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Black·Wings (graphic novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Black·Wings (Chinese: 黑·羽翼, literally “black wings”)is a graphic novel by Macie Lynn. The story depicts the life of Emerson, a girl who has a pair of black wings on her back, living in a world where humans are separated by their races—one race (the Aryans) is greatly privileged while the others (the Aliens) are deprived of basic rights. Lynn has drawn inspirations from the myth of the Trojan War and the history of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany during World War II. This graphic novel addresses the issues of colonialism, racism and sexism, and it also examines how these three deep structures of injustice affect the everyday lives of the characters in the fictional world.

Author

Macie Lynn is a self-proclaimed creative writer-illustrator-photographer-designer. She has written numerous articles and essays, and she is aspired to write more. She even plans to write and publish an original novel in the future.

Besides writing, she is also experienced in drawing and photography. She sometimes draws in her spare time, and she is capable to replicate real-life objects in her drawing as well as create her own ideas and designs. She holds strong enthusiasms toward photography because she believes that photography enables her to “record the everyday surprises and happiness” in her life. She is also capable to use Photoshop and other technologies to make pictures or photos more vivid and appealing.

Lynn is not just a typical artist who draws and writes; instead, she is also proficient and strongly interested in mathematics and economics. She considers herself as a person who has both an artistic side and a logical side.

Setting

The story takes place in a fictional world, named Idealland, where people are categorized into two groups: the Aryans and the Aliens. The Aryans considered themselves as the ones with pure and superior blood, while the Aliens— everyone else—are considered as the imperfects and the inferiors. The Aryans believe they are descendants of the powerful gods and goddesses while the Aliens come from evil spirits; thus, they treat the Aliens as if they are slaves. The Aliens are divided into twenty two different sections, where they work as labor forces and perform different tasks for the Aryans; they have to live within their sections and have to follow numerous rules. The Aryans teach children in school stories about the Greek gods and imposes the ideas of their supremacy. No one really knows when this system started, and no one has ever questioned this system. However, the Aryans become more and more tyrannical: they force the Aliens to work longer time yet give them less food, and they also capture innocent Aliens and sent them to experiment labs, where they performs experiment on the Aliens…

Plot

There is a place called Idealland. The center of it is the Capital, where modern and efficient infrastructures, such as skyscrapers and railroads, are ubiquitous, and this is where the Aryans live; surrounding the Capital, there are 22 sections, each of them is filled with factories, farmlands, and small houses, and this is where the Aliens live.

One night, in Section III, a baby girl was born; but soon after the girl was born, her mother died. The family then finds out that the baby girl has two hideous scars on her back, so they think the baby is a monster carrying bad luck, and they decide to abandon the baby near a river. Fortunately, Beatrice (also called Bea), a weird old lady, sees the baby, and she takes the baby home and takes care of the baby herself. She named the baby “Emerson,” hoping the baby will become brave and powerful.

Bea works in the farmlands of Section III, so she will bring Emerson with her when she goes to work every day. As Emerson grows older, Emerson starts to help Bea with her work during daytime, while Bea secretly teaches Emerson how to read at night (Even though the Aliens are prohibited to own any books, Bea secretly hides some books in her house). Emerson loves reading; although she has read all of the books that Bea owns, she would still read them over and over at night.

As Emerson turns six, she has to go to school. There is only one school in each Section, and all children in one section attend to the same school. The school has very strict rules. On the first day of school, all rules are taught to the students, and the students have to remember all the rules all the time. In the morning of school, the students will have lessons taught by the teachers from the Capital, who always appear to be disgusted by the students; in the afternoon, they will be assigned different tasks to work on, such as sewing, planting, etc. Emerson does not really like school; she does not like the teachers’ lessons that the Aryans are the descendants of god and are always superior while the Aliens comes from evil spirits and is always inferior to the Aryans. The teachers are the only Aryans who Emerson has ever met so far, but Emerson cannot find that many differences between the teachers and everyone else from the Aliens, except that the teachers have better and prettier clothes.

As Emerson turns thirteen, she no longer has to attend school, so she works on the farmlands to help Bea. One night, Emerson finds a pair of black wings growing out of her back, where her scars are. She shows it to Bea, Bea is shock at first and soon calms down and warns Emerson never show it to anyone else so that people would not freak out and treat her as monster. However, as Emerson grows older, her wings also grows bigger, which makes her look like she is hunchbacked. Some people laugh at her, but she never gets upset or worries about what other people say about her. Emerson does not have any close friend, but she is content because she has Bea and the books.

