Rethorical Strategies

Melissa Torres

Dr. Leonardo Flores

INGL 6995

Blog Entry #5: Rhetorical Strategies in The Cartoon History of the Universe Vol.1, and The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

     Rhetoric or rhetorical device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective. While rhetorical devices may be used to evoke an emotional response in the audience, there are other reasons to use them. The goal of rhetoric is to persuade towards a particular frame of view or a particular course of action. By recognizing and understanding the choices that other writers make in order to be persuasive (ethos, pathos and logos), one can further understand the arguments that they are presenting. When thinking about the rhetorical strategies found in nonfiction comics, one has to consider the author and his reasons to include their arguments in such a medium. The two nonfiction work of comics that will be consider for this paper are Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón’s The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation and  Larry Gonick’s The Cartoon History of the Universe series.  Although very different in nature and purpose, the authors implement rhetorical strategies in order to express their viewpoints or arguments, and convince readers through appeasing language.

To begin with appropriate rhetorical devices are used to construct sentences designed both to make the audience receptive through emotional changes and to provide a rational argument for the frame of view or course of action. If we take a closer look at Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón’s The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, we can see how they employ the medium of comics in order to illustrate the original 585-page 9/11 Commission Report, which was created by a group of ten distinguished lawyers, academics and politicians back in 2004. The authors of this graphic adaptation have long experience in telling stories in comic books and are masters of the form of the graphic novel. As they read the official report they soon realized that they could use their skills to make the information more accessible to more people, since the report was at times confusing. This is a condensation of the report, not a trivialization or oversimplification of it. Most of the words in it come directly from the original report, which is in the public domain. The book starts with a timeline, four rows extending for twelve pages, counting off the hours of that morning for each of the four flights. The atrocities within each plane and each flight’s violent end are drawn. In the Book How to Write Anything (2010) an excerpt is included of the 9/11 Report A Graphic Adaptation, they then ask you to consider the ways in which this report uses ethos, pathos and logos.

Therefore for this graphic adaptation Ethos, Pathos and Logos will be considered. These are based on the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s appeals. Typically, a text may establish the character and credibility of its authors (ethos); generate emotions in order to move audiences (pathos); and use evidence and logic to make its case (logos).  As was previously stated beforehand both Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón are respected comic artist and they are using and condensing a text previously written by distinguished lawyers, politicians and academics. This of course could be considered ethos, since most would not question the writings or statements of respected people, and since the book sticks to the original report.

Similarly Pathos is employed in each of the illustrations, since readers following the panels will try to remember what was going on at the same time in their own lives that day, and when they started hearing about the crashes. It makes people get emotional, since it also includes imagined pictures of events that happened within the airplanes and within the towers for which there is no documentation. An example would be, when they show the people on United Flight 93 fighting for their lives, or how the people trapped in the towers looked, among others. However when the towers were about to fall instead of using vivid illustrations, like they had previously they decided to use words instead, for instance consider when they wrote “As time grew short and desperate, civilians leaped from the North Tower upper floors” (p.95). The artists could not bring themselves to draw such an occurrence, thus drawing on people’s emotions, considering that it would be most appropriate to for them to not see an illustration of such a horrid event. Finally pathos is used in most of the text since it follows the original report and the evidence that they had gathered. However, they used a similar timeline for each of the four hijacked planes. In order to show the “Awareness, Notification, and Response time” of the flight controllers and the people in charge of defense. The most important aspect to consider of this adaptation is the amount of information it conveys and how the pictures aid understanding, clarify timelines and activities, and add to the emotional impact of the report.

On the other hand if we take a look at The Cartoon History of the Universe series, written and illustrated by American cartoonist, professor, and mathematician Larry Gonick. Each book in the series explains a period of world history in a loosely chronological order. Each volume or chapter begins with a one or two panel introduction. A Professor prepares to travel in his time machine to whatever place or era the chapter is about. The Professor reads a passage from a historical book, which activates the “time machine”. Book 1 covers a lot of ground, from the Big Bang to the Old Testament, through the dinosaurs and the early hominids to the first civilizations in Egypt.  Gonick’s editorial aim seeks to do justice to every point of view, though he is inclined toward historical revisionism, which is the reinterpretation of traditional views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event. So if we consider Ethos, we could say that he is a respected academic, since he is a professor, however we might question his history lesson since he is a mathematician, yet through the use of evidence and his claims supported by thousands of scientist and history books, we could justify that his Logos is covered. So that leaves us with Pathos and in which ways could he employ this in his text. If one considers that he uses a black-and-white cartoon style of drawings with sometimes realistic drawings. He is bearing in mind some people’s emotions, for instance if we take a closer look at the Big Bang Theory, he provided information that has been argued over the years by scientist and religious people, and made it cartoonish, so that the latter could process the information in a more tangible manner, however permitting them to also take the information lightly by considering its cartoonish humor. However this is a book that could be used in history classes since it includes information used in said class.

