The message of V for Vendetta

Before this class I must admit, I have never before read the graphic novel V For Vendetta nor have I seen the movie. I think going into something with a clean slate and no prior knowledge does have it's advantages and disadvantages. I think the main massage V For Vendetta aims to leave the reader with is freedom, Cherish it, protect and fight for it. Cherishing, standing and fighting for your freedom is also the themes that stand out the most to be and that I see throughout the novel. The motivations for V's actions stems form the loss of his own freedom and his inconsideration and torture. Because of his experiences with this he sets out to "wake" the people up, to see and fight against their own oppression. V's tactics, at times, can sometimes give him the appearance to the reader to be more of a "villain" than a hero. An example of this is his capture and torture of Evey. To V though the outcome of his actions is freedom. Whether it is killing a bad guy, blowing up a building or torturing someone he cares about to free them from their own bondage. Does it make sense to us? Probably not but we tend to be able to feel what both the characters are going through and eventually come to an understanding. For Evey the torture that she went through at the hands of V was awful for her, but he was eventually able to explain to her why and break her oppression. During her capture he took her through a similar experience to his own and during this she grew stronger. In this she was better able to understand who he was and why he did what he did. In chapter ten on page 172 this illustrates her awaking of this fact. V takes her to the roof top in the rain, in this moment the clarity of her own incarceration is clear and a new taste of freedom transforms her. She becomes V's apprentice in the fight for her societies freedom at this point. In this scene this is how the medium conveys the point and theme of freedom scene throughout the novel. In this scene she can be compared to that of a bird who has been in a cage and being set free for it's new found freedom. As V's apprentice she learns all she can and will eventually take up the fight and the image of V...

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Is Maus a Non-Fiction Graphic Novel?

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is considered to be a non-fiction graphic novel, but is creating a graphic novel based off a true story even allowed? Maybe you thought graphic novels were meant to be fiction. Well, I think the form of a graphic novel should not be restricted to only fiction. It is known for graphic novels to be fiction rather than non-fiction because that is what a novel is, fiction, but the name shouldn’t be a limitation of what can and cannot be told though this medium. There are many reasons for why telling a non-fiction story through the form of a graphic novel is beneficial. Spiegelman was able to share the story of his father’s holocaust experience by creating a graphic novel of it, and from the looks of it, it’s been very successful. Telling a story through the form of a graphic novel allows the creator to deliver it in a unique way. We are able to understand the plot because of the language that is used along with the accompanying panels. In Maus , Spiegelman writes e...

Walking Through Fire: "Sita's Ramayana"

Ramayana stands among India's oldest epic poems, one of the two surviving stories dating as far back as the seventh century B.C. Unfortunately, its protagonist has not stood the test of time. The poem tells the story of Rama, an exiled prince whose wife, Sita, chooses to accompany him despite not facing the same punishment. When Sita is kidnapped, Rama rescues her more out of a sense of obligation than love, ultimately questioning his wife's virtue and casting her away through no fault of her own. Rama is upheld as the ideal man, husband, and king throughout his tale. Samhita Arni, the author of Sita's Ramayana , clearly thinks otherwise. Sita's Ramayana , as one might suspect, is a graphic novel retelling of the epic poem shared from Sita's point of view. The original poem leaves little room for the exploration of her character, treating her more as a blank slate meant to represent the ideal wife of the time. She merely exists to shape her husband's characte...

The Two Faces of Anarchy in V for Vendetta

As someone who has only seen the movie version of V for Vendetta once many years ago and have never read the graphic novel, I wasn’t exactly sure how similar or different the movie version would be to the graphic novel. I was in for a surprise when I discovered just how vastly different, they are from each other. With that being said, they do have some similarities when strictly looking at the motives of the characters. Let’s dive into those motives and how the author and illustrator of V for Vendetta achieved getting these motives across to their readers. In Scott McCloud’s chapter of Understanding Comics “ Blood in the Gutter ” we are presented with different panel – to – panel transitions, and an introduction to the term “gutter” as being the white space between the panels which is where the audience of reader “takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea” (McCloud, 66). After finishing reading V for Vendetta , several themes or ideas that were most prevalent...

ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

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