The swastika in MAUSThe image of the swastika pervades Arthur Spiegelman's MAUS graphic novel. In a work where much of the Holocaust has been changed in some way - after all, there are no humans in this version, only cats, mice, dogs and pigs - we have to wonder why Spiegelman chooses to retain this well-known emblem. . Removing it entirely or replacing it with another invented symbol would completely disorientate the reader; but some might argue that this is the effect Spiegelman is aiming for. I believe it isn't. Rather, Spiegelman uses the swastika to subtly remind the reader that, although the form in which the events are presented may be somewhat unusual, the novel is still a narrative of the Holocaust. The swastika, it was pointed out, has always been a powerful symbol. . Before the Hitler era, it was used throughout the world, often with the symbolic meaning of the sun, power, life force or other superlatives, especially as a symbol of the Buddha. The Nazis co-opted this symbol only after much deliberation, and perhaps the Nazi regime could never have existed without the use of ideograms such as the swastika. The Nazis perverted this symbol by rotating it diagonally and making it bolder than it traditionally was, thus giving it more aggression. Given the innate power of this symbol, Spiegelman would be hard-pressed to find an "alternative" to his depiction of the Nazis that would evoke the same response. The image found on the book's cover is clearly a Nazi swastika: The traditional pre-Nazi swastika uses horizontal and vertical lines, not diagonals. However, to clarify who exactly is identified with the Nazis, we must look at the stylized and angular cat faction......in the center of the card......entation of his father's Holocaust experience, it would be dishonest and unfair to do anything else. But then why is the swastika not only seen in the places where it would have appeared historically – on Nazi flags, on the sides of Nazi vehicles – but also as a background image for a particularly gruesome event in the book and as a drawing formed by streets? This seems to be meant to remind us that this is the Holocaust we are reading about. The note on the inside front flap states: "Its form, the vignette... succeeds perfectly in shocking us out of any lingering sense of familiarity with the events described." But this is not entirely true: by using the swastika, we are reminded that, even if the characters are animals, this is still the story of the Holocaust. The familiarity of the swastika still lingers in our minds and colors our perception of the entire story.