To sum up rhetorical analyses foster the kind of close reading that makes writers better thinkers. By considering the rhetorical strategies found in nonfiction comics and by contemplating the authors’ reasons to include their arguments by utilizing the comics’ medium, one can consider how the authors employed the use of ethos, by being credible and respected people on their fields. They established an emotional connection to the audience (pathos), through the use of illustrations and stories that are sensitive in nature, and finally they based their stories on evidence (logos) and facts that they had previously researched. Thus creating a sense of connection to the reader, by making them realize, question and analyze what they read, and by providing it on a more accessible format.

Narrative Strategies of the Graphic Memoir

Carlos D. Acosta-Ponce

INGL 6995

Comics: History, Traditions, Genres, and Media

Dr. Leonardo Flores

Blog Entry #5: Stitches: A Memoir, Blankets: A Graphic Novel, and Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

            Graphic memoirs are an integral component of nonfiction graphic literature. This subgenre includes some of the most relevant and critically acclaimed works found in modern literature. These memoirs are windows through which the reader is able to look inside the lives of the authors and become a conduit for their feelings, emotions and life experiences. Memoirs in general have the purpose of letting the authors tell their stories in their own words, as well as exorcising the demons from their past that may be torturing them. Three examples of memoirs that have become staples of graphic literature in recent years are David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir, Craig Thompson’s Blankets: A Graphic Novel, and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Each of these texts is an exercise in painting a portrait of three complicated lives, as well as examples of coming-of-age narratives (Bildungsroman). These graphic memoirs show characters that rise through adversity, break away from and come to terms with their pasts, and have a lesson for the reader. These memoirs deal with culturally relevant topics such as child abuse and neglect, sociopolitical upheaval, immigration, homosexuality, teen relationships, religion and spirituality, and cultural relativism, to name a few. These books use a number of different narrative strategies in order to achieve their individual purposes. Small, Thompson and Satrapi use characterization, the need for characters to distance themselves from their immediate environment, and a structuring of events that go beyond the mere telling of the story and are able to draw empathy from the readers. David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir tells the reader of his journey from an infirm six year-old, to an accidental cancer patient, to a troubled teen, whose brave and uncertain decision to run away from home at the age of sixteen with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist and an unwavering desire to distance himself from his parents would ultimately become an inspiring story of survival.

            Small’s narrative begins in his childhood, showing a family dynamic that is characterized by emotional repression and included a mother who was a distant, unaffectionate, uncommunicative, and authoritarian penny-pincher with a secret; a father who was seen by young David as a remote, almost ethereal creature who was absent most of the time; and a brother who was abusive and that took advantage of David as much as he could. As a sick child, David’s father gave him X-ray treatments that would subsequently lead to throat cancer, the loss of half his vocal cords, and a ghastly scar on his neck (hence the title Stitches). Even after the surgery, David’s parents never told him that he had cancer, because he “did not need to know” at the time. Some of the other insights into the Small’s family were the facts that his mother was a sexually repressed, closeted lesbian and that his maternal grandmother was mentally ill, to the point that she tried to burn down her house with her husband trapped inside. Ultimately, this memoir can be considered a story of a voice lost and found through art; a way for Small to say everything he could not say while functionally mute.

            Stitches: A Memoir has been widely acclaimed due to the nature of its narrative; it is engaging, heart-wrenchingly honest, and humorous. One narrative strategy that immediately leaps at the reader is the depiction of David’s therapist as a white rabbit. Influenced by the white rabbit from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the therapist’s depiction is the result of David Small’s journey into himself, with the therapist as the guide who helps him come to terms with who he is and what he wants to be. In her review of the memoir, Lauren Kirshner reflects that “like Alice, his childhood heroine, he descends into a rabbit hole in search of identity, which takes him into the inner city of Detroit. Cocooned in afternoon matinees with other lost souls, he dreams of turning himself into an artist, and it is here that Small’s artistic virtuosity soars” (F-20). Kirshner’s review clearly establishes the influence of Carroll’s book in Small’s narrative by drawing a parallel between him and Alice. Another example of a memoir that shows a main character that finds his voice (albeit symbolically) through art is Craig Thompson’s Blankets: A Graphic Novel, a story of the author’s adolescence and adulthood, his relationship with his younger brother, and the conflicts he experiences regarding his religion, his family, and his first love.

