Response on Maus

I enjoyed reading Maus a lot. I was drawn into it within the first few pages because I found the characterization of the Jews, Nazis into cats and mouses very interesting. It turns the characters into a simple metaphor that helps me understand the social hierarchy and relationships straight away.

Maus reminded me a lot of my personal experience with my grandma. Just like the dad in Maus, my grandma has lived through a lot of war and conflicts. She was a child during Japan's invasion of China in WW2, then her family was being persecuted in the Chinese land reform movement, and afterward, she became a nurse at the Korean war. When I was in middle school, I wanted to turn my grandma's story into a novel, so I started asking my grandma about her story. It was funny that I behaved almost exactly like the author of Maus, being impatient when my grandma starts the ramblings about the old days. I felt guilty afterward for interrupting her and the fact that I care about the continuation of the story more than her own expression. Because of this experience, I could really empathize with the father's behaviors in the narrative. I regret that I stopped recording my grandma's story because I wasn't confident with my writing skills. But Maus gave me a brand new way of narrative, with a medium that I am comfortable with. Reading Maus made me want to revisit my grandma's stories, I want to show her story to the world visually.

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