Techniques Continued... - Literary

To tell the story, Art used many different literary techniques in which to tell it better. The book unfolds in a non-linear fashion, as it begins with a childhood memory characterizing his relationship with his father. The book then settles into the overhead narrative of Art trying to get the story of his father, and then the second narrative of Vladek's time before and during World War 2, creating a metanartive. “This craving that this author might have had to express himself in a successful state might have contradicted his feelings, so in this way, Art used a metanarrative to correct his emotions and at the same time produce his designated goal “[1] Showing the reader the process of writing the memoir increases the level of trust we have for what is being said. We know what parts Art is writing down, what parts he recording, and which of those are from memory. This creates a very trustworthy narrator, who does not try to hide anything or mislead his readers on the reliability of what is on the page. One might think Maus is a story about a man escape from German concentration camp, but its actually a story about a Boy discovering about his father's past and how he comes to grips with who him and his father have become.

Occasionally, Art steps back from retelling his father's tale to make sense of what it all means. I believe the most profound moment was when he was talking to his psychiatrist.[2, pg41-47] This it when he truly reflects on why he is writing the book, when he hasn't even finished. He still manages to inject humor into his book on page 45, with his joke about Samuel Beckett. Instead of doing an narrative to express his feelings, the back and forth discussion is a beautiful way to use dialogue to get to the truth of Art's feelings, while at the same time heightening it visual as Art becomes a small boy and the mask he's wearing becomes a real mouse head. This beautifully symbolizes his detachment and feelings of how overbearing the entire project is becoming.

"Why is Maus I in metanarrative form?" Http://trcs.wikispaces.com. <http://trcs.wikispaces.com/Why+is+Maus+I+in+metanarrative+form%3F>. [1]

Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: A survivor's tale : And here my troubles began. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. [2]