Sprinkles Look like Lines, Too

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.