Key Themes Of Maus, Oranges And Sunshine, And Reckoning

Compare and contrast the ways that key themes and ideas have been constructed in each text to represent the life writing genre through the use of genre conventions. Maus, Oranges and Sunshine, and Reckoning are three very different books which represent the life writing genre. The key themes and ideas in the life writing genre are often to help the reader understand who the author really is and why they act that way and also to come to terms with the effects of the past as seen in Maus and Reckoning. A way in which all the books are similar is that they all have something to do with the role or influence of parents in their children’s lives. Creators of these texts and films use a variety of life writing codes and conventions such as†¦show more content†¦In Maus, point of view is told from both Art and Vladek. Vladek is coming from being a Jew living through the Holocaust, and Art is telling us his story after growing up with parents who lived through the Holocaust and how that affected his upbringing. Magda Suzanski writes from the point of view of being brought up in a strict home with a father who was an assassin and believing that she was a lesbian. Language Techniques is another code which is shown differently in all three texts. Maus uses visual language due to it being a graphic novel, Oranges and Sunshine uses film language because it is a movie, and Reckoning uses written language. Similarly, Oranges and Sunshine is visual but as it is a film it uses film language. Film language is used very effectively in Oranges and Sunshine with its audio and visual techniques. Reckoning uses written language very well with its use of dialogue as can be found on pgs. 316-320 when Szubanski’s speaking to her father about him being an assassin. Maus effectively communicates the story using visual language by using motifs all throughout the comic such as the swastika and eyes. Another prevalent technique used in Maus is the personification of the Jews as mice and the Germans as cats. The structure of the texts defines how they will be read. Maus is written in a non-linear structure because although it is a chronological story, his writing flashes back to his father’s time during and