My thoughts and Opiniyuhhns ;)

Credits

V.S

After reading and analyzing Stitches on my own many questions arose from me. In all honesty it took me some time to actually comprehend the story line of the book. At first glance the cover reminded me of a book from childhood  No, David. Somehow my mind saw that look on young David's  face and thought it was meant to portray a mischievous look on young Small's face. However, all thoughts of this idea changed immediately as my reading progressed. Soon I began to think the author meant to portray a protective young boy scared to be himself.

credits pt2

           Something which I found very interesting was the use of             symbolism throughout the novel.In order to understand the depth of some of what Smalls illustrates and writes, it is important to re-read and examine some of the text and images more than once. If it wasn't for our in class discussion some of what Smalls was trying to show me would have just gone over my head. An example of this is his illustration on page 144 this image can be seen used as a border also on page 143. 

Image taken by me (Smalls,144)

After questioning why Smalls used such an image in class we all came to the conclusion that this was used to represent his father trying to buy his mother's happiness through materialistic items. In  this book it is apparent that David's parents marriage is in shambles. This theme is explored throughout this novel immensely. From their quiet dinner's to Betty's (Small's mother) secret lesbian love affair, one must imagine the strain and the tenseness one would feel in such an environment. Except David Smalls who's life this book is based on. From discovering his parents hid the fact he had cancer from him, to him being unable to speak for some time, this graphic novel is full of many shocking plot twist. Yet, I feel as if all of these live scaring (literally) tragedies could be linked to the fact that David's parents were so unhappy together. It could be inferred that most of their pent up resentment and anger stemmed from their marriage which as we all know was unpleasant.

Not only did this book discuss such issues as these, but also provided an adequate amount of illustrations to go along with the text as support. At times though, in this novel it seemed as if the text was used as support for his images which were drawn with such detail on character expression which allowed the reader to see the degree of emotion.

pg. 238 captured by me pt.2 or 3 idk

Above is one of my most favorite images from the book as it captivates his parents anger and aggressiveness quite clearly in a way that words would otherwise be unable to do so. This is one of the many aspects that makes this novel have depth to it. Not only is it an insight on the author's story, but also a great read which would be recommended to everyone even those who don't consider themselves avid readers.