While everyone is busy with upcoming papers and dare I say, finals, our ASTU class was able to read and discuss Joe Sacco’s graphic narrative Safe Area Goražde and Joy Kogawa’s non fiction, Obasan. Whilst reading all my classmate’s blogs, I was able to view these novels in multiple perspectives. I feel as if I am invading everyone’s mind which is very intriguing. Joe Sacco was definitely the hot topic of the week in ASTU.

Carolina ,Isabelle, Kristen, and Rachel discusses about Sacco’s perspective on women. Carolina and Isabelle has contrasting points. Firstly, Isabelle sees Sacco as sexist and degrades the women in the chapter “silly girls.” Isabelle is strongly against Sacco’s portrayal of these young women and is disappointed to see how they are not redeemed later on in the following chapters, whereas for example, the character, Riki redeems his ‘silliness’ throughout the chapters. Contrastingly, Carolina argues that Sacco draws out the Bosnian culture. She suggests that it is not fair to compare the Bosnian culture to American culture as we all have different ways in life. Kristen explains how Sacco is trying to demonstrate that even with the war going on, women are still ‘real people’ with dreams. On Rachel’s blog, she similarly has the same view as Kristen. She argues that the girls are simply only sixteen year olds and of course they would be thinking about the latest fashion trends and not education during a war.

Both Kendall and Diego in their blog posts, highlight the “15 minutes” which Sacco explains about. They stress that many stories by reporters are based of off 15 minutes and how so much is missing and or misleading. Kendall praises Sacco for being able to report stories based off his encounters that are far longer than 15 minutes.

A few of my classmates wrote about the other novel our ASTU class was required to read, Obasan. A recurring theme I found throughout the blog posts is remembering. In Peijia’s blog, she depicts at how the literautre, Obasan is a technology of memory for her. She compares her grandmother to Obasan and how their houses is what identifies them. On the other hand, Taylor argues in her blog that Kogawa shows the protagonist, Naomi’s, different stages of remembering. Taylor notices that the novel jumps back and forth with time and how the character, Naomi, develops due to the new information she receives throughout the novel. In Kaveel’s blog, he realizes the little knowledge Canadians have of the Japanese-Canadians during World War II. He questions as to why Canada chooses to erase certain national memories while many are already aware of them. He argues that our education system needs to mention all the history that there is that makes up Canada despite of how negative they may be.

With all the knowledge and history that is being discovered in the two literatures, it is important to realize to not believe everything you hear in the news or textbooks. The two brave authors, have written these literatures to further educate the readers. Whilst reading all the blog posts, it has helped me open my eyes and realize how much we don’t know about the world and we must be aware of them. It is amazing to see all the knowledge my ASTU class collectively. It was a pleasure reading all the posts!!

Jennifer Lai