My group for the Comic Project was assigned to create a comic that would visually represent the chapter “The 10,000-Hour Rule” from the novel Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. This was definitely my favorite project of the whole semester, as it forced us to incorporate knowledge gained from each graphic novel we read and the lessons learned from this specific chapter of Outliers, as well as allow us to use our own creativity in the process. When our group first came together, it was made aware that multiple members in our group considered themselves “artistically challenged”. This was the first obstacle we had to face. Throughout debates over how to draw our characters (stick figures, fully drawn bodies, etc.) I remembered how in Maus, it was easy to make the characters’ hand-drawn faces consistent throughout the novel because the characters were all mice. My idea was to use cats instead of mice, but with human bodies and in human settings. This way, even if we are all working on our individual parts separately, there would be some consistency and flow in the full comic strip instead of it looking like 5 different comics were compiled together and claimed to be one continuous storyline. Next, we had to dissect the chapter, somehow divide the work evenly, and recreate one, flowing plotline. We decided to use the specific examples (people like Bill Joy, Bill Gates, the Beatles, etc) cited by Malcom Gladwell as a way to break down the chapter from a well-researched argument essay to a story that can be portrayed in a comic strip. To create the narrative ‘framework’ of the comic, we agreed to insert a small picture or full frame of Malcom Gladwell (introducing our section, explaining a point, or concluding our section) in each group members’ part. I suggested this idea because my past experience with narrative framework was in reading Vietnamerica; with all the intertwined stories and characters it became confusing what was the overarching narrative ‘framework’ of the novel and which were the overlapping stories being told. In my opinion, the ideas I brought to this project would not have occurred to me if I hadn’t read the graphic novels from this semester and used my experience with and observations of them to creatively overcome obstacles that inherently come with working in a group project, on a difficult and artistic assignment.

I found the “America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead” comic strip to be very interesting. I spoke to one of the members of the group, Wyatt McGuire, and he told me that their essay was on Picher, Oklahoma, which was an area famously severely contaminated due to a lead mine. I really liked how they totally made up the main character and the plotline; they incorporated factual information from the article and inserted it into an interesting, more relatable story. They were able to turn an informative essay into a personal narrative. I also liked how they used real photographs and grayscaled them—Wyatt mentioned that they did that to make the pictures look not only dated but also look like the metal lead (which is gray). Other elements that made this project a standout to me were the strategically placed colors within certain frames (to draw attention to bright colors against the gray background) and the varying size in frames, close up shots and zoomed out shots that much resembled elements of Vietnamerica framing techniques.

Past assignments from this semester, as seen on my personal website, also gave me significant direction in how I approached this project. In my Tracing Maus Project, I focused on shading, frames and facials. Although I only varied the different cats’ facials when they were talking and used minimal shading techniques, I varied certain frame elements. I got the idea of diagonally splitting one frame into four to depict the multiple connections with club owners that the Beatles made once they started performing in Hamburg–one huge stepping stone in their career as a band. I also used varying depth to give the reader an idea of the numerous and continuing shows that the Beatles played at different clubs in Hamburg. I included a little sub-frame, as well, within the first frame to clarify the “narrative framework” of the story about the Beatles and who is telling it. From our Vietnamerica assignment, just the process of analyzing the graphic novel’s spectacularly creative and innovative graphic techniques was extremely helpful in taking my assigned storyline and adding creative features that help vary in setting (the plane flying from the UK to the US), depth (the four highschoolers walking down the hall), and time (the running clock depicting the hours and hours of time passed playing at the clubs each night). From this assignment, I learned how to use dynamic and creative visual framework to graphically depict a seemingly static text (10,000 Hours Essay).

The graphic novel Vietnamerica- A Family’s Journey written by GB Tran is a wonderfully creative, informative and emotional piece of work that, true to its title, describes one extended family’s extraordinary experiences in the duration of and after the Vietnam War. This memoir, containing stories scattered across countries, across seas and across generations, is best described as a longitudinal representation of Vietnamese life before the war and long after it was over. The study of ethnography involves researching and depicting the culture of a group or society, Vietnamerica would be best described as a longitudinal ethnographic novel.

