Paper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Paper 2 - Essay Example In his graphic novel Maus (1991), Spiegelman records history from an interview he conducted with his father Vladek. Vladek was a holocaust survivor who lived in New York, and he related his experiences that Spiegelman translated into a graphic novel. In this graphic story, the holocaust is comically depicted with Jews as Mice, the Poles as Pigs, Germans as Cats, French as Frogs, and Americans as Dogs (Wood 83). Through illustrations, the reader is compelled to make an action in his mind and by doing this; the author touches on soft underbellies that most texts would not dare to through non pictorial means (Ewert 82). The author has given a fresh understanding of holocaust in this novel. In Palestine, Sacco gives a graphical representation of the consequences of the first intifada in the holy land of Israel/Palestine. In this graphic novel, the author takes the audience through various refugee camps and towns in Palestine in a bid to gather stories, pictures and other relevant informa tion. The book has interesting illustrations and written texts that convey various themes throughout the pictured pages. The two graphic novels have given an interesting revelation about the cultural and political state in their settings. For example, Maus (1991) was written with a cultural touch and especially when it masks the low cultural status of comical works in the English speaking world where the word ‘comic’ was not taken seriously. Moreover, the novel has been used as a cultural tool in most states. For example, the author of the novel went against the cultural expectations of fascism and accepted his book to be published in South Africa in opposition of apartheid regime (Wood 85). This is because the book is culturally revolutionary and advocates for human rights to be upheld by the ruling regimes. Likewise, Sacco’s Palestine is a work that centers on violence, brutality, and torture as forms of