Author: Hailey

Reflecting on Tracing Maus

Going into this project, I really did not know what to expect. I closely read the text and examined the images, but other than that, I really did not know what this project was going to have in store for me. My first challenge was picking out the pages I wanted to trace. Sure, I could have picked the more “popular” ones, the ones we spent time analyzing in class. But, I wanted to challenge myself. I decided to pick two pages we talked about, but not in full detail. I then began tracing, which took much longer than I anticipated but it allowed me to pick what I felt was most important to highlight in the line drawing. Annotating each page seemed helpful at first, but since I mostly had my ideas from the start, I really did not write much. I basically had all of my ideas planned out right after taking a first glance at the pages. This made it much easier for me to write my paragraphs, especially because they were more like mini separate assignments. I am looking forward to fine tuning this project as I feel like I was a little rushed in completing it due to studying for my other midterms.

Image found on Flickr

What’s in my bag?

My denim Hershel backpack contains all of my class necessities:

  • a heavily decorated laptop that contains basically everything I have ever done in school
  • an overstuffed pencil case that barely zips (I have A LOT of highlighters)
  • headphones that sadly don’t fit into my computer 😦 I also have wireless ones but those I normally wear around my neck so they are easily accessible on my walk to class
  • my room key although sometimes I feel like my roommate and I are the only ones on this campus who lock their door
  • a pack of gum but normally it’s more like 3 packs with a ton of wrappers but I cleaned out my backpack on Thursday
  • chapstick since Atlanta weather is kind of dry for me even though it’s humid for everyone else
  • lab goggles because I tend to forget mine on lab days so I just keep them in there all the time
  • color-coordinated folder and notebook! I have them for every class but normally only keep one set in my backpack at a time because I hate it when it’s super heavy. The colors haven’t changed since high school: chemistry has always been black, biology green, and english pink. I had to add red for anthropology since I did not take that in high school.

People seem to think I am a pretty organized person with my color-coordinated sets and plethora of highlighters to set up my notes. However, I am normally slightly chaotic. Sure, my room looks clean, but inside those closed drawers contain barely folded laundry, makeup sprawled everywhere, and assignments crumpled from first semester. My backpack tends to be similar. The front pouch acts as a garbage can with gum wrappers and receipts while the main pouch is slightly cleaner but not as perfect as this picture looks. I decided to only put the clean elements out. At first glance, you see many organized objects, yet you cannot see what is within the backpack. That’s where this project gets challenging. See, yes, I believe my contents of my backpack do represent me but I was able to choose which elements to show. You can only see what I have chosen, not what I failed to provide. When telling a story, authors can do the same thing. They can give some information but not all of it, giving the reader the opportunity for their own interpretation of the text. By showing only a select group of things from the contents of my bag, I allow the person looking at the image to form their own opinions and leave them to question if there are pieces I have left out.

IMG_5333

Triptych

For as long as I can remember, haiku has been my favorite form of poetry. Although only 17 syllables long, these short three line poems can tell so much. In my triptych, I attempted to convey a comedic story, about a young boy asking a girl to be his partner for a project. Recently, I have been talking to my friends who are seniors in high school and are worried about finding their first college roommate. I have been teaching them the ins and outs of “glirting” or girl flirting which is important in making connections online to find a roommate. I started thinking about these conversations and how I could make a relatable comic about it but could not come up with a good way to execute it. My mind drifted towards the idea of flirting in general. Middle and high school aged boys can be pretty awkward, especially when it comes to talking to girls. My comic shows a high school aged boy, worrying about asking a girl “something.” In the first 2 panels, my hope is for the reader to assume that the boy is going to ask the girl out on a date or to a school dance. However, their is a plot twist in the last panel in which he actually asks her to be partners in a project, not to be a couple. I wanted the comedy to be seen through the dialogue, not so much the the images themselves. Instead of drawing pictures and scenes that would distract from the story, due to my lack of a strong artistic ability, I used the online resource, Storyboard That, to help me set the scene. The site allows users to pick characters, props, scenes and even allows you to choose from hundreds of colors and even emotions to personalize your comic. I feel like so far in this course, everything I have created artistically has been pretty abstract, or required less detail. However, when looking at the two examples we saw in class, I realized that these triptychs required much more detail to give the text more depth. Unlike our other projects, this was the first one that required me to come up with an original story, one that tells much more than a singular picture or some words on a page. It seamlessly combined them to give even more meaning than the two do separately.

