Dane vs Spiegelman

Up until I looked it up a second ago, I thought  mice and rats were identical. After all, both creatures have small furry bodies with tails and ears attached. Their fur even has the same assortment of colors. How could you blame me for not knowing the difference? However, their characteristics are indeed different but only the slightest. For instance, rats have more blunt snouts while mice have skinnier, hairier tails. However, the most substantial difference between the two is their connotation. Often times, rats are depicted as horrific, nasty creatures, and mice are quite the opposite, quiet and helpless.

Between these two illustrations, a sharp line divides the two through their depiction of Jews. Made in the 1940s, the Danish poster stereotype Jews through a gnarly, hideous rat. Its hairy tail and big ears and nose emphasize the Jews’ repugnant features. The cartoonist makes sure to draw the rat in explicit details and, thus, exhibits the creature’s aggression and anger which makes the viewer believe that the rat is ready at any time to pounce to the other side and use its talons to do some harm. Additionally, the Dane makes it obvious that this sinister creature is a Jew by attaching a human face to the rat’s body in which the Jew’s characteristics are accentuated through the curved nose jutting out. Resulting from these types of illustrations, individuals began to associate Jews with these horrendous characteristics. Soon enough, almost everyone avoided the Jewish completely, believing they were too dangerous and inhumane to be anywhere near them.  Art Spiegelman uses this Nazi propaganda as a base for his illustration of the Jews. Indeed, Spiegelman uses the nearest relation to a rat-- a mouse-- and utilizes this close connection to prove that anti-Semitic propaganda inaccurately portrays the religion. Throughout Maus, Spiegelman uses mice to illustrate the helplessness and innocence of the Jews. Specifically in the above illustration, their huddled-up, freezing bodies reveal the dire conditions Jews had to survive through. Additionally, their fear and guilt expressed through their somber expressions displays the emotional turmoil they had to suffer through.

    Moreover, the two contrasting titles further exemplifies the cartoons' underlying messages. Spiegelman’s illustration belongs to the chapter: “Mouse Holes”. Appropriately, a pitch black mouse hole can be seen behind all of the shivering mice. It symbolizes one of the multiple black holes mice had to fall through during these dark times as well as the Jews' confinement during the Nazi era, literally and figuratively. Their lives consisted of hiding, isolated from the outside world and unable to experience the wonders of live. Instead, they were trapped in a constant feeling of guilt and grievance. Life barely moved on. Although the Danish cartoonist drew a mouse hole as well, it is used to favor the Nazis. More specifically, white is used to confirm the supposed pureness and innocence of the Nazis. More importantly, however, the Danish cartoon was titled “Rotten” which is commonly known in English as unpleasant, corrupt, and dreadful. The English translation pretty much summarizes the Nazis’ thoughts on the Jewish race: nasty. On the other hand, “rotten” actually means rat in Danish. The title is also supplemented by the words,“udryd den”, which can translated into “eradicate it”. The Dane artist was trying to send the message to  the public that these awful creatures--Jews-- need to be completely eliminated.

    Despite their different intentions, both artists chose to convey their message through a cartoon. This form of art allowed them to dehumanize Jews and use a simpler structure to make the meaning apparent. The Nazi propaganda dehumanized a whole religion so others could easily see that the entire Jewish race is  inhuman and, therefore, all of them must be killed off. On the other hand, Art decided to use animals to emphasize the flawed stereotypes made in the time period. More specifically, he used the typical cat-mouse relationship to explain the actual connection between the Nazis and Jews in which the Nazis were sinister, ruthless trickster criminals and the Jews were helpless, innocent victims.