The Complete Maus Summary

The narrative revolves around the real-life experiences of a Holocaust survivor, as recounted to his son. It includes two major timelines: the torment he endured as a Jew during the Second World War, and the present-day exchanges between him and his son who seeks to understand his father's past. The father's tales not only reveal the atrocities he witnessed but also touch on the challenges his son grapples with as the child of a Holocaust survivor. The father's obsession with thriftiness and constant fussing over his son's choices serve as reminders of the trauma he survived. The characters in this tale are drawn as anthropomorphic animals, with Jews represented as mice, Germans as cats, and other nationalities depicted as various other animals.

The story kicks off in the late 1970s, with the son visiting his unwell father in New York City. The father, a survivor of two heart attacks and emotionally scarred by his wife's suicide, shares his experiences from World War II at his son's behest. The father starts with his life in Poland in 1935, where he had established a comfortable life through his father-in-law's financial support. However, the onset of the war and the Nazi persecution of Jews disrupts his life, leading to his service in the Polish army, capture by the Nazis, and subsequent return to Poland. The father's struggle to provide for his family amidst food scarcity, and the subsequent deportation of his family members, set the scene for the harrowing experiences to follow.

As the narrative unfolds, the father, his wife, and their son are forced to hide from the Nazis and, despite attempts to escape, are captured and sent to Auschwitz and Birkenau. The son learns about his mother's post-war diaries that the father destroyed in a moment of despair, leading to a heated argument. The father's account of his experiences in the concentration camps, including the harsh conditions, resourcefulness for survival, and separation from and reunion with his wife, form the crux of the story. But as the son hears the final chapters of his father's experiences, he also wrestles with his responsibility towards his ailing father, who, in his confusion, mistakes his son for his other son who tragically died during the Holocaust.