Read between the Pixels

Symbolism in literature is usually a whole bunch of words written with confusing language that all come together to metaphorically express an object or idea. Maus is a comic, though! It blends words and pictures to create pages upon pages of a mixture of ideas that ultimately form the history of the Holocaust. 

 Volume II

Symbolism in a comic can be found in the words, the pictures, or a combination of the two. Comics are truly glorious works of literature because of this magical combination. They show hidden stories within the story. Page 75 Volume One. There's a little child playing with his food and being disrespectful. If you only read the text, you would miss the tiny story within the story. Maus has repeating images or patterns all over the story. The motifs speak of ideas that resonate throughout the story. Finding them is a treasure hunt that makes the story more interesting and ring truer to the author's meaning behind the obvious story. Next time you pick up a comic, read between the pixels.

Discrimination

 A number of horrifying catastrophes have shaken the very foundation of the Earth and one of the most heinous is The Holocaust. An entire race targeted because of the resentment others felt towards the success of some people. The Nazis believed the Jews didn't work yet they had so much money(51 Maus(I)). The pain and suffering of the Jews echoed throughout the lands, yet not a cry was heard as the Nazis hid their camps from the rest of the world. Jews all over eastern Europe suffered hard work or were gassed and burned. 

Racism can range from a stereotypical insult to genocide. It affects not only the parties involved, but, as shown in Maus, can involve the entire community. Everyone should learn from the lesson of The Holocaust and stop racism everywhere. Let there not be mouses and cats, but humans.

The Evolution of Feminism

Feminism started out humbly. A couple women fighting for equality so they don't have to be with a guy to live in society(Valentino). This evolved overtime as more women came to understand that equality is something worth working for and the first wave of feminism began at the Seneca Falls convention. This movement ended with the 19th Amendment -- Women's suffrage. Women were still treated as servants or slaves, even by their own language(Kingston).

Feminism: Fairer treatment to women.

Another wave of feminism arose in the 1960's as human equality started surfacing as a righteous cause. Feminism wasn't the most popular or known movement at the time(Bell), but it still gained ground as more and more writers started spreading the word for more human equality between genders. The patriarchy still remained.

Feminism: Gender equality between females and males.

Now, there lies leaps and bounds in equality, yet there still remains inequality. And now the movement begins fresh. Campaigning under a new symbol, feminism has reached its peak in history. There is still a lingering injustice that remains, that will be rooted out through teamwork from both men and women. "Feminism is for everybody"

Feminism: The end of oppression by the other gender.

The River of Society

What exactly does it mean to "conform"?

Conform: (of a person) behave according to socially acceptable conventions or standards.

Is there something wrong with conforming? Or does the word look funny? I feel like sometimes its simpler to just "go with the flow". Of course when the flow becomes a poverty stricken, idiotic, brainless bunch of sheep(Like in Thoreau's world), then maybe then I'll decide "finding myself" will become a priority. But for now it feels more like a safety net. Something I can fall back onto if I don't know what to do. For those that can't or don't know how to find themselves it's easier to go with society than against it. Yes, I do feel like society has a ton of ridiculously prejudiced rules that seem to drown anything and everything like a raging storm. However, sometimes I feel a lazy current that can ridden to the next rapids of my life.  Maybe I'm just afraid. I follow the "rules" so I don't have to deal with all the pain that's forced on society's outcasts. Maybe I'm just lazy. I don't want to constantly be looking for myself and figuring out what's me and what others want me to be. 

I don't think it would be a good thing if I lost myself. When I do feel like I have to remind myself that "this is water", I know I have to find myself and pull myself from the sea of everything. I'm sure if enough nice, good people were to jump into this River of Society(Right now kinda polluted) it would be a good thing to conform. As it stands now, I very much feel like the "partly-cloudy conformist" who likes to be one with a society and just follow people around like sheep and live blissfully and ignorantly, only remember enough of myself to truly continue living. Of course the partly-cloudy part comes from me knowing that I don't think that society as of now is at a peak in compassion or acceptance. I'd rather that society would be a true haven of warmth and care for everybody. I truly believe it's okay to go with flow every now and then. but sometimes I have to step out of the water when I reach the shallow end.