Art Spiegelman's graphic novels Maus and Maus II have the power to make the reader understand the pain and suffering that took place during the Holocaust . Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans in his graphic novels to represent different races of people. The use of visual aids in Maus by Art Spiegelman improves the reading of the story. The graphics throughout the novel help the reader fully understand everything that is happening. Holocaust victims lose sight of who they are during this time and begin to live their lives playing a role they believe they play because of their race. Loman discussed the irony behind the cat-and-mouse metaphor that Spiegelman uses in his graphic novel in his article titled "'Well-Intentioned Liberal Slop': Allegories of Race in Spiegelman's Maus." In his article he states: “For many reasons, the translation of the cat-and-mouse metaphor from America to Nazi Germany is brilliantly successful. As Spiegelman's research indisputably demonstrates, in many cases Nazi propagandists depicted Jews as mice or rats, thereby claiming that the Jewish presence in Europe was an infestation of vermin that needed to be eradicated. And there are various grotesque ironies that Spiegelman noted in his research; for example, Zyklon B, the poison used in gas chambers, was first developed as a pesticide. Loman demonstrates that Spiegelman did not choose these animals at random to represent everyone during the Holocaust. Spiegelman used these animals to demonstrate how these people felt. The Jewish people during the Holocaust suffered dehumanization and were treated like vermin. All advertisements used by Nazi Germany during this era depict the...... middle of paper ...... to understand what people experienced during the Holocaust. By illustrating different races of people using different animals, it helps the reader understand the power of identity during a traumatic event. By repeatedly telling the Jewish population that they are worthless, they begin to believe him and, in a sense, give up their fight for their lives. The graphics accompany the narration of the story to help illustrate to the reader the difficulties faced by Jewish citizens simply because they are Jewish. When the reader sees a cat on the page with a mouse, they tense up and truly feel the hardships faced during the Holocaust due to discrimination. The depiction of the characters as animals in his novel is a sort of allegory to demonstrate the struggles faced during the Holocaust regarding identity and discrimination..