Masks

Masks can be used to give false appearances, hide identities, and even allow one to act like someone they are not. Art Spiegelman uses masks in Maus and Maus II in order to use them as a symbol for something much deeper than the physical mask. In Maus, the masks are used in order to help the Jews, the mice, to act like the Poles, the pigs. By displaying each race as a different species, it helps to show that during the Holocaust there was a clear categorization of people. The Nazis, the cats, ruthlessly hunted the Jews, the mice, while the Poles, the pigs, did nearly nothing to stop them. On the panel below, Vladek puts on a pig mask and pretends to be a Pole in order to receive aid from Polish people.

 However, in Maus II, the meaning of the mask changes. On page 41 of Maus II, it shows a human wearing a mouse mask. The flies around Art depict the mice, and in turn the Jews, as being vermin and weak. While Art doesn't necessarily believe this, the Nazis did, and that allowed for all Jews to be put under this mask. By being put under these masks, the Jews were more easily alienated. These masks allow the reader to relate to the emotions that the characters feel and understand just how easily it is to be placed under a mask. For example, if everybody starts to consider you the funny kid of the class, you are given that mask and are expected to fulfill its duties. Putting a mask on yourself and having a mask put on you are two very different things. One allows you to hide things that you don't want others to know while the other forces you into a group/category that you may not want to be in.