Mice verse Men

     The main difference between Speigelman's writing and O'Brien's writing is the tone, I think. Speigelman seems to mask grimness, and terror, and fear. He does it intentionally though. All of those emotions sort of creeps up on you. Maus seems like one long jest almost. For instance the joke Speigelman makes about how the mouse's father helps him escape war. Escaping war was a very necessary, and important thing to do. No one wants to go to Siberia for 25 years, but he makes light of it. O'Brien's version of escaping the war is on the rainy river. It's basically a dramatic saga packed into a short story. While, Speigelman jokes about the father mouse could only get three hours of sleep. His father lamenting, but in a funny way. This sense of humor is again repeated in the next scene as well when his father goes into war. His father talks about how the tree seemed to be moving, and he wonders if trees could run. Finally, his father guns down the wounded warrior and says in a flabbergasted tone "I kept shooting and shooting until the tree stopped moving. Who knows; otherwise he could have shot me!" This is a totally real and serious concern. Is my life worth another's? Should I gun down a wounded man? O'Brien's way of writing about death is much more sinister. He projects all of his character's worries about war onto the Vietnamese man he shoots. He goes, on and on about what kind of person the man was. He literally, 100% percent does not know anything about what the man was like. If that isn't a difference in writing styles, I don't know what is.