Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut and the graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman are metanarratives that share themes of life during World War II and the experiences of the devastating events during the Holocaust and the Bombing of Dresden. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut revolves his book around the phrase “So it goes” and informs the reader early on that his book is a failure because it deals primarily with remembering the death and destruction of innocent lives. In Spiegelman’s Maus, he illustrates his failure by telling the story of his father’s memory of the Holocaust through the depiction of mice and revealing how, though he knew that innocent people, including his family, were being systematically tortured and killed like vermin,…show more content… In Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut states that his war book had to be a failure “since it was written by a pillar of salt” and uses phrases to shape his text (Vonnegut 22). The reader is given clues as to the purpose of this statement a few lines earlier, when Vonnegut discusses the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah and how Lot’s wife had turned back to see both lands being destroyed when she was not supposed to. The result was the she was instantly turned into a pillar of salt and Vonnegut loved her for this because it showed how human she was to look back and consider or appreciate the disturbing events. The relevance of these lines is that Vonnegut sees himself as a pillar of salt as well, looking back on the devastating and destructive force that is war and death in Slaughterhouse-Five. He views the book as a failure because it was written by a flawed human being who can only cynically chalk up the events to one phrase, “So it goes.” This phrase, which is sprinkled throughout the novel when a traumatic event has…show more content… There are five frames in Maus that specifically show how and why the author feels the way that he does about his novel. On page 201 in the “Time Flies” section of Maus, Spiegelman takes care to choose what he sees and how he presents his views to the reader. In this section, he narrows the readers’ perspective and forces them to adapt to Art’s perception of the Holocaust and his father, Vladek. In the first image, Art represents himself in human form with a mouse mask covering his face. His head is tilted and there is stubble on his face just behind the mask. Two flies swarm overhead and they increase with each passing frame. It seems, in this frame, Art is miserable. His appearance immediately sparks the illusion of poor hygiene and a depressive affect. The statement above his head says that Vladek had died of congestive heart failure, which connects well with the depressed image. The next frame shows Art in a similar position, only this time he is writing. Throughout all of the frames, Art has the mouse mask on which seems to represent him trying to connect to his father, but being unable to truly identify with Vladek or the events. In Maus, Vladek is seen as a Holocaust survivor and a hero and Art cannot parallel his life with his father’s;