Blankets: A Graphic Novel’s narrative is characterized by its distinctive, quasi-linear structure since, although written chronologically, the memoir contains numerous flashbacks to establish parallels between Thompson’s adulthood and childhood. Thompson gives the reader a look into his childhood in Wisconsin as part of a fundamentalist Christian family where the title’s namesake blankets fail to provide comfort for Thompson and his baby brother in a life full of severe punishments for small infractions, child molestation, and school bullying. The most affecting component of this childhood, however, is the constant attempt by adults to stamp down Craig’s creativity to the point that he gives up his artistic ambitions. Craig’s life reaches a pivotal point when he meets “Raina and a handful of misfits who don’t match the well-adjusted Christian ideal laid out by his parents and pastor” (Fiske 179) at Bible camp and subsequently spends time with her at her home. This relationship establishes once again the notion of distancing oneself from one’s environment in order to grow as a person and break away from a home that is oppressive and stifling. Raina is also the character that provides Craig with a handmade quilt; the only blanket that actually gives him some comfort and a sense of safety. Through this relationship, Craig manages to find his self-worth and learns to question and challenge what he has been told all his life. Ultimately, Craig transformed by this experience and given the tools to manage the crisis of faith that makes him withdraw from his home and his religion. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood also deals with many of the thematic elements found in Stitches: A Memoir and Blankets: A Graphic Novel but it offers a female perspective and a response to the one-dimensional portrayal of Iran as a terrorist nation that was promulgated by the George W. Bush administration (Elahi 312).

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (titled after the ancient capital of the Persian Empire) was originally written in French and depicts Satrapi’s childhood up to her early adult years. The text provides a detailed account of Satrapi’s life through the turmoil that led to the eventual overthrow of the Shah during the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979. However, as Marji (as she is called by her parents) grows up, she witnesses firsthand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a tyrannical autocracy on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study, hoping for a better life, and to keep her away from the grasp of a government that was increasingly oppressive towards women and any uplifting elements of the female identity. However, this change proves an equally difficult experience with the young woman finding herself in a different culture and dealing with the inherent struggles related to immigration and cultural differences. Furthermore, when she returns home, Marji finds that she has changed much as an individual and that her homeland has become a place where she does not belong. Satrapi’s memoir also exemplifies the coming-of-age story or Bildungsroman. Marji undergoes a process of intense personal growth and self-actualization where her belief system is shattered and she is forced to assert her own identity and reconcile her own religious beliefs (as seen in her reaction to her uncle Anoosh’s execution), and understanding of the world with the strict cultural rules of the Islamic government’s imperativem. This narrative has been aptly described as “a telling memoir of girlhood; an informative and empathic window into the life of Iranian progressives as the country shifted from a dictatorship of the greedy to a fundamentalist regime; and a graphic novel providing immediate impact” (Notkin 8).

David Small, Craig Thompson and Marjane Satrapi all give the reader narratives that paint a self-portrait of characters that have to define their identities through a process of overcoming adversity, personal growth, and self-actualization. Their lives were defined by a conflict with their origins and the need to distancing themselves from those origins to gain a much-needed perspective that remained elusive while they were still immersed in those environments. The graphic medium provides a unique method for authorial commentary on their own life stories, and Stitches: A Memoir, Blankets: A Graphic Novel, and Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood are masterpieces that effectively engage the reader and legitimize the graphic memoir as a literary subgenre.

Works Cited

Elahi, Babak. “Frames and Mirrors in Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.” Symplokē 15.1-2 (2007): 312-25. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

Fiske, Amy. “Blankets.” Rev. of Blankets: A Graphic Novel. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 48.2 (2004): 178-79. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

Kirshner, Lauren. “David Small Finds His Voice.” Globe & Mail (2009): F-20. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

Notkin, Debbie. Women’s Review of Books 20.9 (2003): 8. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2003. Print.

Small, David. Stitches: A Memoir—. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. Print.

Thompson, Craig. Blankets: A Graphic Novel. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf, 2003. Print.

Gonick, Eisner, and Jacobson and Colón

Carlos D. Acosta-Ponce

INGL 6995

Comics: History, Traditions, Genres, and Media

Dr. Leonardo Flores

Blog Entry #4: The Cartoon History of the Universe Vol.1, Comics and Sequential Art, and The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

            The use of rhetorical devices and strategies is an essential part of any work of literature. These techniques use language to convey to the target audience a meaning or message that will increase the persuasiveness of a piece of writing. The goal of implementing these rhetorical techniques is to influence and persuade an audience towards a particular stance or plan, and is an integral component of any literary work that attempts to guide an audience in the direction of a specific point of view. While rhetorical strategies are generally used to evoke an emotional response in the audience, there are other reasons to use them, such as lending weight to an argument, and making one’s writing more powerful and affective. Graphic literature is no exception to such phenomena, particularly in non-fiction works. Three such examples are Larry Gonick’s series The Cartoon History of the Universe, Will Eisner’s book on comic book theory Comics and Sequential Art, and Sid Jacobson’s and Ernie Colón’s The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. These three examples have very different authorial intentions and implement a number of different rhetorical strategies in order to achieve their goals.