Although the Aliens have always been treated badly, the situation has gone worse over time. The Aryans become more and more demanding, they tighten their control on food but make the Aliens work more. Some people start to hide food from the Aryans so that the whole family would not starve to death, even though they might be killed if they caught doing so. In addition, the Aryans also start to capture innocent people and take them to the Capital, and those people who are captured are never seen again. However, most of the Vices still follow the rules of the Aryans because they think they are safer in this way.

One day, Emerson finds that Bea is captured by the army of the Aryan after she comes home from work, so she decides to sneak into the Capital to save Bea at night. The dark night perfectly conceals her black wings, and with her black outfit, she is almost blended into the dark night sky. Tracking the trial of the army, she finds the “prison” — a worn down building near Section III— where Bea is captured. Along with Bea, there are several other people from Section III who are also captured. Since it is just a temporary transit place for the captures, there are not many soldiers guarding them. Emerson distracts the guards ad eventually rescue Bea successful. She then learns from them that the Aryans are capturing the Aliens and sending them to the labs so that scientists can perform real-life experiments on them.

Instead of feeling fearful, Emerson feels furious for the unjust oppression and mistreatment against the Aliens, and she decides that she needs to save everyone from the Aryans, despite Bea’s warnings. She secretly practices combat skills and studies the use of herbs. Because she is always a fast learner, she soon becomes skilled on both fields. She starts to secretly rescue the captured Aliens from the temporary transit sites, and later she starts to shift her targets to the larger sites. Her intelligence and her skills have enabled her to succeed every time. Yet her frequent action of rescue has also attracted the attention of the Aryans.

One day, she saves an old lady from one of the transit site, yet the woman wants to go back to the Aryans and be captured. Eventually, Emerson learns that the woman’s daughter, Rae, is wanted by the Aryans because of her beauty, the woman attempts to keep her daughter from being taken, but the father of the girl insists to turn in the girl to prevent getting into troubles;, the woman is left no choices and has to secretly sneak out from home and try to save the daughter herself. Emerson decides to help the woman and promises to save her daughter.

After several nights of searching, Emerson finds Rae in a well-guarded room in one of the skyscrapers. She sneaks in through the window and tries to save Rae, yet Rae refuses to leave because she believe it will be better for her family and she has to listen to her father. Unable to convince her, Emerson decides to just take her by forces. However, Rae starts yelling, which alerts the guards. Although Emerson still escapes with Rae successfully, the guards find out that kidnapper has a pair of wings. Emerson brings Rae to Section XIII, where Rae’s mother is waiting. After a short reunion between Rae and her mother, the mother tells Emerson that Rae cannot go back home, otherwise the father will just turn her in again. So Emerson brings Rae back to her house. Learning that Rae is homeless, Bea kindly let Rae stays with them.

The news about a winged creature kidnapped a girl from the Aryans, makes the Aryans angry yet causes panic and fear in the Aliens community. Everyone wants to find out about the creature, so Bea forbids Emerson from leaving their house. Rae learns a lot from Emerson, including many thoughts about equality between races and between genders. Although Emerson is forbidden to leave her house, she still sneaks out at night to help rescue other Aliens, yet the rescues are getting harder and harder to accomplish.

Eventually, one night, Emerson is injured and caught by the Aryans. The Aryans decides to burn and kill her in public as a punishment. Most people from all sections see her black wings and think she is a monster who deserves to die. Emerson is killed, and Rae and Bea are devastated, yet Rae realized that she has to do something. She starts to secretly spread the idea of equity and equality and also remind everyone the unjust oppressions and brutal mistreatments that the Aryans have imposed on them. Gradually, some people (mostly young people) change their mind and realize that they should not obey rules blindly. A secret organization is formed with Rae being the leader, an unprecedented movement is about to begin…

Characters

Emerson: the protagonist of the story; has a weird scar on her back, where later grows a pair of wings; is unwanted by society but never gives up on society; brave, powerful, and intelligent; eventually sacrifices herself, which arouses Rae’s determination to make a change.

Beatrice (also known as Bea): an old widow who lives by herself; people think she is odd and weird; takes care of Emerson and treats Emerson as if her own daughter; always kind, cheerful and caring.

Rae: a very beautiful girl from Section XIII; is turned in to the Aryans by her father to prevent; influenced and encouraged by Emerson; eventually becomes the leader of a movement against the Aryans.

Influences

Lynn drew inspirations from myths and history when she created the novel. “When writing the story, Black·Wings, I was using inspirations that I got from the myth of the Trojan War and the history of the Nazi Germany during WWII,” Lynn mentioned in an interview, “and I created most of the main characters by taking characteristics from certain characters in the myth or in history and adding new personalities to them. It felt like I was mixing elements of chemicals together to make a completely new products, and the process was always fun and fascinating.”

