The Holocaust, and the Holocaust in particular, blurred the definition of who was considered a person and altered the way the outside world viewed Jews. Andre Schwarz-Bart's The Last of the Righteous and Art Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II focus on images of different types of "bugs" and other types of degrading animal images of Jews during the Holocaust. Taking inspiration from Edmund Russell's article and Howard Stein's, one can understand how the representation of Jews as animals or insects and the reactions of those persecuted during the Shoah were represented in the two novels. Therefore, it is when an individual moves away from their vision of “insect” or animal identity that an individual is able to find the strength to cope with and survive difficult tragedies. According to Edmund Russell in an article titled, “Speaking of Annihilation: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies,” the Holocaust was not only horrendous because of the enormity of the deaths and suffering suffered, but because people were perceived as “half-human, half-insect creatures” (Russell 1505). Noticing the way people were represented as insects allowed war to change society's perspectives, and vice versa, Russell argues, “metaphors shaped human understanding of the material world, and the material world shaped metaphors” (Russell 1510). Therefore the metaphor of the Jews as insects or animals did nothing but fuel the fallacious belief that the Jewish population should be exterminated because the prevailing belief was that the Jews were a burden to society rather than a benefit to be accepted by society. of the novel The Last of the Just, Schwarz-Bart uses images of insects in the center of the card, the doomed ones, where many find themselves faced with the fight or flight mentality. For many, this change is simply a mindset as many Jews have internalized and consequently maintained the anti-Semitic identities that plagued them. However, through the stories of Ernie and Vladek, one can see the way in which images of animals and insects help Jews survive. In situations like the Holocaust, victims can easily fall victim to their persecutors' dehumanized conception of their self-worth, fighting to stop them when they feel there is no chance of escape. As seen in both The Last of the Righteous and Maus I and Maus II, Ernie and Vladek both recognize that whatever action they choose, be it death or survival, realizing the power of their own identity, they no longer accept the role of creature dehumanized and, instead, emerge victorious.