5. Why did Spiegelman write this book? Why did he call it Maus?

Throughout Maus, Jews are represented as mice, while non-jewish Germans are represented as cats. Other animals are used to represent other nationalities, religions, and races. Almost all the characters of a single "nationality" were drawn identically, with only their clothing or other details helping to distinguish between them. In making people of a single nationality look "all alike", Spiegelman hoped to show the absurdity of dividing people by these lines. In a 1991 interview, Spiegelman noted that "these metaphors... are meant to self-destruct in my book — and I think they do self-destruct