Tracing Stitches and Spinning: Reflection
The most recent assignment in English class was to write an essay comparing the two graphic novels we read, “Stiches,” by David Small, and “Spinning,” by Tillie Walden. We were asked to first select one page from each novel to trace so that we could better understand the stylistic elements that thee author included in that page. It was easy for me to decide which page from “Stitches” I would be tracing because I remembered feeling very drawn to that page during my first reading. I chose to trace the scene in which David’s mother brings him his book, “Lolita,” while he is alone in a hospital room awaiting potentially unsuccessful surgery. Since I chose this page, I knew I would be writing about the relationships that the protagonists had with their parents and whether or not the parents were abusive. I had a much more difficult time choosing a page from “Spinning.” I was torn between picking three different pages. In one, Tillie’s mom picks her up after a car crash occurs right in front of Tillie. Tillie chooses not to mention this to her mother. In another, Tillie finally builds up the courage to tell her mother that she does not want to ice skate anymore (she has done it for years) and her mother is indifferent. The scene that I chose is one in which Tillie’s mother learns that she is a lesbian and makes fun of her. The panels show only Tillie’s disheartened face and text boxes that show her mother’s words. This reveals how Tillie’s mother was taking over Tillie’s difficult moment. I did not understand this until I traced the page myself. I felt that this scene paralleled well with the scene from “Stitches.”
For most high school writing assignments, I wrote standard 5 paragraph essays with an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. For this assignment, however, my professor asked that we write in an “inductive” style. This means that we write 3 paragraphs: 1 about our thesis, 1 about an antithesis, and one in which we resolve the thesis and antithesis. I enjoyed writing in this new format because it felt more structured and I was able to connect my analyses rather than adding in unnecessary transition words or information about topics unrelated to my theses. I also felt that had a more formulated plan before I wrote – when I write 5 paragraph traditional essays I typically only plan out the ideas of the three paragraphs and don’t go so far as to plan out which details are important.
I learned a lot about these two books as well as comics in general through this process. Through carefully tracing the pages I was able to briefly enter the mind of the author and understand a deeper meaning. In fact, before this assignment, I was adamant that these books are not abuse emotional abuse and felt they unfairly judged the parents since they only provided one perspective. When tracing the pages, I was no longer reading another person’s story – I was inside the story. I imagined that this was happening to me and I had an epiphany that the protagonists really did undergo trauma as a result of their parents’ mistakes.
