Maus: A Survivor's Tale Race Quotes

The Nazi soldier draws on the racial stereotype of Jews as wealthy financiers who can’t work with their hands.

Mala’s statement is an important reminder that Vladek’s experience doesn’t represent the experience of all Jews. It reminds us that there are no simple explanations for Vladek’s behavior. Spiegelman includes other Jewish survivors in the book to make this point.

Art expresses his concern that he is turning his father into a stereotype. By placing this comment within the text, he is alerting the reader to avoid racial stereotypes themselves.

Vladek can exploit racial stereotypes in this situation. The soldiers are thinking in a racist way: according to the stereotype, Jews should be easily identifiable by their features alone, and they should exhibit cowardly behavior. Vladek can pass undetected because he breaks these stereotypes.

Four words: racism begins at home.

The question of what animal to assign Françoise playfully references the limitations of Art’s animal imagery. Françoise is French, and she wasn’t born a Jew; she converted. Is she a frog or a mouse?

Like Quote #6, a playful poke at the limits of the animal metaphor. This isn’t the only area where a character has animal pets; the German cats use dogs to track down Jews in hiding, but according to the animal metaphor, dogs should be Americans.

To the Nazis, the Jews weren’t just like vermin; they were vermin. A pesticide is used in the gas chambers.

Vladek’s own experience with racism doesn’t, unfortunately, translate into racial tolerance.

It wasn’t just the German Nazis who were racist. These unscrupulous Poles see in the Nazi persecution of the Jews an opportunity to get their hands on Jewish property, and they refuse to return the property once the Jews return.