Different ways to tell a story

from Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

When I saw myself facing Maus by Art Spiegelman I could not help but remember some books that I have read recently and started to think about this new way of “writing” books, and also this way of depicting reality through the use of characters that are not entirely human. For example, a few weeks ago, I read a book called Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. In this book he tells two stories, one story is told with words and the other one with drawings. The stories seems to overlap at some points along the book, but despite the similarities in some situations, they are not overlapped because one of the stories happens several decades before than the other. How come these stories go together in the book to tell only one? Well, you will have to read it. The interesting thing is how you can extract meaning from images and tell a story in your head only by watching drawings. 

from The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

from The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

There are other examples of books that only have drawings. Not a single word! Yet, they are rich in meaning and it takes a while to get the whole story, such as The Arrival by Shaun Tan. This book tells the story of an immigrant arriving to the USA having no idea of the language used and being amazed by all these new things that are there, and also telling the inside world...his feelings, etc.

Our ways to convey meaning or to tell stories are limitless. Through the use of drawings we can go even further, because sometimes words do not seem to reflect quite exactly what we try to say. Or maybe because is an easy way to engage the reader who might think that for having less words it is going to be an easy-to-read book (what a poor argument!) Posibilities, I think, are also limitless.

from Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Another interesting resource is the use of animals. One of the books that I have read that have this feature is Animal Farm by George Orwell. Since it is a very critical-political book, I am not going to discuss or cover the plot, but it is interesting how the author depicts different characteristics and roles in society through animals. This is probably because animals represent in a very specific and plain some aspects of our personality or place in the world. For example, dogs represent loyalty for many people, cats represent intelligence, lions represent royalty, and so on and so forth.  Maybe this is what the author intended to do...maybe not..

 

 I know, all of these books have nothing to do with the story in Maus, but is not the story itself that called my attention, it was the fact that this book is so radically different from the others that we have read so far in this course, in terms of the form that it made me think about why the author is using animals to tell the story? Was it necessary? Will the story have a greater or lower impact if written in a different or conventional way?

Also, it is not a new idea to depict humanized animals. Fables have used animals for ages to tell stories and teach to children. Maybe using animals makes Maus easy to digest because its story is a very harsh one. Holocaust is not a nice story to talk about, but maybe a necessary one in order to reveal the dark side of humans that we need to be constantly aware of.

"If you are wise you won't be deceived by the innocent airs of those whom you have once found to be dangerous"

 The Cat and the Mice - Aesop

 

There are so many ways to tell a story to impact others and to give an artistic personal touch to your work. Finally, I want to share two pictures. Do you see any resemblance? Yes? No?...