Maus

After reading the first part of Maus, a theme that I thought was present all through out the story was friendship and family bonds. The story starts off with Artie roller skating with his friends, when he starts complaning about his friends his father says the way you know someone is your true friend is if you are locked together in a room with no food for a week and you manage okay. This was in the first two pages before the actual story begins.

Friendship and family bonds are present in several other situations as well such as on page 112-113 when Artie's father and mother hide in a bunker with some other Jewish people to try to escape from the Germans.

My response paper was mainly focused on why the characters were depicted as mice instead of people. But for today in class I think tha ti would like to focus on the idea of friendship. Their is a lot of information that can back up and support my thoughts.

Artie's father met his wife on page 18 through friedship and family ties.
Met friends in the P.O.W. camp page 55
Friends and business partners get hung page 85
changing sides page 93
hiding page 112-114, 123