3. Does this form effectively tell a Holocaust story? How does it differ from a conventional Holocaust story?

Art Spiegelman’s Maus differs from other conventional Holocaust stories, such as Eli Wiesel’s Night. Unlike Wiesel’s Night, which was based on Wiesel’s firsthand experience of the Holocaust, Spiegelman’s Maus is a second hand experience of the Holocaust – he tells the story of his father during the Holocaust. Unlike Wiesel, who had many different experiences to discuss in his novel, Spiegelman only had his father’s experience to discuss in his graphic novel. Thus, he was limited to only  one perspective of the story. Furthermore, Spiegelman does not use real human beings as his characters, instead he uses cats and mice to represent Germans and Jews. He does this because animals are not capable of comprehending or reasoning; similarly, many German Nazis found no reasons for killing Jews. He does not only tell an experience of the Holocaust, he also deals with a father-son relationship. Therefore, Spiegelman’s Maus is indeed not a typical Holocaust story, but it does succeed in showing the horrific side of the Holocaust.