A rather wild and intriguing dive down the rabbit hole we took in the second part of this story. Was not expecting the cancer, the lesbian mother, the rabbit therapist, or the immense jump in time at the end. This book in general just hasn't really gone where I've expected it, and I love that about it. Was there anything in the book that really surprised you?
For being a comic book that uses a lot of images, he uses a lot of symbols. Images that have images that represent something bigger. It's pretty intense. I found it interesting that almost everybody else in the story wore glasses. Is it to be a mask? A lack of vulnerability, perhaps? Or is it something that makes him distinct, different from everyone else, an outcast? What did you guys think it meant? What about other symbols in the book? What were the most striking to you? If you had to pick one symbol, which would you say was most central to the book? And you can't pick his stitches/scar. ;) For me, I felt like the the white rabbit/alice in wonderland references were really key. David was in a world that he just plain didn't fit in. The white rabbit was his subconscious helping him to cope, escape, and understand his life. The tunnels and the alice in wonderland references were almost like passageways to other places, places where he could be free to be himself. This really is a story about a guy who just doesn't quite fit in. Did you catch the Alice in Wonderland references? Did you have different opinions about them?
David had a pretty intense relationship with his family. That scene with the therapist where the rabbit told David his mom didn't love him was intense. Do you think that really happened? Or was that more of David's subconscious helping him figure out what he needed to know? Or something else entirely? Do you think this was accurate? What did you think of the reveal of the mother's issues, or the father's guilt, or the grandmother's insanity? Did it make things make more sense at all? Did you end up liking the mother or not? It was a very touching scene in the hospital before she died. Did he forgive her?
What surprised me the most about this book was the fact that it was blunt. It didn’t mess around as far as how everyone felt about everyone else. The past authors tried to explain their parents’ behavior or didn’t provide an explanation at all whereas Small made it known that there was a good chance his mother didn’t love him, his father was distant man who cared more for his studies than he did his family, and an abusive grandmother. Even his bother comes off as completely aloof in terms of caring about anyone in his family. It’s talked about and it’s shown rather than being alluded to.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that the glasses were a symbol as even in pictures of Small in the present shows he doesn’t need glasses in order to see. It certainly speaks of an odd difference in health – everyone he lives with has poor eyesight while he ultimately ends up with cancer. A symbol that struck me and I found very odd and still a little hard to understand is the jar containing he fetus. As a child when he encounters it he imagines it glaring at him and causes him to run off. It even shows up in the rabbit hole image. Later on after his surgery he runs into it again but sees it for what it is and is no longer afraid. It certainly speaks of fear but what fear? Of his own reality or trying to come to terms with himself as a human being? It’s hard for me to point any exact meaning but I doubt that it is meaningless. The Alice in Wonderland symbols while appearing possibly as cliché do work because Small uses them in unique ways. Who would ever consider the White Rabbit a therapist? And certainly rather than leaving Wonderland it would seem almost a better place for him to be as living there may provide him a place he actually understands unlike at home.
I am not entirely sure how therapy works but I don’t think the therapist is allowed to draw such definite conclusions for their patients. Likely it was through the therapists counseling that Small discovered that his mother didn’t love him. From Small’s perspective it probably does feel that whether his mother actually doesn’t love him is hard to say. The reveals were very poignant especially when Small’s responses were minimal and it tied everything up nicely. I do not like his mother but I sympathize with her as she has not had it easy at all. I would say he did forgive her because he knew what she had gone through and while it did not excuse her for hurting him he could at least understand that she hurt others only because her pain was a lot for her to bear.
The cancer thing was dancing on the edge of my mind from the moment the lady found the lump, so when that happened it didn't really take me too much by surprise. I agree with Devon--initially I was a bit taken off guard by how blunt everyone in the story was. But as we got to know the characters more, it made sense how they treated each other in response to the things that happened to them.