Did GB Tran solely intend to give us a convoluted history about his family’s past, or was there something more behind the purpose of this novel? Why isn’t this novel more like a bildungsroman? Stepping back for a second, the reader should observe the intentional confusion Tran creates in the order and plotline of the novel. The progression of the story skips entire decades, then flashes back entire decades. Each scene is set in a different time, at a different place, and involves different characters every time. Tran does a fantastic job of displaying scene transition through graphic elements such as color change (black and white to extremely vibrant colors to dark maroon and black) and framework (the frames separated by lighter smoke on page 56, the separation of panels with a scrabble board on page 111 or the different frames falling into the storage box on page 207), Some characters have nicknames that are used interchangeably with their full names, while certain relatives’ stories are cut apart and placed at different points in the book, leaving the reader up to piece together full length passages. As discussed in class, identifying the present-day “frame” for these stories being told about the past is inherently difficult for the reader to accomplish.

GB Tran made Vietnamerica quite a confusing and haphazard novel, but why? Tran uses this tool of chaotic organization of different plots and numerous characters as a metaphor for the confusing, chaotic lives of most Vietnamese being displaced from their homes, separated from family with limited or no communication abilities, being forced to relocate just to keep future generations out of harm’s way, and begin to restart their lives again. Tran purposefully gives anecdotes about everyone in his extended family’s life in order for the reader to realize the degree to which the war traumatized different families in different locations at different points in time. Instead of focusing on and elaborating upon the experiences of himself and his immediate family, Tran chose to incorporate numerous stories that can better represent the scale of the impact of the war on the collective lives of a group of people, rather than an individual narrative. He is making an example of his family as one of the many families in the same exact same situation as his: “[o]ur family wasn’t alone, we weren’t a special case. Everyone suffered. Everyone had to do whatever they needed to survive” (90).

Vietnamerica is not a bildungsroman for the reason that the purpose of the novel and what the reader takes away from the novel is not so much a story about a boy who has a personal journey, but rather a story about one of the millions of families that went through the same conflicts over warfare, murder, separation, and loss of cultural identity. Truthfully, GB does not display much personal growth or character development throughout the novel. He was always reluctant to meet extended family and he seemed disinterested in hearing stories about the war, strife, and the unimaginably harsh conditions that caused Vietnamese families to constantly live in fear. After being asked to go to Vietnam with his parents to visit extended family he had never met before, GB exclaims that he has too much studying to do. His mother asks, “Don’t you think it’s time to see where we’re from?” and he replies “Uhh…No thanks. That doesn’t look like a fun trip to me” (182). One major symbol in the novel is the tree introduced on page seven accompanied by the Confucious quote “A man without history is a tree without roots” (6). As GB’s father tells the history and legend of that tree—its Buddhist enlightening capabilities and the reverence that the locals have for its power—GB sarcastically mutters “Riveting, Dad” (7). Later in the novel, that same tree was cited again when GB is on the phone with his mother while packing for a trip to Vietnam. After a long pause, she says, “I had that dream again last night.” This dream was about that same tree that was famous to the local Vietnamese, and it is a recurring dream that Dzung had multiple times in the past months. GB replies sarcastically, “Huh…riveting” (49). Twice now, GB has shown complete disregard for the most powerful symbol in this novel, the tree. And it is no coincidence that the one family tree fully displayed in this novel is a visual of an actual tree, its roots being the generations of families below the trunk representing Thi Mot. The only true change in GB’s reluctant attitude toward his family and their history is found on the final two pages of the novel, when GB pulls out the same note from the first page of the novel from his father containing the Confucius quote. After again rejecting his mother’s offer to visit Vietnam and meet extended family, he reads the note, shows a clear change in disposition, calls her back and says “I was just wondering…can I still go to Vietnam with you?” (279). This sole scene represents GB’s first and only change of heart from indifference to involvement and connection with his family’s roots.

Because the majority of the novel is spent telling story after story about Vietnamese life and hardships rather than developing GB’s character, Vietnamerica is much more of a ‘longitudinal’ ethnologic representation of Vietnamese life during and after the Vietnam War rather than a bildungsroman of the growth and development of GB Tran.

Tran, G. B. Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey. New York: Villard, 2010. Print.

test post

Hello there, my name is Nicole Ciesinski. I was born and raised in Bethesda, MD, I love dogs and chocolate, and have a passion for dancing, science, math and music. This is my website and I hope you enjoy!

One of my best friends took this photo during a rehearsal this past summer. When I see it, the photo reminds me of my passion, my lifelong friends, my most rewarding life experiences, and my family both back at home and wherever my life will take me.