Safe Area Gorazde
does a really great job of presenting a country and its struggles through the
use of a comic medium. Speaking from personal experience, I was never taught
the history of this country. Before reading this comic, I had no knowledge of
their war or economic struggles. I am actually a little surprised that this was
not taught in schools, given that it is an excellent example of what war can do
to an individual and the struggles of a nation to survive.
The comic begins with Sacco visiting Gorazde and conducting
interviews, in which he obtains fir-hand knowledge of the effects of the war on
the people. Gorazde is a Bosniak enclave that has been surrounded by hostile Serbian
regions. Though narrations from people
such as Edin, for example, the audience is able to experience that
multicultural atmosphere that was present between the Serbs and the Croat
children. However, as tensions increased, those friendships disintegrated.
The people were eventually separated and resistance to this separation
began to rise. After the first attack in 1992, families no longer felt safe and
their city began to suffer falling infrastructure, a lack of utilities, and a
shortage of food. Eventually the UN’s peace efforts fail and the US begins
bombing the Serbian regions. This forces the Serbians to retreat and comply
with negotiations, in which Gorazde is not to be receded to them. The people
are happy by this news but they are well aware of the effort they must now make
to return to their normal lives.
Throughout the comic, the author does a great job in evoking
emotions through the use of the images, coupled with the text boxes. Though the
comic is told through different lenses, the audience is able to fully connect
to the story. Within Scott McCloud’s UnderstandingComics, he mentions that a “huge range of human experiences can be portrayed
in comics through either words or pictures. As a result – and despite its many
other potential uses – comics have become firmly identified with the art of
storytelling” (152). Safe Area Gorazde
does well to portray this storytelling in the way the art is showcased in
relation to the actions they are presenting. For example, on page 2, in the
second and third panel, the children are playing around while UN military vehicles
are present in the background. Here, I felt this was an excellent example of storytelling
through images, in that the audience is able to understand the play of
children. But they are forced to incorporate that understanding with the
militaristic actions in the background. A child should never have their play
interrupted by war. This image does well to showcase the effects that war can
have on children.
In addition, on page 4, the entire panel is devoted to
illustrating the people on the street, with military personnel boxing them in.
This image does really well to give the audience a feeling of desolation and entrapment.
They are not free to move around as they would normally. This type of
atmosphere is not one that many Americans would understand. This comic allows
its audience to understand what that feeling of being trapped would look like.
In reading this comic, you are able to take your own viewpoint and place it in
relation to another’s. At that point, you are able to realize how uninhibited
you are in relation to the issues that the Gorazde people were forced to
endure.
Comments
Post a Comment