It seemed to me that Spiegelman was making a parallel between 911 and the Holocaust. From the beginning he talks about “paranoid Arab Americans blaming it all on the Jews,” compares the air in lower Manhattan to the air in Auschwitz, and all the villains speak in mock German accents. He relates his patriotism to Kristallnacht and the feelings of the Jews in NAZI occupied Germany, saying, “I finally understand why some Jews didn’t leave Berlin right after Kristallnacht” (4). The mouse head that continually pops up throughout the pages looks a lot like the character in the comic book, Maus. Unfortunately, I have not read the book, but I do know that the Jews are mice and the Americans are dogs (see lower right hand corner of page 8). So how, here, is Spiegelman a victim…? Or is the mouse head just a symbol that he is speaking from his Jewish lens?
While I think 911 was a horrendous tragedy, I’m not sure that I would agree that it is a parallel to the Holocaust. In WWII the victims were oppressed and then systematically exterminated by a fascist regime. In 911 the fascist regime (at least according to what Spiegelman seems to be purporting) is the one who is attacked. It is not the same. Or is Spiegelman saying that the Bush administration is parallel to the NAZI party and that our country’s prejudice and ulterior motive for going to war creates the dichotomy? If so, then how does 911 fit in and why does the death here remind him of Auschwitz? The only rational connection I can make is that the use of fear is the same. The Germans (or, more aptly, the Nazis) created a fear within their citizens that the depressed state of their country was due, in part, to the Jews. And then they managed to wage war on the oppressed based on propaganda. America (or, more aptly…you get it) has taken undirected fear of an Armageddon and purposefully directed it at the Arabs as a scapegoat for our breach in security…among other problems.
While I can agree with the last parallel, I still don’t think comparing 911 to the Holocaust is a justified analogy and I dislike the connotation.
Finally, I think that Spiegelman lays a lot of blame in this book…it seems to subvert his message since he seems to be advocating that blame is one of the causes of the problem.