Maus and the most surprising thing

There is alot to say about fantasy versus reality when we think about an animal inhabiting a human's body. But when the animal is enacting a major historical event that murdered 6 million people, you have to give someone credit. I found the book really hard to read; not because of subject matter, but because it was all over the place. The illustrations were pretty basic, but I just kept getting caug ht up in them. The book is like any other hero's journey that I've read and that character Maus experiences a unique dilema. Its a lot like Eat Pray Love where the author is being paid to go soul search. Its a different form of the hero's journey, in that there is no death at the end physically. However, there does come a point like we brought up in class where you have to think what length will an artist go to for his work to be good. And I think its the wrong person in the shrink's office. I think the father should get some help too. After all that trauma, why not? Its better than what his kid is doing to him, and majing him remember crap He's rather forget about in the end of it all. Or you could view it as catharsis, but that would be too easy.

In reading the end of the book, I noticed that during the scene when they are asking to hide, the guy they are asking is a cat. And the Americans are portrayed as animals that i couldn't really place. At first I thought they were dogs... The book in its entireity is a commentary on weak versus strong. It also brings up an interesting point in using rats as Jews. It has been said that the rat population is unable to be killed, and the ironic thing about that is that the Nazis had no problem killing off 6 million people, as if they were rats. It sets up an interesting dichotomy that is relatable. the difference is that rats less important than humans. Another interesting thing that the author does is that after he turns them into humans with maks, he turns them back into rats. its almost as if he's saying, "OK you realize what I'm getting at, back to the motif."


The most surprising thing that I learned this year is how many different forms of travel there can be. Usual yo u think of traveling in a car, train or plane and that's it. Internal travel can be a lot more invigorating and at times, is not something we think about. It is more important to have self discovery through experience within yourself than to go to the beaches in Rio. While both are forms of travel, one is more profound because it can happen when you least expect it. Through experiencing it in different cultures, i have realized that it is no different from one country to another. Everyone goes through the same experiences in terms of having struggles. No one is exempt from this. that is an important thing that I realized that no matter time period or country people had and have problems. This can be dealt with through internal discovery, and at times physical travel. The idea is to use that travel to learn something about yourself.