In any artistic work, aesthetic style is a crucial aid to the viewer's understanding of the work as a whole. Art Spiegelman's extraordinary publication, Maus, breaks the conventional barriers of the past between comics and what were then considered serious novels. As a graphic novel about a horrific atrocity, Maus is the first work of its kind. Through the style of his drawings, Spiegelman is able to use illustration to facilitate the telling of a story. Each individually crafted panel is detailed enough to be meaningful on its own; together, they create a rich tapestry of images that portray a powerful story without compromising the literary integrity of the work. Page 87 of Maus is an ideal example of Spiegelman's combination of careful detail and underlying meaning in his drawings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In panels 2, 3, 6, and 7 on page 87, Vladek and Artie are shown only as silhouettes. This could be interpreted as a connection to Vladek's past. As Adolf Hitler is quoted as saying, “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human,” Jews were not seen as individuals of value. As the camps and gas chambers filled, each Jew became just a number, if nothing else. Since the Jews were faceless then, Vladek is depicted as such in the present. However, it is interesting to note that Vladek's glasses are still visible against his dark silhouette. The glasses stereotypically represent a person's thinking and intellect, and in these panels, the glasses imply a hint of Vladek's human aptitude. The contrast between the glasses and the silhouette is an ironic detail that goes beyond what the first glance might grasp. Thoughtful details like these that appear throughout Maus are significant in their ability to bring a sense of humanity to an inhumanely cruel story. Nearly six million Jews were massacred during the Holocaust; although many works have been written about the events of World War II, Spiegelman, through the use of image, attempts through new places to help the reader relate. In Maus, people, often victims of history, are reanimated, transformed and metamorphosed into hand-drawn characters. Although these comics, because they are inherently two-dimensional, cannot do complete justice to multidimensional humans, they do not deviate far from the truth. Perhaps for entertainment value, or to some extent, to alleviate the dark nature of his novel. , Spiegelman adds a caricatural quality to the portrayal of his characters, particularly Vladek, who becomes the stereotype of the miserly Jew. This almost ridiculous quality is most evident in the novel when Vladek, who - even in old age - continues to bring home small knickknacks and objects he finds along the way, refuses to part with a piece of thread he discovers while walking with his son . . Vladek is also described as mean and ruthless, harsh in his speech and rude manner, and a bit bigoted. However, ironically, it is precisely these personality flaws that make his rodent-faced character appear more real, more "human". As the reader comes to silently despise Vladek for his many flaws, he becomes more and more attached to the character on a subconscious level. This unconscious concern for the character later translates into compassion and sympathy, and gradually Maus' thoughtful character development almost makes us forget that Vladek also has a rodent's tail. In the)