Connecting Maus to A Biological Reality

    Throughout Maus, and especially in Maus I, we can see that many Jewish people hide their physical differences and their racial identity by disguising themselves with pig masks so they can look like Polish pigs. Additionally, the use of different animals representing different nationalities and races can be seen in Maus, for example, the dogs as Americans and the Mice as Jewish people. This motif suggests how sometimes we tend to focus on the differences in physical appearance between different races. In “A Biological Reality?” British social scientists Michael Blanton states that we, “do not perceive racial difference…[but] phenotypic differences of color, hair form, underlying bone structure and so on.” Essentially, sometimes we tend to look at people and generalize people based solely on the differences of their physical appearance, in Maus we see how the Jewish, Americans, Polish, and Germans all physically appear different as different animals. Furthermore, the authors of “A Biological Reality?” also mention how the physical differences of people are supposedly separating one race from another, which they then provide a rebuttal for. Ultimately, physical differences between races has become so important to certain people, that it begins to separate one race from another. At times, people focus too much on how races can be different from one another, to the point where they don’t realize how similar people really are. Overall, it is important to not mask our own identities and racial backgrounds, and instead realize that on a genetic level we are all the same, we are all human.