Maus, Once More from the top!

Here we sit and once more we sit with Maus in our laps and the activity of cats on our minds. Let us talk frankly about Maus today, what I believe its purpose to be and more importantly were it ought to fit in as far a culture is concerned. With this in mind I want to give a quick over view and personal review of Maus. Maus is a twofold story one that is first of a son asking his father to retell his time spent in Nazi Germany and the other story is that of a young man you is trying to understand his place in the world as the son of a holocaust survivor and figure out his own relationship with his father. I personally believe this narrative is just amazing, that's about the only way to describe it, its insightful, and moving and at times funny, which does not seem right for a piece of Holocaust memorial to be, but it is true and the best memorial literature has that dichotomy of tragedy with a splash of humor. That can be seen in some sense with in my other favorite memorial work, The 7th Well by Fred Wander was incredibly serious, but there were these flashes of humor that so strongly Juxtaposed the narrative that they stood out all the more for it. Maus is the same way, to me personally the humor in Maus is limited, but when it does come through it is all the more wonderful for existing.
Stepping aside from the aspect of humor, what ought Maus convey to its reader? What could Maus be distilled down to? Any number of things really, these are Aesop's Fables there is no one moral of the story. But there are themes you can pull at like the strings of a sweater, to unravel the text. First there is the relationship between a survivor and his son, as I pointed out in my first Maus post I think it is the more interesting of the two narratives, but both are excellent. From which we can infer that Art Spiegelman has had a very interesting relationship with his father sense day one and that has shaped who he is as a person. The other narrative has the very obvious themes of trust (or mistrust), fear, and the usefulness to be clever when it means survival. Through the eyes of Spiegelman and his father we receive these message knit into a wonderfully colorful story, though not necessarily the happiest colors in the world.
Maus, where does it belong in the American literary tradition, obviously it can’t be ignored when one talks about its purpose it is clear it belongs on the shelf in the same vain as a great work of art, but ought we put it with our Catch 22 and our Catcher in the Rye or does it belong with V for Vendetta and Watchmen? It is a difficult question to answer because you have to determine the line between the two sets, are they different types of media all together or are they similar enough were they could be shelved in the same way? I want to leave that question hanging, where ought graphic novels fall in our media labels or do they deserve their own label?