Week Seven: The Legitimation of the Comics

Maus is one of the first comics to be considered to be an epic, and to this day is considered giving significance to comic narratives by introducing mature concepts. Maus uses imagery that I feel helps the reader understand and acknowledge the images graphically rather than their imagination. The Holocaust is usually not perceived in this way, from what I remember most depictions are usually through literature and images, but Maus uses detailed drawings that contains the emotion.

We also see, usually animals that talk and are upright are "funny" Maus breaks that mold and instead uses it as representation. Using mouse maybe just another way to maybe not put a identity and awareness into the comic and we can use it to go into another world. I think this adds to it, as it now focusing more on the narrative of the story rather than what the character looks like. This gives it more of an experience rather than just simply reading a story about it. Unlike other mediums like art or film, comics stay the way they are and the story does not progress unless the reader or audience continues to read and process the images.

Barefoot Gen is a short movie we watched in class based on the World War II bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It follows a boy, Gen Nakaoka who lives on the outskirts of Hiroshima. He lives with his pregnant mother, dad, sister and little brother. Life is hard for all of them, both because of malnutrition because they cannot afford food, and from the constant bomb threats from overhead American planes that fly past. The parents are very obviously upset by this but keep their hopes high for themselves, there soon to be born child, and there kids.

During the night, they go into the bomb shelters nearby while the American planes pass by, although they are struggling, they continue to fight for each other in hopes that the war will end soon and life will improve. Soon, however, the atomic bombs drop when least expected and horrible imagery and themes of death, despair and destruction ensue. The colors shift and distort, time stops and everything around Gen is impacted in that instant. Gen is lucky enough to have been behind a concrete wall however, the girl standing besides him was not, and is shown melting on screen to the horror of the bomb going off.  We follow Gen as he awakes among the carnage wrought by these bombs, as he wanders through a now destroyed Hiroshima, shambling men, women and children walk by like corpses, practically melting as they groan in agony. There bodies withered, and fusing together in unnatural ways. This movie shows us the horror of this war and what these people went through because of the government. This is only the beginning as it follows him after the initial calamity, and for much later. The fight for food only becomes more dire, the mothers newborn daughter requires constant supervision and care. the military is unsure of how to help, and dead bodies and destruction still surround them.