History YMMV / Maus

** Vladek is strongly characterized as extremely practical and willing to do anything to survive. He also lists a number of incidents where Jews steal, doublecross or betray one another in desperate circumstances. However, Vladek never admits to a single morally questionable action at the expense of his fellow Jews. One might wonder if Vladek wasn't quite as morally incorruptible as his story makes him seem.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
** The family in Hanover that Vladek and Shimek meet after the war. They are given a warm welcome by the German gentile wife, her Jewish husband whom she hid during the war, and their two children - cat-striped mice. Seeing this obviously loving German-Jewish family unit for a few brief panels is a welcome reprieve after two volumes of cruelty, and serves as a little bit of proof that the Nazi ideology, ultimately, didn't win ([[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving not to mention throwing cat-lovers a bone]]).
** Vladek's praise for Art's preliminary material for the comic. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation On the one hand]], it's perfectly reasonable to suspect his un-characteristic interest in the comic stems primarily from being the star of it (as Mala does), and comparing his son to Creator/WaltDisney may have more to do with Disney, as a household name, being the ''only'' figure associated with cartoons that Vladek would be aware of (as Art believes). On the other, perhaps Vladek is genuine in his pride towards his son's work, and believes he has it in him to become a great success and name in his field.
** Vladek's reaction to discovering ''Prisoner On Hell Planet'', Art's comic book about Anja's suicide; while he's understandably upset about reading it, he's happy Art was able to get his feelings off his chest.
** The Polish priest in Auschwitz who sees Vladek crying and comforts him by using [[NumerologicalMotif gematria]] and Hebrew to interpret his number tattoo, pointing out that the digits add up to 18, which means "life". A gentile caring enough to become an expert on this topic is heartwarming under the circumstances, in addition to the fact that he comforts Vladek.
** A Polish train conductor also helps smuggle Vladek across the border after he was deported to the General Government, unable to reach his family living in the annexed Reich territories.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: This is one of the highest regarded graphic novels ever created and codified the notion that comics could be considered "art" during a time when they were mostly considered cheap, juvenile entertainment. It's also an extremely personal and gritty memoir about the author's Jewish parents struggling to survive UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, as well as the author's own modern struggles to connect with his emotionally distant father and his mother who committed suicide.

* SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}:

-->'''Art:''' Samuel Beckett once said: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness."\\

* SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}: The family in Hanover that Vladek and Shimek meet after the war. They are given a warm welcome by the German gentile wife, her Jewish husband whom she hid during the war, and their two children - cat-striped mice. Seeing this obviously loving German-Jewish family unit for a few brief panels is a welcome reprieve after two volumes of cruelty, and serves as a little bit of proof that the Nazi ideology, ultimately, didn't win ([[ArsonMurderAndLifesaving not to mention throwing cat-lovers a bone]]).

* SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}: The family in Hanover that Vladek and Shimek meet after the war. They are given a warm welcome by the German gentile wife, her Jewish husband whom she hid during the war, and their two children - cat-striped mice. Seeing this obviously loving German-Jewish family unit for a few brief panels is a welcome reprieve after two volumes of cruelty, and serves as a little bit of proof that the Nazi ideology, ultimately, didn't win ([[ArsonMurderAndLifeSaving not to mention throwing cat-lovers a bone]]).

* UnfortunateImplications:
** Several critics [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus#Academic_work_and_criticism argued]] that by portraying Jews and Germans as different species of animals, Spiegelman was accidentally reinforcing the Nazi beliefs about the Jews belonging to a different race. On the other hand, Spiegelman [[https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/10/20/why-mice/ maintains]] it was a deliberate subversion/reclamation of racist imagery:
--->'''Spiegelman:''' I realized that it could be received as one more example of the trope that [[Creator/RobertCrumb Crumb]] had consistently mined with Angelfood [=McSpade=] and other willful racist caricatures: the return of the repressed—all that insulting imagery that had been flushed out of the mainstream culture but existed in the back of everybody's lizard brain -- now brought back in a kind of Creator/LennyBruce "Is there anybody I haven’t insulted yet?" spirit, with the hope that if you say the word "nigger" over and over again, you remove its sting...
** As mentioned in the Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} article linked above, the portrayal of Poles in the comic met some criticism as well. To show that they are outside of the mouse-cat-dog power dynamic, Art Spiegelman drew them as ''pigs'', which are considered unclean in Judaism, and a large chunk of them are shown treating the Jews/mice with baseless contempt.

-->'''Art:''' Samuel Beckett once said: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.\\

** Vladek's praise for Art's preliminary material for the comic. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation One the one hand]], it's perfectly reasonable to suspect his un-characteristic interest in the comic stems primarily from being the star of it (as Mala does), and comparing his son to Creator/WaltDisney may have more to do with Disney, as a household name, being the ''only'' figure associated with cartoons that Vladek would be aware of (as Art believes). On the other, perhaps Vladek is genuine in his pride towards his son's work, and believes he has it in him to become a great success and name in his field.

** Vladek's praise for Art's preliminary material for the comic. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation One the one hand]], it's perfectly reasonable to suspect his un-characteristic interest in the comic stems primarily from being the star of it (as Mala does), and comparing his son to Walt Disney may have more to do with Disney, as a household name, being the ''only'' figure associated with cartoons that Vladek would be aware of (as Art believes). On the other, perhaps Vladek is genuine in his pride towards his son's work, and believes he has it in him to become a great success and name in his field.

* ToughActToFollow: Art Spiegelman has been quite vocal about how he never expected the "monument to my father" to become so popular, nor did he expect that his later works would be greeted by wishes for Maus III.

--->'''Spiegelman:''' I realized that it could be received as one more example of the trope that [[Creator/RobertCrumb Crumb]] had consistently mined with Angelfood [=McSpade=] and other willful racist caricatures: the return of the repressed—all that insulting imagery that had been flushed out of the mainstream culture but existed in the back of everybody's lizard brain -- now brought back in a kind of Lenny Bruce "Is there anybody I haven’t insulted yet?" spirit, with the hope that if you say the word "nigger" over and over again, you remove its sting...
** As mentioned in the Wikipedia article linked above, the portrayal of Poles in the comic met some criticism as well. To show that they are outside of the mouse-cat-dog power dynamic, Art Spiegelman drew them as ''pigs'', which are considered unclean in Judaism, and a large chunk of them are shown treating the Jews/mice with baseless contempt.