            Larry Gonick’s series have an overt pedagogical purpose. His books have, in fact, been integrated into lesson plans by teachers both in the United States and abroad. The series are framed by a narrator (a cartoon version of Gonick) that has a time machine that allows him to travel to different points in human history. The books use narration, definition, and description, similar to any other history text. However, Gonick’s series is characterized by the use of humor. In this instance, humor, in combination with the artwork, provides entertainment value to material that some students may find boring. The main component of the books’ humor is the use of puns, alliteration, and the intentional use of faulty logic. Gonick exploits the multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. He also uses farfetched notions in order to illustrate appoint. An example of Gonicks’s use of puns can be seen in his attempt to explain how geologists date rocks (as in determining their age) and having an image of a man with a pickaxe asking a pile of rubble out on a date (as in dinner and a movie). Alliteration can be seen when Gonick describes “romantic reptiles” as examples of sexual reproduction involving intercourse. The intentional use of faulty logic can be found in the description of the theory of receding galaxies. The cartoon version of Gonick exclaims that the reason for this phenomenon is that “the galaxies are fleeing because they hate us” (Gonick 5). In Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art there are also instances of these rhetorical strategies.

            Eisner’s seminal book on comic book theory has the distinction of being much more that a textbook containing interspersed examples of Eisner’s work. Although each illustration is used to give an example of the graphic literature element in discussion, the fact that Eisner had been implementing these techniques before reflecting on them and putting them to paper makes them even more relevant. The use of Eisner’s illustrations and their accompanying notes are examples of the use of anecdotes. The simple fact that people enjoy interesting stories makes this rhetorical strategy extremely effective. Eisner gives context to each illustration, effectively engaging, involving and creating interest in the reader, thus adding a personal, human touch to his book. This book, although thematically divergent from Gonick’s, successfully uses rhetorical devices to achieve its purposes. This is also the case with Jacobson’s and Colón’s The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.

            Jacobson and Colón’s graphic novel was written as a response to the confusing nature of the 585-page 9/11 Commission Report published by the United Stated government. Elements such as the sequence of events and the interactions between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) are clarified through the implementation of a shorter visual format. The rhetorical devices used in this book are the traditional Aristotelian modes of persuasion of logos, pathos and ethos. Logos is aimed at the audience’s intellect and can be found in the logical, matter-of-fact nature of the language within Jacobson’s and Colón’s book. Clear examples of this are the pages that establish the parallel timelines of the four hijacked flights, where there is no emotion evoked by the language. Pathos, the use of emotional appeal in order to persuade, is not found in the language but in the images of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon engulfed in flames. Finally, ethos, the appeal to the conscience, ethics, morals, standards, values, and principles of society, can be exemplifies by the opening page, which points out the inadequacies and unsuitability of the agencies involved.

            All three texts discussed in this essay, although drastically different from each other, contain examples of some of the numerous rhetorical strategies implemented in nonfiction graphic literature in order to elicit reader emotions, and to propose and defend a point of view. Ultimately, each book has a lesson to teach, and they serve the two fundamental applications of graphic literature: instruction and entertainment.

Next meeting & Topic:

We meet on Wednesday, April 9 at 9:00 am.

Readings: Memoirs

• Stitches
• Blankets
• Persepolis

We will post on Dropbox & share books.

Writing: Short paper (1000 words) on narrative strategies in these comics. Topics to touch on: personal narrative, distancing, representation of life stories, etc.

Next Topic: Non Fiction Comics

Readings:

• Cartoon History of the Universe, vol.1
• Comics and Sequential Art
• The 911 Report: A Graphic Adaptation

Writing:

• Write a short essay on rhetorical strategies in nonfiction comics.

Maus I & II

Melissa Torres

INGL 6995 - Comics: History, Traditions, Genres, and Media

Dr. Leonardo Flores

Blog Entry #4: Maus I & II: A Survivor’s Tale

 

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, by Art Spiegelman, is a graphic narrative in which Jews are depicted as mice, while Germans are depicted as cats.  In this graphic novel he narrates his father, Vladek Spiegelman’s story. His father was a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The story alternates between descriptions of Vladek’s life in Poland before and during the Second World War and Vladek’s later life in New York City.  Art Spiegelman simplified his style of drawing and has actually found a way to make the story that much more horrifying and that much easier to relate to. The cats seem more menacing and the mice seem more like humans so that we can relate, and likewise sympathize, with them more easily. You almost forget that they’re not human. It is easier to concentrate on the story without so much artistic detail also. In a way, the pictures seem almost secondary like Spiegelman didn’t want the story and words to get overwhelmed. 

