Close-Reading of Blankets

On page 162 of Blankets, Raina is depicted as being in a state of despair. She is upset over her parents divorce and her inability to cope causes her to seek out someone who can comfort her--in this case, Craig. She drives to see him but gets halted by a blizzard. Since she can't see him, she decides to call him instead. The scene in the phonebooth is filled with restlessness and darkness. The majority of the background is dark, with the exception of a few snowflakes. This darkness allows the sole focus of the panels to be Raina, whose face is strewn with tears. She appears four times on the page, even though it appears that there are only two individual panels. The collage in the first panel illustrates how restless she is; she appears three times in the panel in varying positions. The way that the panel is drawn makes it feel as though these three distinct gestures happen within moments of each other. The second panel shows the phonebooth and better illustrates the treacherous weather that Raina has endured to try to get to Craig. Raina and the phonebooth appear to be entirely secluded from the rest of the world, which is most likely how Raina is feeling now that she knows that she must turn around instead of seeing Craig.



Pages 100-101 illustrate Craig's relationship with himself. When he is offered to smoke marijuana by the only peers who have accepted him, he doesn't hesitate for a moment in denying the offer. He stays true to himself and doesn't give in to the peer pressure that is enveloping him. I think that this is an side of Craig that is unexpected; since he has always had such a hard time fitting in, I thought that he would grasp on to any potential friendship--no matter what the circumstances--in order to experience the acceptance that he so desires to find. The way he handles this situation, though, causes me to think that Craig is more comfortable with himself than he is made out to be in the chapters preceding his time at church camp as a teen.