The Holocaust, and the Shoah in particular, blurred the definition of who was considered a people and changed the way the outside world viewed the Jews. Andre Schwarz-Bart's The Last of the Righteous and Art Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II focus on images of various types of "insects" and other types of degrading animal images of Jews during the Holocaust. Based on Edmund Russell's article and that of Howard Stein, we can understand how the representation of Jews as animals or insects, and the reactions of people persecuted during the Shoah, were described in the two novels. . Thus, it is when an individual moves away from their “insect” or animal identity that they are able to find the strength to face and survive difficult tragedies. According to Edmund Russell in an article entitled: “Speaking of Annihilation: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies,” the Holocaust was not only horrific because of the enormity of the deaths and suffering incurred, but also the that people were seen as “half-human, half-insect creatures”. (Russell 1505). Noticing how people were portrayed as insects allowed the war to change society's perspectives, and vice versa, Russell asserts, "metaphors shaped human understanding of the material world and the material world shaped metaphors” (Russell 1510). Therefore, the metaphor of Jews as insects or animals only promoted the fallacious belief that the Jewish population should be exterminated, because there was a prevailing belief that Jews were a burden on society rather than 'an advantage to accept for society. In the novel The Last of the Righteous, Schwarz-Bart uses the imagery of insects middle of paper...those who are doomed, where many face the fight or flight mentality. For many, this shift is merely a state of mind, as many Jews have internalized and consequently adopted the anti-Semitic identities that tormented them. However, through the stories of Ernie and Vladek, we can see how images of animals and insects help Jews survive. In situations like the Holocaust, victims can easily become victims of their persecutors' dehumanized conception of their own worth, only to stop fighting when they feel like there is no possibility of escape. As seen in The Last of the Righteous and Maus I and Maus II, Ernie and Vladek both recognize that whatever actions they choose, whether death or survival, by realizing from the power of their own identity, they no longer accept the role of dehumanized creature, and instead, emerging as victorious.