How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Page Number). Page numbers refer to The Complete Maus.
Quote #7
“There’s so much I’ll never be able to understand or visualize. I mean, reality is too complex for comics…so much has to be left out or distorted.” (II.1.6)
In representing his father’s Holocaust experience, Art faces a quandary: 1) comics can’t represent reality as accurately as other media (say, photography or film, for example); 2) the Holocaust is unrepresentably horrible, so any representation is a failure.
Quote #8
”Could you tell our audience if drawing Maus was cathartic? Do you feel better now?” “Wah!”
As Art’s childish wail suggests, the answer to both of those questions is “no.”
Quote #9
“Anyway, the victims who died can never tell their side of the story, so maybe it’s better not to have any more stories.” (II.2.35)
Art confronts another problem in representing the Holocaust: the victims never get to tell their stories. Without their stories, the bigger story of the Holocaust is always going to be one-sided, slanted toward the perpetrators and the survivors.