Author: Sagar

The cake-making process is extensive but well worth it at the end. One starts with a bunch of primarily inedible ingredients that taste very bland for the most part separated: cake flour, eggs, butter, and a whisk. However, when put together, the long process leaves one with a tasty cake ready to be devoured. Much like the cake, I see my semester-long process as a long but rewarding journey, going from someone who had many creative ideas indiiually but not being able to organize them properly to learning how to concisely and effectively communicate. 

Personally, eggs are not a favorite of mine. The egg itself is tough for me to crack. I usually end up with shells in my yolk bowl when cracking an egg. On top of this, I find raw eggs, disgusting, as the taste has never been a favorite of mine. The eggs symbolize the three significant assignments this semester- the literacy narrative, the tracing pages essay, and the half-kucha presentation. Like an egg, each assignment is tough to crack, starting with multiple brainstorming sessions to see what would best fit the assignment, then going into the writing process in which I have to revise, edit, and repeat. However, by the end of the process, the assignments, like the eggs, when adequately dealt with, led me to polished essays and assignments that left me with unrivaled educational benefits. 

A whisk is the most essential tool when creating a cake. One needs a whisk to mix all the critical ingredients within a cake. This process takes time. Like how a whisk must beat into the various ingredients and grind them down, through the comics read, we were required to use intense analytical thinking, creativity, and our unique point of view to point out thoughts on the book we read in class. This thinking process at the beginning of the semester especially took a long time. However, as time went on, our brains got accustomed to this thinking style, leading to long processes that resulted in more efficient and even deeper thinking of literary analysis. 

The bi-weekly class discussions, like butter, were smooth, enjoyable and , formative. They helped me shape my thoughts about the readings by allowing us to delve into characters, plots, themes, and the author’s perspective. These conversations made the material more familiar and comfortable, influencing how I saw the book. Moreover, they sparked ideas for assignments, thanks to insights from Professor Morgen and my classmates. Just as I’ve come to appreciate melted butter, I’ve realized that comics, like “Butter,” are often undervalued for the depth of literary lessons they offer.

The half-kucha presentation was the toughest assignment for me in class yet. It took me a long time to figure out how exactly I should plan. However, after I figured it out, I decided to use regular images from Google and specific comic panels from each book in my presentation. I picked panels from each comic because they helped the audience connect better with my story. I wanted people to feel like they were part of the moment, so I chose these visuals to make my words more powerful and relatable.

Giving a presentation without control over slide timing and limited text taught me valuable lessons. I learned the art of adaptability, needing to adjust my pace to match the slides. It forced me to be concise, clear, and extremely organized with my content due to the limitations of the presentation format. This experience emphasized the importance of communicating effectively within set constraints and refining my delivery to ensure clarity and thoughtful with every word spoken.

As someone who has done multiple public speaking competition I thought I did worse than I expected. Thus, I could have Improve my presentation by practicing in front of a large audience. I realized that nerves and the atmosphere of a big crowd significantly impacted my speaking pace. By rehearsing in a similar setting, I could have been better prepared to manage those nerves and adjust my talking speed accordingly. I believe this would have allowed me to control my delivery and ensure a more consistent and effective presentation.

Picture Credits

Title Slide

David Small, https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.davidsmallbooks.com%2Fstitches-memoir&psig=AOvVaw0lsHjIw2JwcliTUEAEHgmY&ust=1701771489405000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCNib2PrG9YIDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Nick Dranaso, https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commonscomics.com%2F2018%2Fsabrina-by-nick-drnaso%2F&psig=AOvVaw3HHL9wL6bdq6K0TDBL3Fe2&ust=1701771614107000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCKjekLbH9YIDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Slide 2

Ghrzuzudu, https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/blue-airplane-isolated-gm1337512445-418375813

Wikipedia, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Colorado_in_United_States.svg/300px-Colorado_in_United_States.svg.png

Slide 4

SVG Repo, https://www.svgrepo.com/show/124924/repeat-hand-drawn-circular-arrow-symbol.svg

Slide 10

Art Alex, https://stock.adobe.com/images/three-arrows-pointing-in-different-directions-choice-the-way-concept-vector-illustration/281730853

Oftentimes when I write I feel that their is a disconnect between the words I write and my subconscious thoughts. However, the literacy narrative process- writing the first draft, translating it into a comic, and then translating the comic back into an essay format- allowed me to better understand my subconscious thoughts to ensure that the final essay conveyed the narrative I intended. Additionally, I learned new strategies that I would use in writing future essays like creating a small visual to better outline what I want to cover within my essay. 

The narrative process included many setbacks. One was finding the medium that I was going to visualize the comic with. After multiple attempts of trying to draw the comic and failing, I decided that I had to take a leap of faith and trust my creativity in a new medium. I did this by using Canva images as the main medium for my graphic novels completed by hand-drawn images to further the rhetorical strategies I wanted to implement. After creating the comic, the writing process was a lot smoother than I expected. I felt that the visual medium forced me to focus on the main arguments I was trying to claim which in turn allowed for me to have a better structured essay with more relevant details to enhance the story. When looking at the difference between the first draft of the essay compared to the final copy, my final copy has a much clearer direction throughout the essay explaining the complicated relationship I had with the english language and how I finally found that natural interest in it that I always wanted.

