Sejal Says, "Spiegelman Give Us The Full, Uncensored Story"

In "Maus" Volume 1, Page 23, Spiegelman introduces Vladek's past and begins to explain his purpose for writing this novel. He also starts it off describing the intricacies of Vladek's past relationships before meeting Anja, Art's mother. In this specific panel, we see Art blatantly ignore his father's request to exclude his private stories. In depicting this specific moment that Vladek requested not to include his personal life, Art is trying to establish his ethos with the readers by persuading the readers into confiding in him by calling attention to his unwillingness to censor his father's story.

This panel describes not only displays Vladek's tale of surviving such a traumatic time of his life but it also goes further to describe the specific relationship between Vladek and his son. When analyzing Spiegelman's work, it is important to analyze the specific techniques used to understand the hidden meaning.

Throughout the entire novel, the past and the present are shown seamlessly to depict how they exist together in Vladek's mind. Spiegelman is able to describe three different perspectives in the novel: Vladek's past, Vladek's present, and the relationship between Vladek and Art. In order to provide a story that the readers can relate to and truly understand, Spiegelman discusses all three aspects with no boundaries they are all interwoven into one another.

Additionally, the beginning of this novel begins the prevalence of the color choice. Although the cover is colored, Spiegelman made the decision to design the entire novel using only black and white. In using the same colors throughout, it becomes near to impossible for the readers to differentiate between the different stories that are occurring. 

Also, as we had mentioned, we see a dark figure that is of Vladek on a stationary bike symbolizing the incessant circle that Vladek is stuck in of his past. He keeps trying to run away from his past but is unable to do so because of the hold it will forever have over him. This symbol is repeated multiple times on the page to emphasize this continuous loop. Overall, Spiegelman does an effective job of providing readers with a new type of Holocaust story. Not only do we receive stories from the camps themselves but he sheds light on all aspects of Vladek's personal life and how it intervenes with his life as a prisoner.