Feb. 23; Into the Blue: A Discussion of "Blankets"

The most powerful, moving element of Craig Thompson's "Blankets" is his use of exaggerated illustrations used to highlight the emotions of the main character, "Craig." As is typical of most graphic novels we've read thus far, the most powerful symbolic images usually are given a full page. That's what we see on page 24. The first 100 pages of the book deal largely with Craig's misfitting amongst his peers. School is a place where he feels no security, and we see that drawn out in this panel. Craig, having just been forcibly tossed around by a group of large bullies, lands at the bottom of a exaggeratedly steep cliff. Not meant to be tied down by realistic depiction, this panels transcends Craig's reality and shows his feeling of vulenrability with his peers. Most of his peers are drawn as larger than he, and the bullies especillly so.

Even by going back five panels to witness the fall itself, it's only about five feet, yet Thompson illustrates it over the course of about four different panels. We see his attempts to draw out young Craig's feeling of torture.

Page 80 offers us a powerful set of emotional panels that simultaneously let us in on Craig's struggling relationship to with his faith. Craig, a true introvert, is always shown as small, quiet, shy, and vulnerable in the midst of large, chaotic crowds. After his rambunctious bunkmates uncover him reading underneath his blanks in the middle of their bedtime hysteria, he has a timid, insecure reaction. Craig is at this moment paralyzed to defend himself. He settles for telling a white-lie about. Rather than "confessing" to reading his Bible, he says he is organizing his things.

It's all too easy to dismiss Craig's silence as childhood shyness, but the last panel on page 80 gives us a different reason: shame. Craig mentions his guilt at not being able to get along at church camp. He interprets his social struggles as a disappoitment to God. His words in the panel read simply, "I'm sorry God." All the while he's also struggling with how to appease his hostile judgmental peers.

Craig's dilemma between his peers and his faith shows his conflicted relationship with religion. Regardless of how Craig actually does relate to God, it's clear that how he perceives God is very independent of his peers. It is simultaneously a source of affirmation and isolation.