"Reality is the mask of meaning..."

What is Reality?

Art Spiegelman's  graphic novel "Maus" is a great example of Hayden White's statement that "reality is the mask of meaning..." White's statement can be looked as a way to explain that reality of an historic event can "mask" the actual meaning behind the purpose  of a piece of literature. "Maus" depicts the information of the Holocaust through a comic/graphic novel view. But I saw "Maus" as a graphic novel portraying the meaning of family.

What is Family?

The meaning of family can be different then the actual definition of "what is a family?".  This "reality" ,that White explains, "masks" the purpose of Spiegelman's "meaning" of family. Artie who interviews his father throughout "Maus" is a son searching for information of his "family" through his father. His mother killed herself and later in the novel Artie accuses his father of killing his mother. This was in a metaphoric manner because his father burned all of his mother's stuff. Instead of Artie disowning his father and rejecting his father...Artie gets a bit frustrated but in the end still respects him as he leaves. He waits to say to him self...."murderer". I believe that Artie does this because it is his father and in a way teaches us a society to respect your family and who is in it even when things are wrong in many ways. This an example of how "reality" can "mask" the meaning of purpose.