A Conveyor Belt of Experience

Many experiences are captured in many different ways. The lives of many high schoolers today are captured in social media. Twitter, for example is very common for those who want to say what is on their mind, or post a quick photo of their friends to celebrate a birthday, but is primarily captured in words. For more serious and rare events, many turn to Instagram, a social media program that shares pictures with comments, allowing peers to express their highlights of life. Lastly, while not as common, YouTube has become a place for a combination of audio and video to create videos for entertainment, education, or pure time-killing experiences. These three social media applications share one thing: a way to capture and share moments and experiences that simple speech cannot outdo.

Drake and Josh, a television show that aired in early 2004 and ceased in 2007, provides a great example of how sharing moments can be different. I could tell you that in an iconic scene in the show, Drake and Josh both struggle to fulfill their task of packing sushi for a job. This struggle becomes a focal humor point in the show. This explanation of an event that occurred is very nonchalant in nature. No emotions can be conveyed through my speech due to its literal explanation. Much like twitter, text flows around the application, sharing the opinions of anyone that decides to press "Send Tweet." 

Text is not the only way to give the infamous scene justice. See the gif below:

This video without audio gives light to a new perspective. An audience can clearly see the struggles of the duo, but without an explanation or context, the audience would not be able to understand why they are struggling. Lastly, watch the video below:

With this last example, you can hear the struggles of the characters and their purpose for the job: to get their parents new furniture. Much like YouTube, the audio and video give the full picture.

The examples provided above of the same scenario may give the audience a general understanding of the experiences of the characters. However, in a topic mentioned in Maus, such examples will never be able to convey the true experience of the Holocaust. No video, text, or image will be able to fully depict the suffering the Jewish people faced. Through its cat-mouse relationship, flashback-inspired mentality, and comic approach, Maus gives a different angle on the Holocaust. A history book would offer a wall of text spewing facts about the Holocaust. A photo library would offer its horrifying images. A comic would put these two together and convey a victim's emotions through its images and background info through its dialogue between characters. By giving Vladek a character in a comic, Spiegelman gives a sense of sympathy for the mouse, but just a small fraction of what Spiegelman went through. 

A strong image was death was prevalent in the comic. When millions die, it seems almost obvious that a motif of death is present. However, this image came to mind when thinking about death:

The mice in this photo are being used as examples. Literally and figuratively. The mice were used as examples to those breaking the law, and Speigelman uses the mice to show the contrasting views of the Jews and the Nazis. The Nazis dehumanize the mice, and show how expendable these mice were. However, as seen at the bottom of the panel, you can see Speigelman gives a story to the mice, humanizing them once again. Not only that, the Nazis almost forget about them, leaving them out to the public for "a few days" (84). For the Jewish, this is far too traumatizing, and by humanizing the victims, he is then able to emphasize death's effect on ordinary people in the next panel:

As traumatizing as it is for readers, these panels will still never be able to convey what went on in the minds of the Jewish people as their fellow citizens hung from a noose. But the use of the images and the reoccurrence of death can bring us that much closer, further enhancing his portrayal of the Holocaust.

The popular majority may argue a comic is too comical for a topic such as the Holocaust, where millions lost their lives. On the contrary, others argue how the new perspective offer sympathy through its characters and images. The main issue is this: nothing will be able to accurately represent what millions of Jewish people faced emotionally. The sheer amount of people that lost their lives is daunting in itself, but families were separated, lifestyles were lost, and the people that loved each other were torn apart by a modified multiplication sign. Nothing will be able to convey those emotions.

What is the most effective way to convey experiences and how would these ideas be used to further show the emotions hidden inside the events portrayed?