Maus: A Peculiar Ending
The idea of using animals to portray one of the most despicable moments in world history admittedly unnerved me at first. To compare the mass genocide of over 6 million Jews in Poland to a cat and mouse war bothered me from the moment I saw the cover of the book; however… after reading it and now in retrospect, I did find the story engaging and poignant. That being said, I rarely looked at the pictures and ended up reading the story as a play rather than a graphic novel, which might of saved me from a vehement disapproval.
I would not chose this particular book to teach middle schoolers; I believe it would be best suited for 11th or 12th graders, particularly if it could be an interdisciplinary unit between a social studies and English teacher. The Holocaust is not covered in the middle school curriculum in Jefferson County and I think that to truly appreciate this book you need a solid background on the intricacies of this historical moment. The frontloading for a book such as this is just enormous. We start with such an adult beginning—how the father ultimately chooses a wife. That alone serves as a teaching hurtle, how do your kids relate at all to these characters; when have they had to decide whether to love for money, or beauty, or kindness? The word list I came up with as I read this, of all the specific terms that relate to the Holocaust that would have to be explained, was huge—anti-Semitism, heil Hitler, Jewish, Polish, German, Torah, extermination camp, immigration, rabbi, parshas truma, genocide, prejudice, Aushwitz……….
Sure, a middle schooler could read it, even a high schooler could read it, but, I think it would be a huge mistake to assign it at this level without a really excellent knowledge of your students. It would be a disservice to the memories of all those who were impacted by the Holocaust. I think a child would miss the real issues that are being brought up in this story and there are plenty of stories on the Holocaust that could be used instead—the reoccurring themes of the destruction of family, the disintegration of human ethical and moral values, the betrayal of trust, the question of human dignity. What is love? What is faith? What is family? What does it mean to be dead? There are so many frustrating and unnerving moments in this novel that, even as an adult, I have a hard time grappling with, like the mother killing herself after enduring the war; how much can the human spirit endure before it disintegrates? Even adults don't often understand what is being portrayed by the father's idiosyncrasies that the son and Mala harp on--that he is desperately trying to hang on to his dignity in the face of death, just as he fights to hang on to his dignitiy under the shadow of genocide and the Nazi Regime. ... And the destruction of so many families, that even the narrator of the story, the son, leaves his father and the novel hanging on the last, bitter, betrayed word, “murderer.” I couldn’t teach this novel if my students couldn’t make it to those moments when you have to question the very foundation of all the things you have ever believed to be true about people and about life.
I would not chose this particular book to teach middle schoolers; I believe it would be best suited for 11th or 12th graders, particularly if it could be an interdisciplinary unit between a social studies and English teacher. The Holocaust is not covered in the middle school curriculum in Jefferson County and I think that to truly appreciate this book you need a solid background on the intricacies of this historical moment. The frontloading for a book such as this is just enormous. We start with such an adult beginning—how the father ultimately chooses a wife. That alone serves as a teaching hurtle, how do your kids relate at all to these characters; when have they had to decide whether to love for money, or beauty, or kindness? The word list I came up with as I read this, of all the specific terms that relate to the Holocaust that would have to be explained, was huge—anti-Semitism, heil Hitler, Jewish, Polish, German, Torah, extermination camp, immigration, rabbi, parshas truma, genocide, prejudice, Aushwitz……….
Sure, a middle schooler could read it, even a high schooler could read it, but, I think it would be a huge mistake to assign it at this level without a really excellent knowledge of your students. It would be a disservice to the memories of all those who were impacted by the Holocaust. I think a child would miss the real issues that are being brought up in this story and there are plenty of stories on the Holocaust that could be used instead—the reoccurring themes of the destruction of family, the disintegration of human ethical and moral values, the betrayal of trust, the question of human dignity. What is love? What is faith? What is family? What does it mean to be dead? There are so many frustrating and unnerving moments in this novel that, even as an adult, I have a hard time grappling with, like the mother killing herself after enduring the war; how much can the human spirit endure before it disintegrates? Even adults don't often understand what is being portrayed by the father's idiosyncrasies that the son and Mala harp on--that he is desperately trying to hang on to his dignity in the face of death, just as he fights to hang on to his dignitiy under the shadow of genocide and the Nazi Regime. ... And the destruction of so many families, that even the narrator of the story, the son, leaves his father and the novel hanging on the last, bitter, betrayed word, “murderer.” I couldn’t teach this novel if my students couldn’t make it to those moments when you have to question the very foundation of all the things you have ever believed to be true about people and about life.
posted by Lisa Smith | 6:42 PM
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