Skip to main content

The Two Faces of Anarchy in V for Vendetta

Image
By
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 is that of justice, freedom, one’s integrity, and how identity ties into these ideas overall. The novel conveys these themes to us by the acts of anarchy against the fascist government that has taken over England. The whole reason behind V’s acts is because he was once a prisoner in a resettlement camp and was tortured for years. Once V obtained his freedom, he set about obtaining it for the rest of the country and serving justice to those that had oppressed him and England for so long.
The question that is asked throughout the novel is “Who is behind the mask?”  But what we as readers learn throughout the novel however is that it doesn’t really matter who is behind the mask, and we also learn that (spoiler alert) it changes, and in hindsight we should have seen it coming. The opening panels of the novel foreshadow the events to come in the novel by doing just what McCloud talks about, by using scene – to – scene transitions and juxtaposing Evey and V in almost identical scenarios, both are getting ready for something, in front of a mirror, and both of them wearing a type of mask. In the end, it ends up being Evey behind the Guy Fawkes mask, because it doesn’t matter who is behind the mask, because the mask is a symbol for the acts that are being done. Something that V says sticks out to me in this instance, which is in Book 3 when he says “Anarchy wears two faces, both creator and destroyer. Thus destroyers topple empires, make a canvas of clean rubble where creators then can build a better world” (Moore, 248) This also ties in with the closure aspect the McCloud mentions in Chapter 3 of Understanding Comics, as readers we are, in that moment, meant to draw our own conclusion that V was the destroyer, and Evey is the creator who comes in to help create a better world to live in.

https://archive.org/details/VForVendettaComics/page/n3

McCloud, Scott. The Invisible Art Understanding Comics. HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of Aya: Life in Yop City

By
To begin this week's post, I'd like to first address a few things about the author's duty to his/her readers. When we think of reading material from other countries or cultures, what factors are important to us? What information do we need in order to recognize the significance of the author's work? For me, it's important for the author to find some way to connect to me as a reader. Do we share a common experience? Can I relate your story to mine? This is not to say that a writer's work is rendered unimpressive if they choose not to do this. But I do think it goes without saying that most impressionable works hit us emotionally. I also think that an author should be conscious of the world that they are painting for the reader. Is it true what you're writing? Does it provide some sort of insight into the world as you see it? Are you confirming outside opinions of your culture, or are you breaking the stereotypes that have been placed upon you? That being sai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Junji Ito and the Art of the Uncanny

By
As discussed in Chapter 2 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics , the Japanese style of comic book art holds several notable quirks. While early manga artists tended to favor simplistic, yet distinct styles that paved the way for a number of internationally renowned characters, contemporary manga artists have since favored a hybrid style that juxtaposes the cutesy, rounded characters of yesteryear with the realistic and richly shaded settings that have since become popular. Building on this, McCloud describes a phenomenon in which Japanese comic artists have used realism to objectify--that is, to emphasize the "otherness" of certain characters, objects, or places--elements of their work and further separate these elements from the reader. I have chosen the work of one of my favorite comic artists, Japanese horror icon Junji Ito, to further illustrate McCloud's point. Though McCloud describes this phenomenon in the context of Japanese comic book art, he is usi...
1 comment
Read more

Bringing Africa into the Fold

By
The comic Aya: Life in Yop City does a fantastic job of illustrating a culture different from the more popular Western variety. For those reading this, have you ever considered Africa in any way that was not influenced by main stream media? No? Well me either. It is sad to say, but my view of Africa was just - more or less - a vast land of chaos and poverty. Why? Because is that not what the media would have us believe? As a western country ourselves - presuming, of course, that you are reading this from the US or some European country - we do not consider other nations to have much value in comparison to our own. Because we have created a Eurocentric view of what society should be, we have disallowed other countries to feel that their own culture is worth portraying in novels or media. For example, most people are lead to believe that Africa is riddled with disease, famine, and "uneducated" people who are in dire need of help. This just isn't true! There are places ...
Post a Comment
Read more