Explication

Seasons of Love in Blankets and 5 Centimeters Per Second

Blog #3: The Shadow of the Relationship in Blankets

           As Craig traverses through the story, and particularly in Raina’s hometown, he begins to discover ways that she and her life differ from his expectations. In particular, when they visit her school together, Raina says, “Ha ha This is my friend Craig visiting from Wisconsin,” and while observing Craig says, “I don’t get it. You’re POPULAR,” (Thompson 356-357). Both of these hint at the underlying issue of their relationship as Craig and Raina perceive it differently, and it does not become apparent to him immediately, but his visit reveals it to the reader. He notes, “We sneak to bed together each night and set the alarm, and feel so close. But by day, we keep each other at arm’s length,” (Thompson 360). Having conducted their relationship through letters, phone calls, and packages in the mail, both Craig and Raina have formed their own images of the relationship in their minds separately from each other. In Craig’s case this is the reality he has neglected to see as he views their relationship in shadows and imagines his bond with Raina is more passionate than she believes it is.

            While Craig burns the items that remind him of Raina he creates real shadows, but his reality is becoming illuminated for him. The first time he burns something meaningful to him it is his art earlier in the text and he believes by burning his art he will hold a stronger relationship with his religion because he views it as a distraction, but destroying the art does not strengthen his connection with God. He leads into understanding his relationship with Raina by setting up the story of the "Allegory of the Cave" and interposes it with burning his art and attending school, where for most of the book he was certain he did not fit in. In the image below Craig is shown in the first panel being bullied as he walks through the cafeteria, which is something he experiences frequently, but does not encompass his entire experience in his school. This is the shadow he sees as he views his school as devoid of friends and enjoyment. In the bottom panel the reality is shown as he sits with his friends that ask about his trip to visit Raina and they smile at seeing him. The panel above is dark, with a black background, characters sneering, and Craig is placed in the center of a group of bullies. The panel with his friends has a white background and he is joining them and sitting down as a member of the group rather than an outside while they greet him and smile. 

           The images of him speaking to Raina continue the juxtaposition of Craig's life and the "Allegory of the Cave" story. In the panel pictured below the caption along the top continues the story while the caption below is his conversation with Raina. It conveys simultaneously what is happening in his relationship with Raina and how it connects to the Allegory.  In his mind he built his relationship with Raina up as serious and life changing, but for Raina it has become a distraction from the struggles she faces in her day to day life. Just as Craig once burned his art to focus on his religion, Raina is ending the romantic aspect of their relationship and creating a platonic relationship with him to focus more on her own needs and those of her family. These issues were shown to Craig when he visited her, but he did not see them in the shadow of their relationship that he had created. While these issues were present throughout his visit to Raina as he was able to immerse himself in the issues of her parents' divorce, caring for Sarah and Laura, and his feelings that were moving much more quickly than Raina's, he did not connect these issues in his mind with what he pictured. He created images of her as an angel and placed the relationship on another plane entirely while viewing the flaws of their time together momentarily and then forgetting about them. The first time he tells her he loves her she does not reciprocate, but it was not until this phone call that Craig is thrust into the light and must face the reality that he and Raina were on different pages in their relationship. By burning the things that remind him of Raina he is facing that light and seeing the reality with clarity and forcing himself to cut ties with her to allow himself to move forward. His phone call to her to say good-bye, combined with burning the physical representations of their relationship, gives Craig the closure he has needed. However in keeping and hiding the blanket he is showing that he has not fully turned his back on the bond they had as it holds strong memories for him. He has realized that he was seeing the relationship differently from her but he does not want to forget the relationship entirely. 

Journeys & Arrivals

My Journeys & Arrivals analysis of The Arrival and Journey is linked here.

