Cat and Maus

There are both similarities and differences between Speigelman's and Vonnegut's stories. It was interesting to see how Speigelman, similarly to Vonnegut, went back and forth in time to tell the story. It was almost like he was more telling the story of when his father told him the story than just telling the stories that his father shared with him .Also, there are really three different main times that he is going between, the war, him going to his father, and finally him actually telling the story.  The difference is that since Maus is a graphic novel it is much easier to follow and understand when the time has changed since we have the illustrations to help as a visual guide to his story. Another similarity between the two is that they both use unconventional writing strategies to make a point. In Slaughter House Five, Vonnegut uses crude language to make his point that war is crude and anyone who has to go through the experience of war will be as crude as the war they lived through. Speigelman uses broken English in the novel and I think that he does this to give it more validity and a genuine feel to it so that you can really hear it in your mind how each of the different people that were affected by the war would speak if they were to speak English. This also gives more a definition between each race which gives you more of a feeling of disconnect between them. Though I actually enjoyed Slaughter House Five, I really like Maus because it is much easier to follow because the illustrations, though not necessary, really help bring the story to life, not only because they are pictures but because of the way that they chose different animals for each of the races, Germans being cats that prey on the Jewish mice. I really like how well thought out it is and it really flows though it brings you back and forth in time.