We Are Only as Blind as We Want to Be

    Maus, the comic book series written by Art Spiegelman, is a rollercoaster of emotions. From laughter to horror, the series deep dives into the truly terrifying story of Spiegelman's father, Vladek. The story doesn't spare any details, instead showing the world what really happened behind the gates of Auschwitz. The books contain small details that showcase Spiegelman's intelligence, and overall, is an educational and engaging book that deserves to be shared with the world. So, imagine my surprise when I find out via my English teacher that the book is banned in some parts of the U.S. and Russia.

The reason why the books are banned in Russia is because of the swastika on the cover page and how it violates a law against Nazi propaganda. In the United States, the book is banned in a Tennessee school district and in schools in Florida. The reasons behind this action? Nudity, violence and profanity. Let's go over these reasons one by one, shall we?

    The first reason is nudity. Now, let's talk about the depictions of nudity throughout the two series. In both books, you can only clearly see nude scenes maybe five times, and even then, the drawings are small and can easily go unnoticed. For one of the excuses to be nudity seems VERY inappropriate considering the context of these situations. One time we see nudity is in the first edition of the book, when Spiegelman adds a comic that he made about his mother’s death. In it is drawn Anja, his mother who nakedly lays dead in a tub of water and blood. Another scene is when we see Jewish men lined up all naked. And another is when there is a pile of men's bodies all on top of each other. In all of the situations I have just listed, the context is death. Let's talk about when nudity IS bad for children. It is bad when there are explicit sexual and inappropriate meanings behind them. It is NOT bad when nudity is not the main focus of the story and is only there as an afterthought. It's gross that nudity is the thing focused on when death is the main issue at hand.

    The second reason is violence. While violence is more depicted in the panels, I have to say that violence is what happened during the Holocaust. It isn't added for entertainment purposes, and if it was, then there would be a whole other conversation held. But it isn't. It is only used to show what was experienced by Jews. Not only that, but we're acting as if violence isn't portrayed in multiple aspects of our everyday lives? Whether it be by movies, TV shows, video games and more, violence surrounds us constantly, and for us to act like it isn't is very much problematic.

    The third reason for the banning of the story is profanity. Now, excuse my language when I say this, but what the actual hell is this excuse? Profanity? Let's be so for real for a moment. There is more profanity in a 6th grade boy's vocabulary than in these two books combined, and for school districts to act as if there aren't swear words in the everyday speech of kids is crazy. Even then, what good does it do if we act as if we're protecting kids from words that they constantly hear every single day?

A common reason why the book is banned would be due to the idea that "People don't like it." This of course is not the sentiment of my teacher, but of some people around the world. I'm gonna be honest. This is a crap excuse, because of course you're not gonna LIKE genocide. That's a given. But how can we use this as an excuse to refuse to learn about history that is very much important in today's society and essentially erase history? Not learning about the past will eventually bite us in the back because we will repeat those exact same mistakes, intended or not. We can see history being repeated today in the ongoing genocide in Palestine and we will continue to see this in the future and beyond. That's why it's necessary to learn about the past, and Art Spiegelman's graphic novel, Maus, can help educate us. But, as the great scholar Maya Angelou once said, "We are only as blind as we want to be."