The three prevailing races in Maus are the Jews, Poles and Nazis who are depicted, as mice, pigs and cats. The predator-prey relationship between the mice and cats is the most obvious facet of this, but there where many others. Spiegelman’s decision to depict Jews as mice probably related back to the comparison between Jews and rats. The author takes this idea and twists it, making the Jews seem persecuted and tormented by a fearsome and cruel predator, the Nazis. He uses their own propaganda to make the story more prominent. The Nazis often portrayed Jews and others which they consider inferior in their propaganda as mice or rats crawling in and out of sewers. Rats tend to be sneaky, dirty, and thought to carry diseases.   Rats are not simply animals, they are they frequently imagined as the incarnation of all uncleanness. They are also ‘vermin’ whose destruction most people would favor. Presenting images of Jews as unclean insects or rodents was perhaps the most effective way not only of arousing and confirming anti-Semitic hatred but of directly inciting physical violence by stirring some of people’s deepest fears and anxieties.  The Nazis thought of Jews in the same way, thus Jews were only ‘vermin’ to be hunted down and exterminated.

In turn Spiegelman twisted this stereotype of presenting Jews as rats, by portraying Nazis and other Germans as cats, since cats hunt and kill mice. Cats attack by surprise and often torture their prey before eating it, as did the Nazis when they forced camp prisoners into overwork, torture, and malnourishment before killing them.  Other ethnic groups are portrayed with well-known stereotypes. American’s soldiers who arrived to liberate the concentration camps are shown as dogs, mainly because their mission is to hunt down cats, in this case the Nazis. The representation of the Polish people as pigs is also significant. In a way, the Nazis treated the Poles at the time in very much the same way that farmers treat pigs. They are harvested and kept alive for their usefulness, but may also be killed when needed.  

In the second part Spiegelman starts the book with a quote from a German newspaper article in which it was stated that

“Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed…Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal…Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross.”

By including this quote we can see how he meant to use the way in which the Nazi’s perceived the Jews to the advantage of his book, by presenting such simplistic iconic characters, he made us all see the connections of certain people. By giving different nationalities a character to represent them, like for example all Jews being represented by rats he was showing that they were all in a way, very much the same. Thus you could not only relate to his father but all characters alike.

In addition the way in which he represented some scenes although at times in somewhat simplistic forms, he managed to create contrasts between the characters and backgrounds, and at times even between the characters themselves. For example taking into consideration page 84 of Maus I, he presented the hung mice in a lighter texture, however Anja and Vladek appear just as silhouettes, which contrasts with Richieu who is the only one that looks normal in the first panel.  This created a contrast between the childlike Richieu and his parents who were devastated by the recent events. (Devastation was usually expressed in silhouettes as can be seen again in page 143, were they find that they must leave). Then there are the two panels across the gutter where the father and son keep moving closer and closer to each other, and Vladek appears to be more dominating than Art. Also the panel below it, where the smoke from the cigarette makes a tear through the page represents the distant break between father and son. In all of these forms we can see one of the themes of the book, the one pertaining to the father-son relationship which is prominent throughout the two books. To some degree one has to wonder if he will ever be able to be close to his father, since unlike their first son he will never be a part of this defining life experience.

On the other hand we can see the connection and guilt that Spiegelman felt towards his mother. This can be seen in the short comic within Maus I entitled “Prisoner on the Hell Planet”. The comic represents an entirely new and radically different artistic style than the simple style present throughout the rest of the book. The characters have distinctly human faces, and the drawings are often surreal human forms. But while the artistic style differs, it shares with Maus the theme of guilt. In this short comic, Art feels an unbearable sense of guilt over his mother’s suicide, facilitated by the fact that his relatives seem to blame him as well. He feels that he neglected his mother, this can be seen when he remembers the last time he saw his mother alive, when she came into his room and asked him if he still loved her. His answer  was a dismissive “sure, Ma”, however at the end of the short comic one can still perceive his guilt over his mother’s death, which can be similar to the guilt that he feels regarding his father (which can be seen again in Maus II 41-47). There are many other aspects that still need to be explored in Maus, however the depictions of Jews as Mice has to be one of the best use of iconicity in order to convey a message and show people how perceptions can be overturned  and used for a greater purpose. Taking into consideration of course, that the other great cartoonist that Vladek knows and wishes for his son to be as successful as was indeed Walt Disney; who made people fall in love with a mouse, which is one of the most repulsed and hated animals in certain nations (see Maus I page 133). So as was discussed earlier, not only does one sympathize with these characters who are mice, but in turn one stops seeing them as such and can only perceive the human being hiding behind the mask of a mouse.

