Sunday, October 22, 2017

Mauspaganda?







To the left, we have a piece of German propaganda disturbingly titled "Don't Let Go", and to the right is Chapter Two of Maus Volume I, titled "The Honeymoon". In "Don't Let Go", the writing on the bottom translates to

"Do not grow weary, do not loosen the grip,

This poisonous serpent may not slip away.

Better that one strangles it to death

Than that our misery begin anew."

Clearly, the snake with Stars of David etched on its skin represents the Jewish people, and the aggressive hand choking it is presumably the Jewish people. The snake's face has human qualities, including a stereotypical large nose that's associated with Jews.
Conversely, the illustration on the right shows the mice (symbolizing Jews) looking up at a folded Nazi flag depicting the swastika.
In comparing the two images, both use a symbol to represent a greater enemy: the Stars represent the Jews, and the swastika represents the Nazi regime. However, the two images differ in their use of color. "Don't Let Go" is mostly all white, with very minimal use of the color black. This contrasts with Spiegelman's illustrations, which employs darker colors like black and grey. This could symbolize the meaning of Nazism for the opposing sides. Most Germans viewed it as a symbol of light and hope that the color white is associated with; whereas the Jews had a very different interpretation of Hitler's Germany, relating it with death, grief, and loss of happiness.
Furthermore, "Don't Let Go" has a very aggressive connotation, with the hand literally squeezing the snake to death. On the other hand, Spiegelman's illustration shows the Jews solemnly looking up at the swastika. Looking at these images side by side can show who the aggressors are and who the oppressed are.

2 comments:

  1. The title of your blog is creative. I like how you compared the two images which at first glance seem to have nothing to do with each other. The caption on the Nazi propaganda is truly chilling. The last sentence about the oppressors vs the oppressed and your analysis about how the intended audiences of each image would react differently is really insightful. Great post!

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