Post #2, Understanding Comics and In Real Life

Chapter Two of Scott McCloud's text focuses on the idea of symbolism in visual arts. While looking at comics the characters on the page are not real people, the food is not real food, and the mythical creatures are not real monsters. Similar to the widely popular image of a pipe in which the artist declares "This is not a pipe," comics are creating a visual representation of what exists within its pages. This power of symbolism can influence how much the reader connects with the character. McCloud points out that a simplified illustration of a character can allow more opportunity for the reader to place themselves into the story through that character. In Real Life allows for two levels of the reader to enter the text via the protagonist and universal imagery in the "Real World" while also entering the gaming world via Anda's avatar similar to the way that Anda does. Her reality is relatable to the reader in ways that her avatar's reality is not. She has belongings filling her room, an open closet door, a filled up wastebasket beside her desk, and a backpack slung from the chair. These types of extra details and the simplified cartoon quality of her face allow the reader to step into her world and relate it to his or her own. She is relatable because she is in many ways a blank slate as McCloud describes in the text. She has human qualities and experiences that many teenagers will have gone through and without many distinguishing features in her design readers are focusing on her place in the story and how they can relate to her not on how she looks.

The graphic novel In Real Life does this on two levels for the reader. Both the protagonist Anda and her in game persona are drawn with simple but human features, which contrasts with the Gold Farmers pictured below in the panels to the right. The Gold Farmers are smaller in stature and appear in large groups with matching clothing, bright orange noses, and oddly pointed hats. Aside from the Gold Farmers and monsters they battle the characters in the game are extremely personalized to create an identity for the gamers. This physical representation of the human as compared to the "others" in the game shows distinct differences to allow the reader to quickly identify where they fit in the game and story's dynamic. This is shown symbolically through character design and visual queues like color, size, facial details, and clothing. The changing outfits, skin color, simple features, and neutral colors allow the character designs to be more basic and creates a blank canvas for the reader to relate to.

Similar to the separation of human and other creatures within the game Anda and her avatar have physical features that separate them into real life and in game characters. In "Real Life" they have neutral hair colors and clothing and a range of skin tones. In game her avatar has white skin with no pigment added. Her hair is bright red, her clothing is green, and the design is more bold. The features remain human but the skin color and consistent outfit within the game is used to designate individual player characters rather than creatures in the game or Gold Farmers. In the image to the left Anda is dying her hair red to emulate the hair of her character. While her connection to the game grew so did her confidence and her transposition of traits from her avatar to her own life, This also aligns her more closely with the game because she has set herself apart from the other people in "Real Life" and combining the two by bringing traits and ideas from the game into her daily life outside of the game. By immersing the reader into the colorful game world that Anda is experiencing the reader can also dive into that world.

The panel below emphasizes the use of symbol and icon within comics to denote characteristics and important details. Here the power bar is shown to represent their health and how close they are to death in game. While the health bar is not explicitly explained it has become universal as most video games use this system, or a similar one, to define how much health is retained by the character. Another notable use of symbols in the text are the parentheses used while she speaks to one of the Gold Farmers, Raymond, because they use translating programs to communicate. Raymond is from China and speaks little english when they first meet, but over time he learns from her and does not need to use the translator as often, as such the parentheses are also not used as frequently. In the image below to the left she speaks with one of Raymond's coworkers about him and they use a translation program. In this way text and image work together to convey more about the way that communication and socialization happen in the game Anda plays. People from any country can meet and befriend one another but that barrier of language can be overcome through technology while it can also allow them to learn from each other as Raymond improves his understanding of english by learning from Anda and over time he uses this to his advantage in seeking a job. McCloud's ideas can complicate the understanding of In Real Life, among other texts, by focusing on the importance of simplifying for the sake of giving meaning or emphasizing meaning in a text along with how a specific ratio of word to image can be ideal. While this can be useful in analyzing a text with illustrations that are more open to the reader in this sense as well as using that ratio of words to images it slightly discounts the importance of texts like The Arrival that use only detailed images to tell the story. While they lean more towards realistic rather than symbolic or iconic they achieve the same goals of setting up a story for the reader and allowing them to connect with the characters. It still emphasizes the important pieces of the text like family, loneliness, inclusion, and experiencing a new world, without limiting the level of detail or including text to balance any of it out. This defies some of the ideas set forth by McCloud of what effects are created in comics by various art styles and use of language.