Non Fiction -V- Graphic Novel

I have a student in my first period class who is a comic book "junkie" at the beginning of the year I did not think much of it when he would pull out his comics on a break or in between lectures, assignments etc. Then I started taking my English class on graphic novels, I started taking more notice of what it was he was reading. The other day I sat down and talked a bit with him about his "graphic novels". He was surprised I new the term, he actually said "how do you know that term"? I told him I was taking this class and was studying graphic novels, his eyes lite up and he was off!!! I couldn't get him to stop talking for about 10 minutes. I think he named every single graphic novel ever written, his favorites and why they were his favorites in that short about of time. I asked him what he thought the difference between a graphic novel and a regular novel was. He said nothing really, except one has pictures which help your imagination to see what the author is seeing in his or her own imagination and the other you have to use your own imagination to make things up. Pretty smart kid!! I also asked him what he thought of the graphic novel Maus, he said "oh everyone who reads comics knows Maus". I asked him if he thought it effected it because it was based on a true story, he said no, I thought about that as the day went along and he is right, it actually makes it better knowing that what you are reading actually happened to someone. So to answer the question can a graphic novel be a true story and still have the same effect on people, yes! Even though the story is true you still use the elements of graphic novels to get your point across, like time and space, the gutter, closure, etc. Lets take the story of Maus, in this novel Spiegelman has an advantage in his art work that he can do that can not be done in other types of novels. Using his imagination he can turn his characters into whatever he wanted them to be. An example of this is he turns the Nazis into cats, and the Jews into mice. Everyone knows that when it comes to cats and mice the cats are the predators. In his art work he can convey to his audience the predator nature of the Nazis against the Jewish people with out having to utter a word of it. Graphics are amazingly powerful when it comes to subliminally conveying a message the author wants for you to receive.

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ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

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