Stuck Rubber Baby

Week eight: stereotype and the ethics of representation

Stuck Rubber Baby

by Howard Cruse


In terms of storytelling, I find some stereotypes unnecessary, especially if they are just being used to try to be offensive. I do think, however, that stereotypes can be used in a tasteful way in order to tell a story. This is the case with either fiction or non fiction. It can also be in works that are categorized somewhere in between, such as Howard Cruse's "Stuck Rubber Baby". The American cartoonist wrote this graphic novel in 1995 and drew inspiration from his experiences of growing up in Alabama. In this graphic novel, the main protagonist, named Toland Polk, is a gay white male who lives in the American South in the 1950's and 60's. Toland becomes heavily involved with the black community and the civil rights movement of the time. Unlike his white community, the black community seems to accept him more for who he is and his morals. The novel deals with reality-based events from the past and portrays the importance and diversity within social activism and its various communities.

Also, one of Toland's friends in the story is named Riley, which I found interesting and relatable in a new (very surface level and literal) way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asterios Polyp

Week eleven: comics as contemporary literature Asterios Polyp  by David Mazzucchelli This 2009 graphic novel by American cartoonist David Mazzucchelli immediately caught my attention with its bold colors and style. Some pages featured very visually interesting layouts that differ from the usual format of comics, which includes many of the ones that we have been reading in this class. The story revolves around a man named Asterios Polyp, who is an architect and a college professor from New York. As seen in the art as well as the story itself, this graphic novel "explores the idea of duality," which I find to be very fascinating. 
Read more

Persepolis

Week nine: a wide world of comics Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi For this week's reading, which focused primarily on European works, I was able to find Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis, online and available for viewing. From what I read of this graphic novel, I was surprised by how much I found myself enjoying it. It is an autobiographical story of the author's childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Before reading this, I was not very familiar with the events and intense situations of the time (the 1980's). After I was drawn in by the uniquely simplified and appealing art style, I remained captivated by the real history and the childhood perspective from which the events were explained. Although serious, this viewpoint allowed for a less grim outlook than what may be expected based only on the subject matter. Marjane was very religious as a young child. The novel continuously depicts her daily "big discussion with God." These conve
Read more

Maus

Week seven: Maus and the legitimization of the graphic novel Maus  by Art Spiegelman  Art Spiegelman's  Maus  takes the horrifying event of the Holocaust and explores it in a more palatable way in order to give the reader a sense of entertainment as they learn about the past experiences of his family. The events are explained through the author's interview with his father, who was a Holocaust survivor. This perspective makes the personal details unique to the father while also keeping it relatable to the reader because it isn't a direct first-hand account.  This graphic novel manages to tell its story in a somewhat fun way without making light of the subject matter. The most creative and significant way that Spiegelman achieved this was with the personification of animals to represent different nationalities and religions. For example, Jewish people are depicted as mice, German people are depicted as cats, and Polish people are depicted as pigs. This is a clever
Read more