Through the planning process, I decided to use pages of the book that have strong symbols to show a bigger picture within the text. Thus, I decided to use a page from David’s dream and a page from Tillie’s performance to illustrate the stem root for why they are the way they are. While tracing the pages I believe I was able to recognize more patterns and meaning within the illustrations because I was spending more time looking at the panels. More specifically, I think that tracing helped me lead to more discoveries within what the panels really mean. 

The ABT writing format was very hard for me to adjust to. I kept worrying about if I was following it especially at the end of my essay as I was not sure if my thesis thoroughly followed it. In order to solve this problem I kept re-writing the essay in order to make sure I stayed organized and on topic within the format. 

Overall I loved the annotating part of this assignment as it helped me learn more about the value each panel has for a story. However, I had a very hard time forming an analysis in an academic essay format. The biggest insight this project gave me was the ability of small pacings and size e differences that can make a huge emotional impact. 

Assignment Post

Stitches by David Smalls and Spinning by Tillie Walden are two semi-autobiographical comics that encapsulate the childhood traumas of each author. While the majority of both stories fill the pages with a similar amount of illustrations, the authors use very different strategies within some of the most important pages of the story.  Small uses three extended panels with precise detail, while Walden fills the page with 20 small panels. In stitches, David is in a large temple. In the first panel, David enters a room with a door and is curious about what it leads to. The second panel follows David through his journey, illustrating a narrow passage, and around the corner, out of David’s vision is another door that is much smaller than the first. David is at the door in the third panel, but it is too small for him to fit through. Within this sequence, each panel is thoroughly described with illustrations of each piece of furniture and linings of the wall. Thus, the well-described panels set the tone to be slow, mysterious and anxious about what is to follow, building up anticipation for what is behind the door only to be disappointed. Tillie states that ice skating is not just a sport but a part of her life. Thus, the ice skating competition is a large influencer in how Tilly acts. Walden utilizes 20 panels on one page to represent Tillie’s thought process while going through her competition routine. A majority of the panels are small boxes with a navy blue background—some white—, and a phrase about the competition. The white panels are scattered along the sequence of other panels. These panels represent Tillie losing focus on the competition as two of the three thoughts involve what her mom’s reaction will be to her poor performance, while one is just a white square representing her blanking about what is to come next. The overall sequence lacks detail but one panel is very detailed with the eyes of multiple looking disappointed in her performance. Thus, this sequence of panels represents Walden setting a very fast pace with an anxious tone to illustrate the high-pressure event that Tillie is competing in. 

Small and Walden better illustrate the childhood traumas each character goes through with the choice of size and specific images within each panel. It is well known that events that take place within dreams are correlated to real-life events and emotional states. Thus, the repeated dreams are an abstract way to represent David’s subconscious thoughts at this point in the book. Smalls intentionally places the dream in a temple. This is because historically temples have been seen as a safe haven as people are optimistic that God will listen to their prayers and bring forward a fruitful future. However, this tone of optimism and hope for David is quickly intertwined with mystery about what lies behind the door which is a symbol of opportunity. As the sequence continues, David is disappointed. The door has shrunk to be too small for him to fit through. Thus, what is behind the door within the dream symbolizes the love and support that David craves to experience but what he, in reality, does not have. On the other hand, Walden uses the uniformity of size and color to better illustrate Tillie’s pressure. The uniformity in the color and sizing of the panels helps set a tone of perfection, one that is inhumane, but the three large panels and the three panels of white strategically break up the unity on the page giving the page a more humane tone through the lack of symmetry. More specifically the large panel Walden strategically adds emphasizes the extent to which Tilly is hyper focused during her competition. The panel is a large image of multiple eyes looking at Tilly while competing. This panel symbolizes a root cause for why Tilly is a hyper-anxious person who is always worried about the opinions of other people.

In conclusion, “comics shape time by arranging it in space on the page in panels, which are, essentially, boxes of time “(shute). The specific use of pacing helps show the slow and unsupportive life of David while showing the lack of healthy support for Tillie when trying to perform her best in the ice skating rink. Therefore, from these specific and important pages, the reader can understand the stem causes of the mental health issues of both characters. 

Works Cited

Chute, Hillary L. Why Comics?: From Underground to Everywhere. Harper, 2017. 

Transferring the essay to comic form was harder than I expected. The process involved a lot of thinking about how to format and ensure the message essay was properly communicated within the new medium. With the intent of keeping this a rough draft, I wrote myself notes on what I would look to add to the final copy of the comic. As I work on the final draft, I will have a combination of hand drawings and pictures to ensure the comic communicates the message of the essay in detail.