In 1973, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel series titled Maus. The graphic novels are based on World War II and the Holocaust, a war in which his family, of Polish and Jewish descent, was severely injured and nearly destroyed. Spiegelman changed the names of his characters but they represent his family and tell their story. Viewing the text from the perspective of Marxist criticism, Spiegelman shows the social stratification between the Jewish and German populations by presenting them as specific animals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay At the bottom of the German social class and animal food chain, Jews, aka mice, are labeled and exterminated during this period in the story and throughout the text. As we see on page 108 of the first volume, we see the mice behind barbed wire in one of the “ghettos” that the Nazi officers created to detain all the Jews. It also shows them, the mice, with the Star of David that they were legally required to wear to identify them as Jewish. Jews/Mice belonged to the lowest part of the social class and were not only labeled but also imprisoned. One of the characters, a mouse, describes: “One day that spring, the Germans took more than 1,000 people from Srodula to Auschwitz. » The description fits and shows the history of the Holocaust: "Jews in Europe were legally obliged to wear distinctive regalia or clothing (e.g. pointed hats) at least as early as the 13th century. This practice continued throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but was largely abandoned during the 17th and 18th centuries. With the advent of the French Revolution and the emancipation of Western European Jews throughout the 19th century, the wearing of the Jewish insignia was abolished in Western Europe. The Nazis resurrected this practice as part of their persecutions during the Holocaust. » The text on 108 also shows a Jewish child/mouse thrown against a wall because they were “screaming and shouting.” They couldn't stop. The social stratification is clear here since it is the mice who are tagged, imprisoned and killed by the Nazi cats. Of course, higher in terms of respect were the general German population, non-Jews, and members of the Nazi Party. Spiegelman makes them pigs and cats respectively. This is seen on page 113 of volume two when an old Nazi woman, obviously a cat, shouts at some Jewish Holocaust survivors to be arrested for wearing her husband's clothes: "Arrest these two thieves Jews! They stole my husband's clothes! As a German citizen, she clearly believes that everything she says is valid, much like the personality of cats who tend to be stereotyped as not caring about others and doing whatever they want. Historically, this hatred and anger towards Jews was due to the fact that "the German defeat was difficult to swallow for many Germans, as well as for Hitler. In nationalist and right-wing conservative circles, the “legend of the stab in the back” became popular. According to this myth, Germany did not lose the war on the battlefield, but by betrayal on the home front. Jews, social democrats and communists were blamed. » Once the Nazi Party began to spread this way of thinking, Germany headed toward the Holocaust. Finally, Spiegelman shows social stratification through animals in,/10.1007/978-3-030-33428-4_29)