ReplyDeleteThe glasses stood out to me probably more than anything else in the book. I definitely think they were some form of separation from all the other characters in the book. They covered their faces so that you couldn't really see the emotions that were going on. And not only did they create that distance between characters, but they also enhanced the feeling of being looked down in so many scenes.
I would say I think it probably didn't happen exactly like that in his first therapy session, unless it was some kind of tactic he was using to evoke an emotional response/trust. It very could just be that this is the way that he perceived it, but yeah.
And I definitely do think he forgave her at the very end. They may not have had much communication. But the fact that he wrote this book with such an emotional and intense scene at the end speaks volumes to the way that he felt about her.
I'll admit that I was surprised at the mother being a lesbian. That was pretty much the ultimate revelation in this book. It probably explains why she is the way she is, because of her repressed feelings.
ReplyDeleteAs for most of the characters wearing glasses, I just though that was a coincidence. I have a lot of people in my family that wear glass, so that just seemed normal to me. But I think you are on to something Mike. This is probably an act of symbolism that showed that David was different from everyone else. I might have been his intention while writing this novel.
I believe that David's mother really did love him. She just didn't show it. She was so consumed with her own problems that she became so hollow. When people have a history like her's, they tend not to be warm people. especially when you have a mother who goes crazy and burns down the house. That was a very intense moment. Yet in the end, I think that David did forgive her. I don't think that you would include a back story like his mother's so often and not have a piece of closure at the end. That would just be a giant let down.
I thought those were all super surprising! I was expecting one of the parents to have a homosexual secret though, since that has been the pattern of the course. I was expecting his dive into silence to have a bit more of an impact on his story though.
ReplyDeleteI did not even notice the glasses! You're totally right. For me one of the biggest motifs/symbols would be the confined spaces around him. He seems to always be in a narrow place: rooms, his mouth, stairways, city streets, restaurant booths, etc. I liked the Alice references because he wants to enter into a fantasy world where he is big or at least normal. His since of normalcy is skewed because his childhood was so unforgiving and cold, so Wonderland seems like an ideal "normal" situation.
I totally think his mother didn't love him! Or at least didn't care for him! I don't really know how therapy works for domestic situations like that, so in my mind it totally could have happened, though it seems a bit harsh. I hope he just came to terms with it on his own though, to soften the blow. I'm sure he forgave her, through the guilt of death; he clearly couldn't forget though. I do not blame him.
Though the cancer reveal, and the reveal of David's mother's homosexuality were both surprising, neither felt particularly out-of-place. This is a story about a lot of things, but I think more than anything it's about how complicated life in general can be. Nothing is simple, and nothing is direct. Every one has secret lives that they live, secret fears and dreams that they hold.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the glasses were necessary symbolic - these characters were based on real people, after all - but the way that Small drew the characters with glassed did have a tendency to make them appear less human through omitting the eyes behind the lenses. In terms of the most powerful symbol, obviously that would be the white rabbit therapist. Like Alice before him, the rabbit leads David down a deep, dark hole that eventually opens on a completely different, and strangely unique world. David never had to properly confront his complicated relationship with his mother before his therapy sessions. Had he not done so, he likely would not have been able to move out at such a young age, establish himself as an artist, and generally break free of the cycle of abuse that had plagued his family for multiple generations.
In terms of forgiveness, that's a hard thing. Family can be a hard thing, especially if it's dysfunctional. Sometimes the line between doing the right thing and "real" thing gets blurry. Did he offer her forgiveness in order to help alleviate some of the pain that his mother had at the end of her life? Maybe. Did he really mean it? Harder to say. His mother was not a loving person. Even in the one scene where she is shown to have some concern about David - regarding his grandmother's treatment of him - she is still incredibly oppressive and brooding. I'd like to think that the best of us can forgive no matter the circumstances, but it's a little hard to buy into that when you've never known compassion from those who are seeking some sort of forgiveness. We are, after all, only human in that regard.
I think a more apt question would be what DIDN'T surprise me about this book!
