It's
no secret that lines and stripes play a constant role throughout both book one
and book two of Art Spiegelman's Maus, with
the most obvious giveaway in the holocaust's prisoner attire of blue and white
stripes, which became more popularly known after the book and movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by
John Boyne. However, we see lines continuously among Speigelman's sketches.
Among the walls and furniture of the post-holocaust scenes also continuously
shows the motif of lines. Thus, it seems that the lines and stripes symbolize
more than just the status of a current prisoner of war. The furniture and walls
can be interpreted that Vladek never truly escapes the war. He is forever
enclosed in a prison until his death, where even in the last scene he is surrounded
by a constant pattern of stripes among his death bed. Two scenes above it is
one of a few rare scenes where stripes do not have much significance in the
block, showing how only in times of pure joy can the holocaust be pushed away.
However, this only lasts a mere few moments, as obviously the stripes returns.
Vladek, unfortunately, takes the haunting of his stripes to his grave.
