Craig, as a teenager, is sitting at a table with the intention to draw. He blankly stares at the white paper, stiffly holding his pencil. Then he shifts in his seat and rests his head on his hand. Shifting again, into the new picture, he still does not know what to draw. Suddenly, his Sunday school teacher enters his mind and asks," does anyone have an idea of what we might be doing in Heaven?" As the page is turned, the reader enters into Craig's childhood flashback:
The four young students each give their personal answer to their teacher's question. The only girl in the group says one thing, which divides her from the two boys who simultaneously speak out, with a "gutter." Craig, who is seated on the other side of the two boys, is also divided from them by a gutter. Although the background that is seen behind each student is continued into the next picture, the students are separated by classifications: "the girl," "the cool boys," and "the loner". Their background should unite them into one picture, because they are all together in Sunday school and they are all of the same age group. However, they have divided themselves up to outcast the others. Each of their responses seems to represent what each of them love to do: "relaxing, like on vacation," going "snowmobiling," playing "football," or "drawing."
To a surprise not only the children segregate from each other, but even the teacher singles out Craig. She questions his response, while ignoring any sort of flaw of the other's. She criticizes his remarks and makes him uncomfortable in front of his peers. As the teacher attempts to change the subject, Craig clings on to his belief that he can worship God with this drawings. Even though his teacher has tried to crush this, he reaches out his hand to share his insight, which is again silenced by his teacher's cold remark.
The last picture of this section was the most intense and most dispiriting. Surrounded by his drawing of "trees and stuff" is the classroom. Little Craig, looking sad, is seated far away from his cluster of peers.
In Craig's flashback we can feel how Craig felt, simply by viewing where Craig Thompson placed each character. The teacher, who is expected to be supportive of all her students, especially as a Sunday school teacher, is always closer to the other three students than she is to Craig. If she is not standing by them, or on their side of the table, she is seen alone in the picture. The character-placement in Thompson's drawings has significant meaning. In this case it shows that Craig felt singled out by not only his peers, but also by those he should apparently trust and look up to.
3 comments:
Excellent analysis. This is a very powerful point in the narrative. I enjoyed reading your response and look forward to hearing you share about it tomorrow in class!
I like how you wrote your entry in a more visually descriptive--like you were describing the pictures and the feelings of the pictures and not just the writing.
Responding to your comment on my post :), what I was trying to say is, although being good at memorization does show a sign of intelligence, I don't think this is what school should be about--I think school should teach you about ideas and try to inspire you about ideas rather than just keep giving you aptitude tests and grading the kids who aren't necessarily good at those things lower when they can't even control them.
Yay. Thanks for your comment!
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