Blankets- Chapters 8-9

In Chapter 8, I loved the example of "Socrates asking his disciple Glaucon to imagine human beings living within a dark cavern," on page 495. I loved how the humans accepted everyhting that was shown to them as truth, and when it turned out to be false, they believed that they were not in the wrong but the truth. The humans believed that the truth must be wrong or misleading. I also loved the images of fire and shadows that this mini story showed. The images of shadows made me think of something hiding and lurking, which I think the author used perfectly to connect these images and thoughts with Raina. The story and Craig, "realize what he'd known as a human was merely the shadow of a statue of a human" (pg. 501.) Craig not only realized that she was fake and not human, but she was doubly fake, a SHADOW of a STATUE of a human.
The scene where Craig is being lectured to by the adults at his church on attending art school is hilarious to me. The exaggerated facial expressions of the adults and the exaggerated noises, such as the sniffs, gulps, and gasps, were hilarious. In some cases, they could be cliched and overplayed, but here I felt the author used them perfectly to portray the narrow-mindedness of Craig's church and the community where he lived. Another aspect of the novel, pages 564 and 565, linked with the narrowmindedness of the religion taught at Criag's church. I found it interesting that the author depicted the Jesus figure as dark and forboding in the Bible stories taken straight from the Bible, but the Jesus figure depicted when Craig is doing what he feels is right and putting his own individual ideas into religion and belief, such as kissing Raina or remembering her blanket, is ablazed with light and smiling in approval. The smiling and warm figure of Jesus shows that Craig is deviating toward a more personal and independent faith that is not narrow minded and restricted like his church and community's.
I did not really like the end of the story. I felt like it just stopped mid-story, with no real ending. I wanted to know what happened to Raina and even to Craig. I just felt like there were so many ends left open, nothing explained. I understand that this is what the author may have been going for, but I'm mroe the type for a concrete ending.

Blankets- Chapters 6-7

Not particularly in chapters 6-7, but in the earlier chapters, mostly in chapter 5, I noticed one aspect of how Raina was drawn that caught my attention. Her lips, nearly every time she is depicted in the panels, are intricate, delicate, and always stand out. While other characters' lips are drawn as striahgt lines or with little to no detail, hers are always exquisite and drawn to stand out. On page 257, when her and Craig are kissing in the woods, int he bottom larger panel, Craig's lips disappear, while Raina's seem to encompass, swallow, and make his disappear.
On page 346 and 347, i loved the author's different uses of font for the speech bubbles. When Craig tells Raina she loves him, it's personal, almost hand-written, like her original poetry sent to him through the mail, but when she replies, it's in the type-writer, impersonal font. The font of her response makes the reader feel the coldness and the distance of the response. It also seems to me the coldness and distance that Craig is feeling seeping subtly from Raina, and growing between the two.
As I continue to read this story, there's so much going on in each panel, on each page, in each word bubble, and between each character. I see so many undiscovered and barely touched on connections betwen each character, so many symbols, situations, and dialogues that are barely touched on or explained by the autho, yet presented. I fel as if each little tid bit the author gives, he gives to each individual reader, letting us make our own connections and explanations. I feel like he doesn't explain everything or make it clear or just give us little pieces of each so we can connect to it in our own ways, putting a piece of ourselves and our stories into his.

Eng 300- Blankets- Chapters 2-5

Craig as a teenager is very similar to who he was as a child. In both stages of his life, he's timid and easily overpowered by others. He also constantly has a fear of reaching his next stage in life hanging over him. As a child, he's constantly afraid of becoming a teenager, linking it to the sexual abuse he enduredd from his teenage baby-sitter. When he becomes a teenager, he fears his own sexuality, getting incrediby nervous whenever Raina tries to touch him or kiss him. He links the sexual abuse he endured from his babysitter to every sexual thought or action (such as masturbating on pgs 146-147) as dirty and sinful.
Craig's drawings, I believe, are linked to his religion. He also seems to think his drawings are sinful, drawing his passion away from the love of God. Adults, such as his Sunday school teacher, (pgs 136-137) draw him even farther away from his drawing, dismissing it. His drawing is his escape, who he is. Essentially, his religion is drawing him farther and farther away from his true self. Throughout the story Craig sticks towards his religion with only subtle details giving away his doubts, such on pgs 217 and 218, Jesus is drawn to describe a story Craig is reading in the Bible, but Jesus is not drawn or depicted in a light, warm, and loving way. I viewed the drawing if Jesus as dark, sinister, and mysterious. A shroud of darkness always seemed to shroud is face, especially his eyes. In some panels, Jesus' face or body was blcked out completely, hiding i from the reader.
Throughout the book I also noticed a symbol that interested me. It almost looks like a sea shell. I'm not quite sure what it represents, but it appears on pg. 293 in an image of his naked babysitter, in the middle of his chest, where his heart should be. It appears, in many other places, but also on the border of the panel on pg. 311, depicting a loving image of Raina. This symbol also links Craig's very different images and experiences of his sexuality together.