Evan's ASTU Blog

William K is a very interesting character in the novel ‘What is the What?’ by Dave Eggars. He is a hopeful voice among a sea of despair and calamity. As the boys walk through the barren lands of the Sudan without adequate food or water, William K is a constant voice of humour and amusement. He is both comedic relief, and a useful tool in the story; telling of despair.

He is, in a way, a type of comedic relief. Though the situation seems desperate and there is seemingly nothing that can be done to help the situation William K provides hope. His outlandish lies provide a piece of like in the darkness that is the journey of the Lost Boys of Sudan. ”

“These are people from very far away. They look very different from us. But they are very powerful, with more and better weapons than any Baggara you could find. Can you imagine this? The most powerful people you can think of.” – Eggars 191

This is an obvious lie.These little snippets; the insights into William K’s thoughts, are often amusing. His obvious hatred for the other William in the village is another amusing but of William Ks dialogue. Whether or not the author/narrator used him as intentional comic relief can be up to interpretation, but the comic relief is certainly a welcome reprise from the drama of the novel.

The opposite view of William K can show that in fact he is the most tragic of all characters. Although he is the most happy and hopeful, he can be seen as the most tragic of the Lost Boys purely by looking at his demise.

“We were simply friends who lived in a village together and expected to always be boys and friends in our village. But in these past months, we had traveled so far from our families, and we had no homes, and we had become so weak and no longer looked as we had before. And now William K’s life had ended and his body lay at my feet” – Eggars 217

The way in which William K was hopeful, coupled with his tragic demise make for an interesting character. He shows that even the most hopeful and upbeat of the Lost Boys can fall victim to the harsh conditions. Even though William K constantly looked forward to the ‘servants’ in Ethiopia and all the things to come, he died on the way to his potential freedom.

William K is one of the more interesting characters in the novel. Each character representing something. The narrator Achack, the wise Dut, the mysterious man in the house in the desert, and William K the hopeful are all different types of characters. Overall, William K makes a large impact on the work itself, and his inclusion was very impactful to the message of Eggar’s life narrative.

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Although I am in the very beginning of the life narrative ‘What is the What?’ by Dave Eggers a few things instantly come to my attention. These two things are the conflict and the structure. Both of these set the tone for the rest of the book, and both immediately draw the reader in.

The conflict (racially) seen thus far in this book is a type of that I have never encountered before, or even heard about. There is racism between different ethnicities (Caucasian, Asian, Black, etc.) , and even I have been the subject of racial abuse. However, I had never stopped to think about the discrimination from African Americans to Africans. In the part of this already compelling life narrative this issue is addressed. As Valentino’s (the narrator) home is raided and he is knocked out, several slurs from his African American home invaders caught my attention. The way in which they call him a ‘Africa’ (pg. 5) as a way of addressing him was very interesting. Another example of this was the way in which two boys on the bus pestered Valentino and said that he was “one of the Africans that sold us out” (pg. 18). By this he meant that he was descended from Africans who sold other African’s into the slave trade hundreds of years ago.

From an academic standpoint, this early introduction of racism sets the tone for the book. The way in which Valentino is immediately in conflict even when he has reached the ‘safe haven’ of the United States show that he is never truly at rest. This is emphasised by the way he wishes he was back in Africa (where he was in refugee camps) compared to being in the United States. This shows that the life narrative will not be a tale of immediate happiness, but rather a story of struggle.

The second thing that caught my attention was the structure of the work. The way in which Valentino tells the story of his home invasion while simultaneously ‘flashing back’ to his past and the things he has witnessed and experienced. The way in which the past and the present are shown simultaneously, and the way in which the reader is not confused with all the switching back in forth is extremely well done. As Valentino lies bleeding on the floor, he remembers his experiences back in Africa. He relates the things happening in his apartment in Atlanta to the happenings of his youth. This immediate introduction to his character and his hardship sets the tone.

The combination of the immediate introduction of conflict and the interesting structure of the life narrative sets the tone for the rest of the novel. The reader can expect a very engaging writing style (as evidenced by the structure) and also a very compelling story of hardship and conflict (as evidenced by the violence and racism).

You can find the book here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/What-Dave-Eggers/dp/0676979491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381780168&sr=8-1&keywords=what+is+the+what

Citations: Eggers, Dave, What is the What?, Vintage Canada, 2007

Recently I finished reading Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. I found the graphic novel extremely interesting and read the entire book in one sitting. The way in which the character (Marjane) develops through the course of the book is truly astounding.

However, one of the aspects that I found the most interesting was the way in which the words connected with the writings and the simplicity of both of these. Most of the writing in the graphic novel is done in short bursts or sentences with drawing depicting the writing.

Short sentences are very effective in this case. There is a strip where the text reads “In the end he was cut to pieces”. This text book takes up a small amount of the strip, but the rest is a cut up body lying on a black field. This relation of the text to the photo is something that struck me as very interesting. The simple text, with a very simple image somehow manages to depict something larger, a human emotion perhaps.

The briefness of much of the graphic novel has this effect. The lack of divulgence of the details pertaining to events and ongoings helps to keep the reader more involved. The simplicity does what a thousand words couldn’t do. For this, I think that Satrapi deserves praise.

Another example of this is when Marjane’s uncle is telling her a story about his hectic revolutionary lifestyle. While describing the journey he took that nearly led to his death he says “I was hungry, I was cold, but I continued”. The drawing attached to this is a man in a black coat, faced away, trekking through blank snow on a black sky background. This is yet another example of how the simplicity is truly astounding and effective. If the uncle was portrayed as saying more (assuming that the story is not re-told word for word), such as his escapades in the wilderness and how many days he was trekking exact;y, it may not have been as effective. The straight to the point attitude brings the reader in and immediately makes an impact.

One can harken back to the brother of the graphic novel genre, the comic. Comic books are similar in style, but often have in depth stories and character descriptions, links, and general information. Persepolis is different, in that this simplicity is a common thread throughout the book. Some reactionary panes (showing reactions of characters etc.) do not include text at all, but depict a dark background with a simple character layered on top.

This was just one of the things that stood out for me in Persepolis, which I greatly enjoyed reading. An example of this simplicity can be seen in the film adaption of the graphic novels, the trailer of which is linked at the bottom of this post. Although I have not seen the film itself, the trailer alludes to many of the ideas discussed in this article about the simplicity of the great graphic novel which is Persepolis.

• Citations: Satrapi, Marjane; Persepolis, the story of a Childhood, translated by Mattias Ripa and Blake Ferris, L’Association, Paris, France, 2003.
• You can see the trailer to the film adaption on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY