Self-Evaluation

The texts that had the most relevance to me as a reader were Understanding Comics and The Bluest Eye. The first of which pertained to me because I had never before taken the time to read a graphic novel before Understanding Comics, which was a great first endeavor into the world of graphic novels. It really helped me to put into perspective how interpreting comics is entirely different than interpreting written literature. The Bluest Eye was relevant to me because it opened my eyes to the fact that I have taken my race for granted my entire life. It also helped me realize that living a life of envy can be detrimental. I feel that I have been affected more as a person than I have as a student in this class because we have been exposed to such a variety of deep topics that sometimes seem taboo to discuss, such as white privilege and the scrutiny of evangelism.

While I have definitely bettered my ability to interpret graphic novels throughout the course of this class, I can't really admit that I've become fond of them. They are a completely different form of art than written novels and, as I have spent a lifetime in infatuation with written novels, it is difficult for me to view the two forms of novels in the same light. I have undoubtedly developed an appreciation for graphic novels, though, because I realize that the illustrations are just as jam-packed with symbolism and underlying messages as written novels are. Never before would I have carefully considered the deconstruction of the human image as a means of allowing readers to better identify with a character in a graphic novel. By creating a less-detailed image of a character, the reader is more prone to place themselves in that position, thus making the journey traveled throughout the graphic novel more personal for the reader.

I believe that I am a better critical observer of both graphic and literary texts now as opposed to before taking this class. I am now better able to pinpoint a narrow idea and follow it throughout the entirety of a text, whereas before I had a difficult time keeping one specific focus. Graphic novels are definitely the most challenging because it's a platform that I am still a bit unfamiliar with; sometimes it is difficult to switch gears between interpreting graphic novels and interpreting literary novels. The discovery process of engaging in graphic novels can be described as enlightening, and I think that those of us who were unfamiliar with graphic novels at the beginning of the semester were nicely eased into them with Understanding Comics and American Born Chinese. Initially, I looked upon graphic novels as having less literary merit than written novels, but I now realize that I was vastly mistaken. Each platform, though entirely different from each other, has the ability to showcase distinct literary merit. Blankets made use of a form of imagery that would be impossible to incorporate into written novels because it is imagery that is hard to visualize. Illustrations allow the platform of the graphic novel to develop much differently as the reader progresses through it, but, in the end, both the graphic and written novel show that literary elements play a vital role in the development of characters, setting, plot, and the reader's ability to relate and interpret the novel.