Under a Sea of Thoughts

What is it to be successful in America? People yearn for acceptance. Although people strive everyday to better themselves, it is extremely difficult to transcend this inherent ideology. We focus on self-improvement, yet those goals are shaped solely by society's influence. From birth, the ideal profiles of success are ingrained into our minds by our parents, but vastly more from society. As American citizens, we often imagine true success through a materialistic scope and by how much money one makes; it's the easiest way to quantify success. By flaunting his wealth, Jay Gatsby would surely fall under "successful" through this scope with his extravagant weekend parties as Nick observes how "on weekends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight" (Fitzgerald 39). More importantly, we are told that we are successful once we make a valuable contribution to society, ultimately pl...

With Art Spiegelman, there doesn't seem to be an end to his literary depth apparent in Maus. As seen in the chapter two title page of volume 1 of Maus, the author makes use of a massive Nazi swastika flag waving above the heads of several mice. Similarly, a piece of Nazi propaganda shown on the right juxtaposes a massive Nazi swastika flag next to a proud, strong, good-postured Nazi soldier looking forward and upward. Although these flags are physically the same thing, they symbolize very opposite meanings between the first and second image. In Maus, the flag is shown as a symbol of impending doom, foreshadowing the coming hardships of the Holocaust for the Jews (mice). In contrast, the second image's flag doesn't share that evil, dark connotation, but rather sensationalizes pride, hope, and honor for Nazi Germany. Bright colors as well as a shining source of light are apparent instead of black and grey enveloping the totality of the title page. What this complete differe...

They removed our belongings as we filed into the room. Hundreds of us nonchalantly shuffled in with death in our eyes. The cold, rainy morning had drenched us as we walked in, and we could see the devilish smirks of the authorities. As we made eye contact with them, their gaze quickly turned stone cold and they barked at us to get to our positions. It was freezing. I could hear the snarling stomachs of the less fortunate people who didn't receive rations earlier that morning. As we got to our spots, a single voice boomed throughout the venue: "Welcome to the PSAT/NMSQT administration." Although the scenario described above is obviously an exaggeration of the actual horrors of the life or death consequences experienced by Jews during the Holocaust, it goes to show how the perspective in which a story is told can greatly determine the effectiveness of the delivery of an author's message. Art Spiegelman verbalizes and illustrates to the reader his father's story th...

On page 90 of Spiegelman's work, Vladek narrates the scene in which 25,000 the Jews in Sosnowiec come to the stadium to get their passports stamped. The way Art depicts this scene is chaotic as a result of Nazi demands, and therefore it supports his argument that the Nazis systematically erased the identity of Jews. Each individual figure is a Jew, but Art draws them out as indiscernible rudimentary scribbles. Through Art's narrative, the reader is told that every single person in the crowd is a "Jew of Sosnowiec", and is also told that "everyone came very nice dressed", but once a second look at the image is taken, you can see that you can't see any of what he was describing (Page 89-90). You can't even see the general mice shaped bodies that represented Jews, let alone the nice clothes they purposely dressed in to get their passports stamped. As a result of the Nazis gaining political power, the Jews in Sosnowiec begin to worry and frantically t...