Maus
...ided to approach the man who was letting the passengers on the train while wearing the mask of a pig otherwise known as a pole. He did not expose his identity to the trainman as a Jew while speaking with him because he knew that this would lessen his chances of getting home to his family. He then began to explain to the trainman his situation and tried to bond with him by speaking badly about the Germans. So the trainman saw him as a pole and treated him very kindly by helping him hide until he got to the border where it was safe to come out. While in hiding Vladek took off his mask only to reveal that he was in Fact a Jew. This page is a meaningful part of the story because the depiction of nationalities as animals is one of the most meaningful and controversial aspects of the book, because these animals express the concept of ethnic stereotypes and simplify more complex political issues. The common metaphor of a cat and a mouse is a great visual representation of what life was like for the Jews during the Holocaust. These masks portrayed the idea that each ethnic group acted like a separate species bec...