Confussing Mid-Term

!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!
So, this here is my disclaimer. I wasn't exactly sure what was acceptable. However I did this assignment to the best of my ability. A lot of these questions did not pertain to the three GNs I have reviewed already on this blog. I looked up a lot of the GN's we went over in class to write this. So here we go.....
!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!

In this short I will be examining the diverse techniques of symbolic representation, colors, and the different uses of the “gutter” employed by Art Spegialman in his graphic novels “Maus I”, “Maus II” a memoir about mainly his father, and “In the Shadow of No Towers” a mix of first person narrative/memoir and obeisant narration. In “Maus I” and “Maus II” the tone was depressing, so the enlisting of black and white helped to focus the mood. The color scheme created and atmosphere in the graphic novel which drew you in to the dyer quest to survive during the holocaust. Spegialman chose a different approach in the graphic novel “In the Shadow of No Towers”; his use of bright collaborative colors created the mood and set the tone for a very hectic experience. As the towers are falling the pages are bright and busy, making your mind feel anxious, as to draw you into the feelings of the panels. In Maus I and Maus II very symbolic characters were used, they were actually mice. While as “In the Shadow of No Towers” Spegialman used symbolic representation for the characters who were childish and frighten. “Maus” used the symbolism to draw people in, while “In the Shadow of No Towers” use of symbolism was to relay a very child like character. The “gutter” was also used quite differently in the separate graphic novels. An example is that throughout “Maus I” and “Maus II” the gutters were drawn the same just panel by panel. While “In the Shadow of No Towers” there was pages without gutters some with obscure random gutters and some with vary large gutters. The use of a variety of gutters added to the tone of the graphic novel, creating an extremely anxious atmosphere. Both GN seemed to uses the same sort of texts, a little bit of narrative mixed with thought bubbles and dialog.

In the graphic novel “Tintin in the Congo”, written in June 1930 an explore travels to the Congo with his dog and goes through some mishaps of having his car stolen, and several attempts on his life by the village “medicine man”. Lately, there has been controversy that the monkey like representation of the natives and poor broken English creates a racist portrait. There are instances where Tintin is speaking perfect English to the villagers and they are speaking like cavemen. The Commission for Racial Equality complained stating that the book was highly racist and offensive and needed to be pulled from shelves. I disagree with the Commission, and agree at least partially with the author. Herge’ claims that the book was just portraying the naive thinking of the times. I agree with this, back in the 1930’s racism was highly acceptable not only the United States but countries such as South Africa who were under the control of apartheid. Just as at the Native Americans were considered savages and the Africans Americans were considered inferior to “white” Americans, so were views of the villagers in Congo. Though, I do not agree with racism; I do agree with the author’s portrayal of the time. If the natives were to speak perfect English just as Tintin I do not think the comic WOULD have been as popular or been how people saw the villagers. Just because times have changed and the common view is no longer the same as the 1930’s it does not mean we should pull and old classic from the shelves. Just as “Huck Fin” clearly depicted bigots in the South during that time, so does Tintin portray the attitude of the 1930’s.
With this example, lets take a look at in the "Shadow of No Towers", by Art Spegialmen. As of right now in time, there is hardly a controversy about feeling the government has placed more emphasis on flipping 9/11 into a revenge war on Iraq, then coming together in peace. So I ask, if the terrorist do win, and our government is toppled and we become suppressed by the Taliban like in Iraq, is this book (let say we can still have an objective opinion of literature) going to be considered supporting the infidels? Will it become unacceptable to read this book, just because times have changed? I think when we start placing a bigger emphasis on "control" and less on creativity and literary value, we lose ourselves. We create a public that goes by the norms instead of stepping up and daring to be great. If we get rid of things we disagree with, we are telling people to stop being themselves, and stop thinking on their own. Is this really what we want for our society? A nation ran by a group who decides what is controversial and what is mainstream?

Art Spegialman’s Maus I and Maus II represented the historical holocaust in a very different way. While other artists were focusing on the horrors of the holocaust through close representation or focused on a totally different genre altogether, Spegialman opted for a way to draw a larger audience in while still staying as close as possible to the history. Though the Jews were mice and the Nazi were cats, Maus portrayed history just as well if not better than other holocaust books of the time. The mice represented the fear the Jewish people had of the Nazis. What is more terrifying to a mouse than a cat? The animals break the fear down for the reader, and makes it more palatable. The story still tells of the trials and heart break a typical Jewish family would have faced during the time. The symbolic animals makes it easier for the reader to face the horrors of the holocaust; while still feeling and even sometimes hurting for the poor family. I feel that without the mice and cats this graphic novel would have been sickening and uncomfortable to read. One example that would have been unbearable if it wasn’t animals is a panel where it shows one of the Nazis grabbing children (mice in this graphic novel) by their feet and slamming their heads in against the wall. If this had been actual life like human characters I probably would have been sick, or stopped reading the novel. The horrors were still portrayed but were almost censored due to the omission of human characters. GN's add a different feeling to an old mood. As someone great once said "a picture is with a 1000 words", so while some feel GN's are for children and do not represent literature, all I can say is count the pictures. Because these pictures and chapters onto the original book. Graphic novles have no boundaries to show true feelings while, novels are left with....only words.