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