According to Lynn, the protagonist of the story, Emerson, is modeled after Eris — the “goddess of discord” in Greek Mythology. “Many stories of Greek mythology are sexist in some ways,” said Lynn, “the story of the Trojan War is an example that reveals the structure of sexism in Greek mythology.” In the story of the Trojan War, Eris is not invited to Zeus’s banquet, yet she somehow shows up with a golden apple upon which inscribed “KALLISTI, meaning ‘For the Fairest’,” and the golden apple stirs up “a vanity-driven dispute among the goddesses that eventually led to the Trojan War.” Therefore, Eris is usually blamed for provoking the Trojan War, while Paris, who steals Helen from Menelaus and causes Menelaus to invade Troy, is never blamed.

“I wanted to write stories for the female characters who are the ‘victims’ of sexism in the Greek myths,” said Lynn, “so Eris is who I choose to write about in Black·Wings.” Lynn took the characteristics of Eris that Eris is unwanted and feared by society and added it to the protagonist, Emerson; however, Lynn wanted to manifest more about the “hidden sides” of Eris, which are her intelligence and her agency—the ability to act or to influence others, so these personalities are also added to Emerson and will be emphasized in the graphic novel.

Other than Eris, Lynn also created a character in her story based on Helen from the myth of the Trojan War. Helen is the most beautiful woman on earth, and she is the wife of Menelaus. Some versions of the myth say Helen abandons her husband willingly and leaves with Paris because of her lust, yet others says that Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris. “Both versions describe Helen as a culpable and vulnerable person,” Lynn said, “she is either blamed for being adulterous or is depicted as mere puppet--a person with no agency.” Lynn agrees with Ruby Blondell’s idea that Helen is “a concept, not a person” and is created for the imagination and desire of men. Because of her beauty, many men are willing to fight for her, and thus wars happen. Some people say that Helen’s beauty is “the roots of all evil” and blame Helen for the Trojan War. However, Lynn disagrees, “Helen does not have the choice to choose whether she wants to be beautiful or not, and blaming her for being beautiful is in fact sexist.”

Lynn attempted to show a different perspective toward the myth regarding the part about Helen. “I wanted to overturn the image that woman is either vulnerable or evil,” Lynn said, “and I created Rae based on Helen yet quite different from Helen. Unlike Helen, Rae changes over time, and she develops agency — the ability to act according to what she wants; with the influences of Emerson, she eventually becomes the leader of the anti-Aryans movement.

In addition to the myth, Lynn has also borrowed some elements from history and implemented them into her story. She adopted the social structures of Nazi Germany during World War II as the foundation for the setting of her story. She even named the fictional world “Idealland” because this society would be the ideal society in Hitler’s belief of master race. However, the society is in fact all messed up and is full of injustices and inequalities; thus, the name of the world serves as a satire to the racist belief of the ideal world. “I was attempting to replicate the ‘ideal society’ that Hitler dreams about,” Lynn said, “however, I will not try to defend it but will destroy it.” Furthermore, Lynn named the supposedly “superior” race the “Aryans” and named the “inferior” race, which is everyone else, the “Aliens.” Such setting is also an attempt to recreate Hitler’s philosophy of “Master Race” and “Alien Races.”

Themes and Social Critique

Racism, Colonialism, and Sexism

Since the setting of the world is based on the history of Nazi Germany, the novel also adopted many structures of inequality that are clearly manifested in the Nazi society. Racism is one of the deep structures of injustice in the fictional world. The belief that the Aryans are the superior race while all the others (the Aliens) are the inferiors directly exposes the structure of racism. In addition, the elements of racism is also manifested by the rules that are imposed on the Aliens and the mistreatments from the Aryans For instance, the teachers from the Capitals who show disgusted looks toward the students and the lessons that the students learn at school are the means to emphasizes the racist belief in their educational system, exposing them to little kids, which helps strengthen the belief as well as imposes it as a universal thing into everyone’s daily life.

Sexism is also one of the biggest themes of the novel. Similar to the Nazi Party’s supportive belief that “world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home,” people in the fictional world also want women to focus on their own family and be submissive to their husband, enforcing the power of men over women. For example, Rae’s father turns in Rae to the Aryans despite Rae’s mother’s opposition; even when Rae’s mother goes to save Rae, she goes secretly by herself because she fears the opposition from her husband; Moreover, because she wants to obey her father’s order, Rae refuses to leave with Emerson; when she finally reunites with her mother, she still cannot go back home with her mother because she fears the power of her father. All these scenes are indications of the existence of sexism in the fictional society.

