Although Art sets out to write his father's story about the Holocaust (I want to tell your story, the way it really happened. [Book I, 23]), he realizes by Book II that this is also his story. There was no way that it could be less than both their stories since Vladek's story was being distorted through Art's eyes. By Book II this fact had become clear to Spiegelman. He begins this book with his struggle to draw Francoise and continues the first chapter examining the nature of his relationship with Vladek. It is in the following chapter, however, that the reader is confronted full force with Art's story. Spiegelman shows Art sitting at the drawing board, struggling with dates-- Art turns to face the reader in only one frame, saying, "In September 1986, after 8 years of work the first part of MAUS was published. It was a critical and commercial success." (Book II, 41) The following frame, covering half the page, shows Art and his drawing board poised on a pile of emaciated, dead mice. This series of frames shows how the process of Art's reflections affected the creation of the book; this frame in particular shows what problems Art is dwelling on. In his attempt to understand the horror of the Holocaust, Art has profitted from the deaths of its victims. The Holocaust itself is upstaged by MAUS. One reporter asks Art, while climbing on the corpses, "Tell our viewers what message you want them to get from your book?" (Book II, 42) People are searching for the lesson in MAUS rather than the lesson in the Holocaust. But the most disturbing fact is that Art has profitted from his father's tragedy. Spiegelman visually shows this guilt on page 69, Book II. He connects his cigarette smoke with the crematorium smoke stack in the frame below.

The depression Art had sunk into while working on MAUS lifted briefly after he talked to his psychiatrist. With the psychiatrist he reaffirmed his reasons for writing MAUS: the story needed to be told. His depression descended again while listening to a recording of one of his conversations with Vladek, showing him the cost of producing this book. In an effort to bring Vladek back to the Holocaust, away from his daily complaints, Art yelled at his father. The tape recorder jarred Art into seeing his own cruelty towards his father. MAUS provived Spiegelman with an opportunity to not only reflect on his father's experiences but on the process of composing those experiences into a book.