CAP – ASTU

It’s been a quite while since my last post but today I am going to talk about the two works that we are studying in class: a graphic narrative called Safe Area Gorzade by Joe Sacco and a fiction novel called Obasan by Joy Kogawa. Although these two works are different in how they express their story through styles and context, both works convey messages of trauma and remembering.

Personally, I felt that Safe Area Gorzade was a lot more aggressive in portraying trauma than Persepolis. This, in turn with its raw and realistic drawing style, made me (the reader) feel a lot more ‘stunned’ by the narrative. What I want to draw attention to with this graphic narrative is that it had a common theme: the use of black and white as its colours. This use of stylistic design kept me kind of aware and distant from the actual storyline – as an outsider looking in and being aware that I am an outsider. If the use of colour were introduced in both graphic works, I think I would focus more on how gross/realistic/good the illustrations are rather than the message the image is trying to express. It would also desensitize me to the gruesome nature of the work, such as the people injured by war (123) in Safe Area Gorzade, to repetitively see the blood and gore in realistic colours over and over again. With that said, the controlled black and white colour scheme reminds me of a lot of real life investigation TV shows or murder documentaries where the reenacted crime scene is usually always in a colour filter or in black and white. This again, in my opinion, has the same effect on the viewers – creating awareness as a viewer and retaining sensitivity to the nature of the topic (death, war, murder etc.).

On the other hand, Obasan by Joy Kogawa brought up a very personal act of remembering for me. In the scene where Naomi (the main character) describes her Aunt, referred to as Obasan, as being a part of her house reminded me of my own grandmother. Naomi goes on to explain that Obasan keeps every little thing that she comes in contact with, whether it be eraser stubs or paper doilies in the “house [that is] now her blood and bones”(15). This is just like my grandmother who also keeps every little thing, whether it is useful or not. I’m not sure why but if I ever have any questions about any of the things she keeps, she always has some kind of story or comment to tell about it. In that sense, my grandmother and Obasan are alike because both the houses they live in have a part of their identity. This memory was just very touching to me because it was so unexpectedly relatable – I didn’t think Kogawa would have felt the need to include that in her novel.

After discussing these aspects of the works we are studying in class, it only leaves me with other questions about why Sacco and Kogawa chose to express the way that they did.

Could Sacco’s narrative have been more powerful if selective scenes were coloured?

Was it Sacco’s choice to leave it black and white, or was it influenced by some other force that set boundaries as to what could be exposed to the general public?

Why does Obasan collect everything? Is it to gain control over what she could do versus a reality she could not control before? (Future VS past)

Sacco, Joe. Safe Area Gorzade. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2000.     Print.

Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. Toronto: Penguin Books,1981. Print.