Friday, September 10, 2010
Blog #2 "Prisoner on the Hell Planet (the comic within the comic)"
The prisoner on the hell planet was a very detailed and in depth comic but it was also, in my opinion the most confusing section of the novel. It mentions how his father saw the book and began to cry because the comic was so similar to the actual truth of Artie's mother dieing. I think Artie wrote this comic to get everything that he was going through off his chest. When you look at the text along with the pictures you can see several emotions such as sadness and depression. You get a sense that Artie may feel guilty of his mothers death, maybe something he did or did not do. He mentions his last encounter with his mother and how he basically blew her off by not acknowledging her. He might feel guilty that he never really told his mom he loved her or did not appreciated her being there for him. It talks about him being in a mental hospital and it was because of his mother. I think his mother may have killed herself over that reason and now Artie is realizing along with the over people who is blaming this tragedy on him that it may be his fought.
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I found The Prisoner On The Hell Planet to be the most confusing part as well. I agree that Artee most likely wrote the comic to get the memory and guilt of his mother's death off his chest. He doesn't seem to be able to talk to his father about personal things so writing about it might have seemed like a better alternative. I thought that he had been in the mental hospital before his mother's death and that people blamed him for her death because he had problems or was a handful growing up. I don't think Artie is really responsable for his mother's death. Just because they were having trouble getting along at the time and he was looking for a little independence doesn't make him a killer.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the facial expressions in this section of the comic, but what really caught my eye was that in the Prisoner On The Hell Planet Artie drew himself in what appeared to me to be prisoner clothes. I think this a clear visual expression of his and other's feeling about him being his mother's murder. She killed herself and he is to blame for her crime.
Yea, this part of the book came out of no where. It caught me off guard, but at the same time it seems like it would be needed just so the reader can actually get a deeper look into his mother's suicide. I feel like he shows himself in a prisoners uniform because he feels guilty and blames himself for his mothers death, it's like he's trapped feeling that way. It seems like he blamed himself because he took her for granted and didn't really treat her well when she was alive.
ReplyDeletePrisoner on the Hell Planet is a very interesting, but vital part of the whole book. When you really try to understand the comic book, it reaches out to you and makes you understand everything a lot better. Although Artie does not show it openly throughout the book, he definitely has guilt towards his mother's death as seen in the comic. Vladik shows his emotions just as anyone else would when a death of a love one is mentioned. Artie definitely needed to get the death of Anja off of his chest though, so putting his thoughts into a graphic novel like this probably helped him out a great amount in the long run. I believe that Artie is not a murderer, because you never realize something very valuable to you until you can have it no more. Anja passed away, and Artie realized that he never said he loved his own mother. The fact that he can now cope with this, shows that he can at least move on.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting as well that Vladik later reads this comic, though Artie tries to hide it from him, never intending for his father to see it. It seems both father and son have information to hide from one another. I'm curious how each of you see this secretive side of father and son. How much goes "unsaid" between a child and his/her parent? For what reason do we "hide" from one another?
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