MAUS Vol.1

Carlos D. Acosta-Ponce

INGL 6995

Comics: History, Traditions, Genres, and Media

Dr. Leonardo Flores

Blog Entry #3: Maus: A Survivor’s Tale Volume 1

            Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a masterpiece of graphic literature that has been lauded by some as the single most important comic book of the 20^th century. The popular and critical reception of Spiegelman’s graphic novel garnered Maus a Pulitzer Prized Special Award in 1992. This book narrates the tale of Vladek Spiegelman, the author’s father, who grew up in Poland before the onslaught of World War II experienced the changes in German policy regarding Jews and, ultimately, became a prisoner of war and was sent to Auschwitz. Besides being a story of survival, the book also deals with other thematic elements such as rising through adversity, racial issues, stereotypes, generational perspectives and differences, bigotry and interpersonal relationships. For the purposes of this paper, Maus will be analyzed using a three-pronged approach. First, I will look at the narrative itself, analyzing the historical elements of the story, the literary devices employed by the author, and the importance of thematic elements such as prejudice, morality and survival. Second, I will break down some of the stylistic components of the graphic aspects of the story such as the use of animals to differentiate between nationalities, the mechanics of the artwork and the panel arrangement, and some of the design choices and strategies implemented throughout the novel. Finally, I will briefly describe how the literary and graphic aspects of the novel meld into the seminal autobiographical text that Maus has become.

            The reader encounters a narrative that is framed by the interactions of Vladek, the main character, with his son during the late-1950s in Rego Park, New York. These conversations are about Vladek’s life before, during and after World War II, beginning with his youth and how he fell in love with his wife, Anja, serve as the framework for Spiegelman’s story. Throughout narrating how he ended up marrying Anja, the story inserts the issue of social unrest and the changes in German policies toward Jews. Then the narrative moves towards Vladek’s participation in the war, the sub-human conditions of his imprisonment as a POW, his subsequent placement as a worker in a labor camp for the Germans and his “Parshas Truma” release to Lublin. This is the first time that Vladek passes himself as Polish to escape German-controlled lands and return home. The narrative skips back and forth between the present (1950s New York) and WWII Poland, but at this point the story moves completely to the present, showing the reader the tense nature of the relationship between Vladek and Artie. This is where the issue of generational differences and perspectives comes into play. For example, Vladek throws away Artie’s coat because he feels embarrassed that his son is wearing an old, ragged piece of clothing, without any regard for Artie’s opinion on the matter. These humorous interludes are diametrically opposed to the tragic events narrated by Vladek; nevertheless, they help the reader take a mental break from the gloomy, depressive feelings conveyed by the story.

            In the following visit, Vladek tells art about the year he was able to maneuver through German oppression by dealing in black market goods until his home was taken away and they were forced to move into another part of town. It is at this point that Vladek encounters the execution of Jews for disobeying their German masters, forcing him to deal in more easily concealable goods such as gold and gems. Also, throughout this part of the narrative, the threat of Auschwitz begins to be foreshadowed.

            Another interesting literary device in Maus is the integration of Spiegelman’s real-life comic book Prisoner on the Hell Planet, in which Speigelman portrays himself dressed in a prison uniform and venting all the frustrations he had due to his mother’s suicide. Noticeably, it deals with how his family and friends blamed him for his mother’s death and how he coped with the grieving process, and also seems to provide a type of catharsis in the father-son dialectic, to the point that the narrative begins to flow at a faster pace, particularly when dealing with the death of Artie’s brother Richieu, the ingenious methods implemented by Jews to hide from the German soldiers, how they were betrayed by one of their own, and the fact that Vladek had never stopped loving Artie’s mother, Anja, as seen in the interstitials of the narrative.

            The final chapter in this volume, aptly title “Mouse Trap” further develops the tension between present-day Vladek and his current wife Mala (which had been hinted at throughout the story) and how Artie is consistently put in the middle to act as referee. Furthermore, this chapter also looks at Spiegelman’s perception of his father as the “racist caricature of the miserly old Jew” (131). This is a meta-fictional, introspective look by the story into itself. Furthermore, Artie’s justification of his book to his father also serves to tell the reader point blank what his objectives for writing this book, which is to target people who generally do not read Holocaust narratives. Vladek’s narrative itself presents his and Anja’s return to Sosnowiec passing themselves as Polish. Once again they had to resort to a number of tactics to remain hidden, such as hiding in midden heaps. After all their trials, Vladek and Anja are captured, sent to Auschwitz, and separated. The narrative stops at this point, and returns to Artie’s interactions with present-day Vladek, who finally confesses to having destroyed Anja’s journals. This draws Artie’s rage, who calls his father a murderer for killing his mother’s memories.

            The historical aspects, the literary and narrative devices of the story, and the thematic elements of the story form a multifaceted lens through which the reader takes in not only Vladek’s story, but also glimpses inside Spiegelman’s process for writing this novel. Nevertheless, the gripping effects of the literary aspects that characterize Maus are subjected by the graphic elements of the story, without which it would not have the same effectiveness.