 

Screen Shot 2018-02-23 at 2.31.44 PM

Maus Chapter 2: Auschwitz (Time Flies)

When looking at these quotes, I struggled to interpret how they relate to the text as I felt that this chapter was truly difficult to follow. Starting with the first chapter, I was confused about Spiegelman’s use of masks on seemingly human figures. Up until this point in the comic, Spiegelman exclusively used full figures of animals, sometimes paired with masks to show “secret” identities. This was the first time he acknowledged the fact within the text that the animals were all metaphors AND that he was actually human, although this should be obvious to the reader. Sure up until this point, he pointed out that although he may have had apprehensions in choosing an animal for a certain character, this was a turning point where the reader gets explicit evidence that this is actually a story about real people. The Holocaust impacted Art, his father, and millions of other people. I had to read this section a few times, “slowly and often” like Spiegelman intended, in order to fully understand this illusion that he creates. I enforced strict participation by myself as a reader “to stitch together narrative meaning” like Chute encourages readers to do while consuming comics. Throughout the rest of the chapter, I had to continue fully analyzing each and every page at a much slower pace than I normally do in order to completely comprehend Spiegelman’s intentions in this part of the comic.

America’s Favorite Snack of 2018

Starting at the end of 2017, P&G, the company who owns Tide, has been under backlash after hundreds of memes surfaced of teenagers arguing that their Tide Pods look delicious and should be considered a snack instead of laundry detergent. I mean, just look at them. The brightly shaped pods truly resemble some of the candy I have grown up eating. To keep up with the current stream of memes that are still pouring in from various media sites, for my Sunday Sketch, I decided to put my own spin on trend. My sketch features a large candy bin with a Post-it type note telling people to eat the treats. I always have a huge box of the pods in my room because they are so convenient to use as a college student so my eyes were initially drawn to them as I was looking around my room for ideas. However, as we all should know, Tide Pods should definitely not be consumed as they are actually toxic and its only purpose is to be laundry detergent. 2018-02-09 17-26

Maus Chapter 3: Prisoner of War

At the bottom of page 50, a long, rectangular panel showing Vladek as a young soldier carrying a deceased German soldier caught my attention. In this portion of the narrative, Vladek had told Artie about the first time he was in battle. He was told by his superiors to just keep shooting and to hide himself among the trenches. Vladek, in the midst of battle, ended up shooting and killing what looked to him as a moving tree but was actually a soldier on the other side of the lines. Vladek picks up the soldier and although initially he was shocked that he killed someone, in this panel, it is revealed that he tells himself “at least I did something” rather than just protecting himself. This line sets the scene for the rest of the chapter when Vladek continues to do things in order to help himself. He signs up to work to level out the hills, and although this is very rigorous, it gets him out of the camp and into better living quarters. After working, he is moved to another camp in Lublin when he thinks he has gotten released, yet again, he helps himself by claiming Orbach as his cousin and leaving the camp once again.

Visual Notes

I decided to take my visual notes for my chemistry class. I am currently taking CHEM 202 at Emory and we are learning about chemical equilibrium so my notes are on Le Chatelier’s Principle. My course’s this semester are mostly in the STEM field so taking visual notes seemed like a fun challenge for me. I employed the use of arrows and little doodles to keep myself engaged in the complex information. I also really like writing in different fonts, emphasizing certain pieces of information. I think this assignment was a very useful way, not only to study for my upcoming midterm, but also to put my creative skills to the test. I don’t know if my peers felt the same way, but this almost made my note taking pretty relaxing. I did not feel like I was basically transcribing from the textbook like I normally do. I hope to utilize this style of note taking much more in the future.

Literacy Narrative Reflection Post

For me, reading has always been a big part of my life. From the moment I learned to read, it is almost as if I have not been able to stop. I really appreciated taking the time to step back and reflect on the steps I have taken to become the reader and writer I am today. Sure, there have been some times where I really did not enjoy the things that I have been asked to read in class and I have struggled with writing. However, I truly do not think I will ever lose the passion that I have when I finally finish a book I really enjoyed or receive an “A” on a paper I worked so hard to write. I hope to inspire others that may not truly appreciate certain genres to realize that there are pieces of literature that they will enjoy; I challenge them to go out and search for it because it may be found where they least expect it.

Avatar

Bitmoji. Bitstrips, Inc., 2017. Vers. 10.23. Apple App Store, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bitmoji/id868077558?mt=9

Like many other 19 year olds today, I spend a lot of time using social media. During my free time, I scroll through Instagram and Facebook and send many Snapchats daily. Most of the time, pictures speak louder than words and I send many responses using the ever popular Bitmoji application. This app allows users to customize their own avatar and use them to convey hundreds of different messages in both the iMessage application and on Snapchat. I decided to compile 6 of my favorite Bitmojis as my avatar. Starting from the center going clockwise, I selected the avatar of me holding a matcha boba tea, by far my favorite drink! Next, I chose a picture of me holding and reading books, one of my favorite pastimes and a pretty obvious choice for this being for an English class. I then chose a picture of me jumping with a smiling heart because I strive to always be cheerful and full of love and following that, a picture of my avatar peaking up from below, showcasing my curiosity, especially towards learning. My last two images show my avatar excited with some stars and a “selfie” with some hearts to reemphasize my happiness and loving nature. I feel like all of these images represent me and help give a greater insight on who I am.

1 2