Jewish stereotyping and Spiegelman's father

1. On a few occasions in the book, Spiegelman writes about his concern about representing his father as a Jewish stereotype. What characteristics does his father have that seem to match up with these stereotypes, and what events in his life might have caused him to behave in this way?

I remember there being a few examples of Jewish stereotyping in Maus. The one that comes to mind though is the stereotype of Jews being very greedy. Yet, I found that Speigelman did a good job of not applying these stereotypes to his dad or any of the other characters. If he did, I think most people would find it to be a stereotype, but, in reality, everyone, no matter what ethnicity they may be would be greedy if they had to go through something like the holocaust. When people are out to get you, and eventually, everything comes down to the situation where it is either your life, or the other persons. Most people would try to save themselves before they decide to take the bullet for another person. In the holocaust, everyone would fear death, because death wasn't a quick and painless sort of thing, it was slow and painful. They were either tortured in concentration camps, starved, or just shot for no reason. 

The challenges in drawing another person's story.

The challenges one could face while drawing out someone's story are mainly linked to the satisfaction of the person or people who are being drawn. I am an artist, and I can honestly say that there is no worse a feeling than delivering a portrait to someone that has asked for one, and they are embarrassed, disgusted, or ashamed of it. That is, after all, only an example of a portrait, not a full book/story. When you are drawing a graphic novel, you begin with the design of the characters. After the character sketches have been complete, you then need to make sure that the character is recognizable in each comic block or square. Facial expression and clothing is also crucial. If you are drawing someone you know or someone you have been in contact with, you need to express their personality through their appearance. A kind and good  person may wear white and have upward-slanted eyebrows to show their meek personality. A mean or cruel person usually is seen in black or a dark shade of any other color. If they aren't wearing elaborate black robes and capes, their eyebrows will go downward showing their anger and wickedness. In the book Maus, Art Spiegelman's drawings are not very realistic, they are more cartoonish because it is easier to visualize personification through a cartoon than any other medium. People visualize themselves as something they are not, that is why it is difficult to draw self portraits because they usually end up not looking like the artist who drew it. Because of this, I have always thought of art as a form of show business. Art is constantly critiqued and reviewed by the public. Graphic novels have become quite popular now, and if someone has their own visual of a character in a book or a real person, they would expect the images in the graphic to fully visualize that person. If they don't get the same emotion or visual while reading the graphic novel, they won't like it as much.  

Final Alchemist post- The mysteries of the "language of life" and the "language of the desert"

The "language of the desert" and "the language of life". These two topics have been constantly addresses in The Alchemist. Santiago learned about these languages through the Alchemist he met. The only people in the book that (seemingly) understood this mysterious language from the beginning aren't people at all. On page 121, Santiago mentions that his "horse knows the language of life". The boys horse and the Alchemist's hawks have been examples of "the language of the world" for the boy and the Alchemist. These animals seem to have been associated with this language, as if that is how animals are communicating with their squeaks, squawks, and growls. When the Alchemist first appeared in the book, he immediately stuck out (to me) as some sort of mystical being. Not just by his title, but by his entire image. The long white cloak, a hawk on his shoulder, and his interaction with the cobra shows the reader that he has been in close contact with animals before. Since he has spent however many years he has with these creatures, he should be well educated on their ways of life. This also raises another question/theory. Since the alchemist has spent such a long time with the animals, he could have learned something from them. Could the animals be the Alchemist's toutor on the "language of life" and the "language of the desert"?