            The graphic elements and stylistic characteristics of Maus have the main purpose of drawing in readers who otherwise might not be interested in Holocaust narratives. The character design is characterized by an aura of “sameness” that is only broken by the clothing of the characters. The Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, and the Poles are swine, but all mice, cats and swine look the same, a fact that may be interpreted as Spiegelman’s critique of how people see different ethnic groups as single entities. This concept is even more insidious if one looks at the characters’ use of pig masks to symbolize the way the Jews passed themselves as Polish and their need to deny their ethnicity in order to survive. The cat-mouse dichotomy also serves as Spiegelman’s interpretation of the Nazi-Jew dialectic, particularly in the fact that just as mice have virtually no chances of survival when facing a cat, so did the Jews when faced by the Nazi war machine.

            Maus’ artwork is drawn in stark black and white, giving the story a gritty, dirty feeling, parallel to the ghettoes of Poland, as seen in such films as Peter Kassovitz’s Jakob the Liar. This minimalist approach belies the emotion conveyed by artwork and panel arrangement. Each panel is minutely detailed (sometimes to the point of clutter) to maximize the oppressive feeling of the story, and each transition is carefully designed to set the pace of the narrative, which speeds up and slows down constantly for dramatic effect. The artwork is also noticeably peppered with little explanatory notes and images to keep the reader on track. In the case of the comic-within-the-comic Prisoner on the Hell Planet, the design is all at once ominous, heart-wrenching, and evocative. In four pages, Spiegelman deals with his mother’s suicide and effectively establishes it as one of the defining moments in Vladek’s life, as well as his own.  As with any comic book worth reading, Maus’ flawless combination of gripping dialogue and clear, provocative imagery, work seamlessly to create a masterpiece of graphic literature.

            As established elsewhere in this paper, Maus revolutionized the world of Holocaust narratives by being atypical, in the sense that it is designed to reach a much broader audience than The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, for example, making the novel an influential, seminal work of not only graphic literature, but Holocaust narratives in general. Furthermore, the novel explores the differences between the historical and contemporary Vladeks, thus juxtaposing the historical narrative with the time of writing the novel. Ultimately, Maus unquestionably legitimizes comic books, a medium that has been treated as the ugly duckling of literature, even to this day.

Little Nemo in Slumberland

Melissa Torres

INGL 6995

February 17, 2012

 

Blog Entry #3 - Little Nemo in Slumberland

 

       When I wake up I like to start my day with something that can lift my mood and starting of the day in a happy note, makes the day go smoother. When I was small I remember that I would see my father with the newspaper reading the events that unfolded on previous hours, I would go to my father and he would give me the comic strip found in the newspaper. Even nowadays that is the section of the newspaper that I most enjoy since it allows me to forget, even if it’s for a mere instant, about the realities of the world. I used to think that comic strips were in fact supposed to be as the name suggests comical in some way.

     However, this is not exactly the case with “Little Nemo in Slumberland”created by Winsor McCay. In these comic-strips the reader is presented with a surreal or fantastical world dreamt by the little protagonist Nemo, who is summoned by King Morpheus to be his daughter’s playmate. However everytime that Nemo is summoned by Pokoko or Chiceeko or any other of the King’s messengers, they always caution Nemo of the dangers on the way to Slumberland. Most of the time Nemo did not heed anyone’s warnings and was influenced many times by Flip, which in turn caused him encounter perilous objects or dangers on the way, which made him scream from either discomfort or fright. This in turn made him wake up back in the real world only to be scolded by his mother or father, because he woke them up as well.

     McCay created wonderful illustrations that made Slumberland seem like a vivid dream. The colors that he chose and the characters that he created made everything more whimsical and relatable at the same time. One could feel as if we as readers were being transported into a wonderful and at times scary dream world were just about anything can be possible. But thankfully one has the choice of returning to the real world.    

