Propaganda vs Truth


Nazi propaganda was a bias form of media and advertisement used to convince the German public to support the Nazi party and Hitler. These posters romanticized Germans and blamed Jews for all of their problems. Nazi soldiers and Hitler were seen as strong, courageous fighters while Jews were seen as criminals and outcasts of society. The propaganda does not portray the death camps or ghettos the Jews were forced into, for they only showed the positive images or soldiers fighting for a cause.

Spiegelman uses his chapter title pages as a way to mock these Nazi propaganda posters. He shows the truth of Hitler's motives in ways that the propaganda does not. While Nazi posters show soldiers fighting and people celebrating, Spiegelman's chapter covers show the horrors the Jews went through and their suffering.

The difference between Nazi propaganda and Spiegelman's chapter covers is highlighted in the images shown above. Both show people marching, but each provides a very different meaning. The propaganda shows Nazi soldiers honorably marching with swastikas surrounding them while Spiegelman's drawing shows Jewish prisoners marching in their stripped uniforms and worn out shoes. The Nazi propaganda shows a bias side of the war. The soldiers are the opposite of honorable due to their treatment of Jews and other minorities, but they are portrayed as strong, and powerful by the poster. This image of the soldiers is created to persuade Germans to join the Nazi army or support their cause.

Spiegelman exposes the truth that Hitler tried to hide in his images. He shows what the Jews are going through as they march, most likely to their death, with prisoner uniforms, worn out shoes, and empty stomachs. The stripes worn by the prisoners represents their entrapped lives living in death camps and ghettos. They had no rights during the war, and that is represented by the confining stripes on their uniforms.

Spiegelman shows the horrible truths of the war in many of his chapter titles to contrast the lies the public were shown during World War II. This is the truth the people were hidden from in fear of losing support for the war. Spiegelman represented the truth of the wars through his drawing in contrast to the lies told by the Nazi propaganda.


Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 22, 2017 at 11:47 AM

    I thought this was very well written - the topic was well introduced and the whole piece really flowed! I really like how you highlighted the hypocrisy of the situation, especially how the true criminals were not the ones in the prisoner uniforms. I like how you mentioned Spiegelman's intent of exposing the truth of what the original posters showed through his drawing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meghana KOctober 22, 2017 at 12:09 PM

    I totally agree with Zahra. This is really good and your comparison of both is very thoughtful and detailed. I also really liked how you talked about what the stripes motif represented in that frame.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 22, 2017 at 1:51 PM

    Very insightful. I like the observation about how Jews are portrayed as these criminals on the posters but never show how the Germans treat them. However, I think even if the Holocaust was shown in posters, no one would question the decisions of Hitler from the fear of being taken away themselves.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hope

Image
In my opinion, the most beautifully written line in The Great Gatsby is said when Gatsby and Daisy meet again for the first time. After touring his mansion, Gatsby says to Daisy, "if it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay... You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of our dock." Throughout the novel, the green light represents hope for Daisy and Gatsby's future together. The symbol first emerges at the end of chapter I when Nick catches Gatsby as "he stretched out his arms" towards Daisy's house and the mysterious green light. The fact that Gatsby can see Daisy's green light in the distance represents the hope for a relationship that Gatsby can see in the future. For Gatsby, "his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it." He continued to try and 'reach' for the green light, for it seemed so close to him. However, the mist referenced to in the quote represe
Read more

Linear Cenotaph vs Nonlinear Narrative

Image
Linear cenotaphs portray the victims of war in order of death and do not include a corpse in their design. Nonlinear narratives, such as The Things They Carried, tell stories in order of amplitude of impact and portray soldiers as they were, rather than how they died. Linear cenotaphs do a better job of creating an equal memorial for all soldiers and are places designated to mourn; however, nonlinear narratives are more accurate. The order of stories in a nonlinear narrative increases the accuracy because it shows events in order of influence on the war. While most people want to see all soldiers created equally, this is simply not the case. It is far more accurate to acknowledge that some soldiers were more important than others, and some soldiers made more of an impact on others. Likewise, many people don't want to contemplate the horrors of war, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen. Nonlinear narratives show these horrors in a way linear cenotaphs do not. They
Read more