Dickie 1

Salina Dickie
Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103
23 October 2014
How to Write a Suicide Letter
This genre modification project really helped me redefine the material presented
in Maus I and Maus II. It was pretty difficult to conceptualize an idea that rewrites these graphic
novels into something thats relatable and accurate. I was fascinated by uncovering a story that
was never told, Anjas. I thought Anjas story from Vladeks perspective was very sad, and I
thought writing her suicide letters would help give me some answers to my questions, even if I
had to make them up myself. There were some challenges to writing this suicide note, I was
given vague boundaries and I was presented with difficulties with writing Anjas story.
The first challenge I had to face was who I was going to write this suicide note to,
or if it was just going to be a general note. I decided to write the note to Vladek, because I
thought that they had a very strong connection. To my knowledge that was Anjas best
relationship. Artie believed that Anja had never written a letter, so if I directed it to him it would
be inaccurate to Arties story. After that, I had to figure out a collective piece that was valid and
impactful. I also didnt want this to be an angry letter, because Anja never seemed angry, she just
seemed sad. That was my biggest problem, to create a depressed mood to reflect Anja and also to
propose that it was no ones fault, I didnt wanted it to be anyones fault; because it could have
been someones fault, we will never know. I wanted to address her life, I wanted to give her a
voice to what had happened. I didnt want the letter to give specific details from Maus, because
these were Vladeks words, and he could have morphed events to make him the hero or to make

Dickie 2
him the respected one. That is why I lightly touched over every problem, and didnt go into
extreme detail with just one.
A suicide note, categorized in the genre of a letter, is pretty free range. You can write it in
any way you would like, the genre was not a difficult to work with. I had more of a difficulty
with being credible to Anja. The book has no direct quotes from Anja and there is absolutely
nothing we get from her. The easiest and the hardest thing about this project is that I can write
anything I want. After finishing the project, I realized how difficult this was. Sure, I have written
many letters, I love letters, writing is a great way to communicate with others and it helps you
map out ideas more clearly. I have never written a suicide note, so I did have to do some research
on how to write one, and I had to figure out how to write it with Anja in mind.
Genre plays a huge role in how writing is organized. Genre helps a reader categorize a
certain writing, it helps us realize graphic novels contain illustrations and obituaries are formal.
Without the use of genre, writing could become extremely scattered. Most genres are selfexplanatory, letters arent a very confusing genre and for that reason I have no questions. I really
enjoyed this project because it challenged me without frustrating me. I had to figure out an
answer to unexplainable questions. This was a very interesting and enriching assignment that
helped me understand the ability to rewrite an untold story.