Arzach vs. The Largely Endowed Giant Orangutan

      The Arzach story by Moebius titled “Harzak” begins with a splash page showing our main character flying towards the reader on his pterodactyl-like flying beast, along with a similar beast that serves a purpose similar to that of a packhorse. The background seems ominous, with threatening clouds that hide the sun and stretch along the horizon, hinting at some unseen danger. From the horizon to the foreground, the reader encounters a field of tentacle-like “plants” that seem to dance in the wind. The page as a whole has a “Western” feeling to it, reminiscent of the lonesome rider arriving scenes in many films.
      The second page is composed of six panels that seem to be pairs of twins (1 and 4; 2 and 5; 3 and 6), each air showing similar images. In panel one the reader can see the main character, Arzach in the distance looking at something that is happening to his packhorse flying beast.  This beast seems to be in some distress. Panel two stems from an action-to-action transition where Arzach is coming around for a closer look at the situation. At the bottom of this panel the tentacle-like plants seem to be reaching towards the falling beast, this being the first hint of that unseen danger suggested in page one. After another action-to-action transition, panel three shows a close-up, detailed view of our phallic main character’s facial expression of worry, confusion and fear. Another action-to-action transition takes us to panel four, which shows a wide shot of Arzach looking at the packhorse flying beast falling within the reach of the “plants”. This panel, in tandem with panel one, shows our hero in the distance, unable to take any action. After a moment-to-moment transition, panel five shows the packhorse flying beast fully in grasp of the “plants” while Arzach impotently observes from the background.  Another action-to-action transition brings us to panel six where one finds another detailed close-up of Arzach’s face, this time showing a combination aggravation, frustration, and anger. The curvature of Arzach’s lower lip suggests that he might even be mumbling or muttering a curse.
      Page three is composed of a combination of five panels. Panel one shows the final moments of the packhorse flying beast as it is being devoured by the “plants” while Arzach flies away in his flying mount. Panel two shows Arzach’s mount in some distress, similar to the other flying beast. After an action-to-action transition, panel three shows Arzach reaching into a pouch with some sense of urgency. Moving to panel four in a moment-to-moment transition, the reader sees Arzach triumphantly holding something that looks like a cookie with an expression of focus and determination in his face. A moment-to-moment transition takes us to panel five where Arzach is feeding the “cookie” to his mount, suggesting that the other flying beast died of starvation.
      On page four we encounter a two-panel arrangement. The first panel shows Arzach on his mount with his back to the reader, flying toward a platform waiting in the distance. Through an action-to-action transition, the second panel shows that the platform is occupied by some sort of ferocious, gigantic orangutan-like creature. Arzach flies around the platform, seemingly contemplating what to do next.
      Page five has a four-panel arrangement beginning with one showing Arzach flying his mount toward the creature on the platform. In this panel the reader also can observe the first hint of the creature’s sharp teeth and claws, large eyes, and gigantic phallus. These physical traits suggest that the creature is of a particularly aggressive nature, and it should also be noted that the creature’s coloration is similar to that of the menacing clouds of page one. An action-to-action transition takes us to panel two where we see that Arzach has flown around the back of the creature and is now standing on the back of his mount, hurtling toward and seemingly about to pounce on the awaiting beast. The creature’s facial expression shows confusion, or perhaps even fear. Following another action-to-action transition, panel three shows Arzach in midair falling toward the platform, at the creature’s back, while his mount flies on. The creature is looking over its shoulder, noticing the interloping Arzach. With a moment-to-moment transition, we go to panel four which shows Arzach landing on the platform, still at the creature’s back, knife in hand. In the distance, Arzach’s mount is flying around, turning towards the platform. Noticeably, in this panel the reader finally encounters the full magnitude of the creature’s enormous phallus and testicles, which were previously hinted at elsewhere in the story.
      Page six’s three-panel arrangement shows a definite increase in the pace of the story and begins with Arzach standing with his fists at his waist in a classic heroic pose as the creature charges at him. Meanwhile, Arzach’s mount is seen in the distance behind the creature. With an action-to-action transition, panel two shows a close-up of Arzach (who has turned around) and the creature standing menacingly behind him. Arzach’s facial expression of boredom is diametrically opposed to the creature’s expression of ferociousness and aggressiveness. After a moment-to-moment transition, panel three shows Arzach dropping from the platform while the confused creature reaches toward Arzach and is thrown off-balance. Simultaneously, Arzach’s mount is approaching from the background.
      Page seven shows a panel-in-panel arrangement of the aftermath of the creature’s charge. The outer panel shows that Arzach has landed on the back of his mount and is flying away over the seemingly endless field of carnivorous “plants” while the creature is already in midair, falling to its doom. The interior panel shows the creature’s hand gripping the edge of the platform and beginning to slip while Arzach ignores it completely.
      The eighth and final page shows a five-panel arrangement. In the foreground of panel one the reader encounters the “plants” reaching up towards the platform where the creature is hanging for dear life. The reader also finds that Arzach has already landed on the platform along with his mount. In the background the ominous clouds have dispersed and a bright sun can be seen. With an action-to-action transition, panel two shows that some time has passed and due to the sun’s position in the background. Arzach has already set up a camp and is enjoying some food, while the creature keeps slipping off the edge of the platform. The story’s only aspect-to-aspect transition occurs as we move to panel three in the center of the page which shows an extreme close-up of the creature’s face; an interlude in Arzach’s story. This panel is my particular favorite because, in the context of the story, it shows a disturbingly human-like quality to the creature, which is no longer all teeth and ferocity, but fear incarnate. Moving to panel five, some more time has passed as seen in the position of the sun and the long, deep furrows made by the creature’s claws at the edge of the platform. In this panel (and at this point in the story) the creature is barely hanging by the tip of its claws. The final panel shows that the creature has fallen and is engulfed by the “plants” while the vague outline of Arzach and his mount can be seen atop the platform as the sun is already setting in the horizon.
      The genius of this story (as well as of many of Moebius’ Arzach stories) is that no a single word is uttered by any of the characters. The narrative is exclusively driven by the artist’s mastery of color, the character’s iconicity, and the panel arrangements.

What is a Graphic Novel? →