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, this is one of the best graphic novels I've read in some time simply because it kept surprising me. Between the unpredictable nature of the plot and the near constant references to other works, this was a real page-turner! I found the symbol of David crawling into paper to be one of the most poignant of the book, particularly after he loses his voice. His life was hell, and he needed a method of escape, which turned out to be art. This is actually very relatable for me because I also use art to escape the stress and difficulties of reality. Just as David dives into his sketches, I jump into music. I also found the Alice in Wonderland reference of the shrinking hallway to be interesting because it shows that he quite literally does not fit in his world and also suggests that the weight of everything made him feel claustrophobic.
His family was . . . well . . . interesting, for lack of a better word. Having finished the book, I now have a better idea of why they did some of the things they did. I think, given the scene in the hospital, that he forgave his mother. He knew that she had never been able to be honest about her sexuality, and that she grew up with a downright abusive mother; these things explain why she internalized so much and often came off as cold and unfeeling. After learning all of this, I came to somewhat like the mother because I can see that had things been different, she would have likely been a far kinder and warmer person. I don't think he forgave his father because there was no apparent motivation for his actions. I grant that the lack of honesty was his way of trying to protect David, but when he finally did tell the truth, it felt more like he was trying to alleviate his own guilt rather than actually help his son.
Tragically, I'm not sure if the mother knew how to love (or a the least express it). I think Small forgives her. I say this because he includes a photo of her in the end. My feeling is he would have excluded that detail if he had not already forgiven her. The photo humanizes the mother and the author clearly wants to remind the reader that this woman was a real person (flaws and all). If Small had not forgiven her, than the inclusion of the photo would be an uncomfortable indictment (nearly vengeful). Nothing in "Stitches" leads me to believe the author is trying to demonize the mother.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't noticed the glasses. Perhaps it is a subtle detail that differentiates the author from the rest of the family (and the world at large). Sometimes I'm a little hesitant to read too much into details. I once did a show at a professional theatre where all the women in the cast walked barefoot for the sole reason that the actresses walked around barefoot in rehearsal. Absolutely no hidden meaning. However, theatre critics had a field day analyzing this detail in all their reviews (some giving outlandish interpretations of all the bare feet). Maybe there's all hose glasses because that's what Small remembers from his childhood. But I do like your interpretation, nevertheless.
I found how the book ended to be quite surprising. Ending within a dream was just seemed abrupt. It did not upset me but caught me off guard. Along with the "revelation" of his mother hating him.
ReplyDeleteAs for the glasses, it didn't catch my eye. I think because I just assumed thats how those characters looked. Yet that is an interesting fact, because you are right. The majority of people did wear glasses within the book.
With his mother I found it hard to decipher how she felt. Similar to how David stated "Since she never spoke her mind, we never knew what this was all about." I just believe her own problems came first to her instead of anyone else especially her family.
In reference to the symbols, the use of Alice in Wonderland, specifically the white rabbit therapist, and the final tear of his mother. It definitely made me question the idea of how the mother felt.
I think the ending of the book really caught me off guard. For me I think I was constantly trying to predict what was coming next and I think Small did an excellent job of keeping that from happening. I really enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland references as well. I saw that several people believed it fell into the realm of cliche but I found that Small was able to put a unique spin on it. It was interesting to see how Small chose a story like Alice & Wonderland which at its heart is a desperate escape from reality.
ReplyDeleteThe glasses reference I had not noticed until you brought it up. I think it might allude to the level of clarity that he had as a child. Even though he didn't understand the reasons why everyone seemed so dysfunctional he saw everything for how it was. It seemed that everyone was hiding behind their glasses, almost as if all of their prescription lenses were slightly askew making their perception of reality different. None of the characters in the story seem to be able to show any remorse for their actions.
I was glad Smalls decided not to stay in wonderland because he seemed to be the only character with some decent sense. Everyone in the story besides Smalls seemed to be purely driven by emotion and masked feelings.