Spiegelman vs. Vonnegut

World War II is a subject that spans an immense array of topics. The war looked completely different to every party involved. It is because of this that no two wartime narratives are quite the same. Take, for example, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Art Spiegelman’s Maus. Both stories are about the war, but from vastly different perspectives with vastly different narrative techniques.

Vonnegut writes from the point of view of an American serviceman named Billy Pilgrim. Though the tale is ultimately about the firebombing of Dresden, a sci-fi twist is applied to the narrative, introducing time travel and aliens to Billy Pilgrim’s experience. It is entirely unclear what is real and what is made up. Readers are not even sure if the Tralfamadorians and time traveling are supposed to be taken at face value or supposed to be symbolic. Ideas are scattered, left unfinished, and incoherent. The novel is written as a pessimistic satire. It is a rather detached, grim read, leaving the reader feeling jaded and confused.

Spiegelman’s story is something else entirely. It is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, Art’s father, who was a Jew living in Poland when the Nazis took over. Art captures the tale of Vladek’s capture by the Nazi forces in the form of a graphic novel. The Jews are depicted as mice, the Poles as pigs, and the Germans as vicious cats. This novel is much more believable and much less confusing than Vonnegut’s. The story is straightforward and vibrant, with the addition of pictures to make things even clearer. The events of Vladek’s life and the interactions between him and his son are unvarnished and human. It is very easy for the reader to relate to the characters, unlike in Slaughterhouse-Five, and walk away with a message of hope. Perhaps a reason for this different narrative style is that Art, who wrote the book, did not actually live through the war. The story is all Vladek’s, with Art merely acting as the messenger. Perhaps if Vladek had written the story, he would have told it much differently.