Borders that Bleed

Witek cites the insert of “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” as proof that “Speigelman’s visual style [in Maus] is a narrative choice, as constitutive of meaning as the words of the story.” (Witek, 100) But before Speigelman presents this juxtaposition, he has already made a distinct stylistic impression on the reader; the background of panels, in particular, draw the reader’s attention away from the mice and place emphasis more on the scene that surrounds the mice. That is, Speigelman busies and details the environment in which his mouse father lives to create a more realistic setting. Speigelman’s attention to shading (solid, stripes, checkered, flowers, polka dots, etc.) grounds the Maus world in the physical and adds believability, ultimately encouraging the reader’s identification with the mice as people.

And, as Speigelman capitalizes on a reader’s ability to suspend his or her disbelief more easily in a realistic setting, it’s worth zooming in on other instances where the background disappears. Many panels that depict Vladek on the treadmill as he tells Art a story provide a full image of Art’s “old” room (for instance, 12.2 or 23.4). But many other panels break outside the borders altogether when depicting Art and Vladek in the old room. In the first chapter alone, panels 14.2-3, 15.1, 17.1, 20.1, 23.1 and 23.6 break borders and defy Speigelman’s shading rhythm. This switch from background to no background is mirrored in chapter 2 in scenes of Art and Vladek at the kitchen table (for instance, 26.1 versus 40.8), and, in fact, progresses consistently throughout every chapter in Maus. In this way, the present tense of Art and Vladek is the only form that can transcend borders or, as Speigelman says, step outside the “neat little boxes.” (Witek 101) Yet the allowance for Art and Valdek’s transcendence of borders doesn’t stop here. In other instances, the present tense of Art and Vladek appear to cross into the Holocaust story (45.1 and 115.6 are good examples) to further disrupt the already disjointed narrative of the past. As Speigelman stylistically and subtly suggests (if there ever is any question of how Vladek has changed) that the present holds a stronger version of his father, he gives the present an advantage that the past doesn’t readily possess.

This stylistic approach of Speigelman is so effective in establishing power, that the image of the large rat (147.7) and the bleed of the Nazi truck and concentration camp (157.1 and 157.4) becomes more jarring and effectual. These remain the only two times in Maus that Speigelman shifts the power from the present tense to the past. The last panel in Maus, then, is worth scrutinizing under this same scope. Art leaves the novel and, in many ways, transcends the borders of the last page as if it was the only page in the novel. The borders on page 159 intentionally encompass him and his father, and Art's breaking of the boxes in the last panel implies a new transcendence and shift in power in Art and Vladek's relationship.