The setting of put the Aliens into sections resembles the action of the Nazi Party setting up concentration camps, where they imprisoned and enslaved non-Aryan people. These sections or camps are representations of the internal colonies, where the human resources are exploited as labor forces and slaves. Such setting reveals the structures of internal colonialism in the fictional world.

Counter narratives

The main protagonist of the story, Emerson, is not the prettiest in the world. She is born with hideous scars on her back and is eventually abandoned by her family. The event of the new born baby being abandon marks the first unfair judgment and mistreatment against Emerson by society: they judge her by her physical features and her appearance. However, she is fortunate enough to meet someone who is willing to take her in—Bea.

Bea is another character who is judged by society, and she is perceived as being an odd widow who lives by herself in a small cottage house. However, unlike what people would imagine her to be, Bea is always cheerful and kind, and she is willing to take care of Emerson and treat her as her own daughter despite Emerson has two ugly scars on her back. Bea does not care about what other people think about, that is probably why Emerson later becomes immune to how everyone else looks at her.

Throughout the story, Emerson is perceived as an outcast of society. She has ugly scars and dark black wings; she has the Alien blood which is unwanted by the Aryans; she looks like she is hunchbacked when she hides her wings under her shirt. However, instead of getting upset and giving up on life, Emerson is content about her life because of Bea and her books, which give her both physical and spiritual supports for life. Although society abandons her, judges her and even wants her dead, she never gives up on society, and she is even willing to fight for the people who judges her, abandons her and dislikes her; when she is caught by the Aryans and is going to be executed, she never blames society and never regrets her choices. She has her own beliefs, and she is strong and independent, and this creates a sharp contrast with most of the women in Idealland, who is submissive to their husband or father and has no agency.

Rae was one of them. However, Rae changes under the influences of Emerson. Rae learns to be on her own and decide her own path. She grows from a girl who is submissive and obedient (what society wants from a typical girl) to a mature woman who have her own thoughts and are able to carry out her own ideas—she even becomes the founder/leader of the anti-Aryans organization and leads the movement against Aryans.

Unlike most graphic novels in which a masculine male character will show up at the end and fix everything, male characters in Black·Wings are usually associated with being manipulative and irrational, such as Rae’s father who insists on giving Rae to the Aryans so that they could prevent troubles. Female characters play a more important role in this graphic novel. They can do whatever a man can do and also things that sometimes men are afraid to do. Rae’s mother is an example. Although she is still submissive toward her husband, she is willing to take the risk and be captured by the Aryans in order to save Rae.

Special Edition (Summary and Analysis)

Lynn has drawn a one-page special edition episode for the novel, and it is a short story corresponding to the history of book burning in Nazi Germany in May, 1933. Although it is not part of the main story, it is included at the end of the Graphic Novel. Below of an excerpt of the description about the story:

“It was a cold night, yet Emerson did not feel the coldness at all during that night; her heart was hurting, aching, and being torn part, as the armed soldiers stormed in her house and swept away all the books in the hidden drawer. She stood there helplessly, staring blankly at the empty drawer, at the place where her books used to be… Not long after the search and seizure, Emerson saw through the window that a fire was started at the Town Center of the section. She rushes out of her house and ran toward the bright, burning redness… In the Town Center, beyond the crowds of scared faces, she saw the red, burning flame devouring a big pile of books. Tears started to fall down her face, yet something has deeply rooted in her mind…”

This special edition describes to the readers another side of Emerson—her vulnerable side. Although Lynn has always depicted Emerson as being the bravest and strongest characters in the graphic novel, “it is inevitable for everyone to feel vulnerable and weak sometimes,” said Lynn, “and this is what Emerson is feeling when her books—one of her spiritual supports—is taken away from her.” Books and Bea are the spiritual and physical support of life for Emerson; she regards them as her best friends and her loved ones. When her books are taken away from her and are burn down by the Aryans, she will definitely feel sad, powerless and helpless. “Emerson is a normal person too,” said Lynn, “she is just a bit stronger than the other.” The special edition shows the emotional and vulnerable side of Emerson, and it helps to humanizes Emerson, which allows the readers to relate to Emerson instead of simply regarding Emerson as an indestructible machine-like person.

Visual and Literary References

The cover of the graphic novel is consisted of an image of the protagonist, Emerson, dressed in all black with a pair of magnificent black wings, and an image of the Capital in the background. Lynn designs the outfits for Emerson to be all black so that it would allow her to travel at night with her wings without other people’s notices (Emerson always attacks the transit sites at night because the dark sky help disguise her).

Although the setting of the story is based on the history of Nazi Germany during WWII, the story is set to happen in the near future; therefore, there are many skyscrapers and modern day infrastructures that readers can find in the novel when Lynn describes the Capital. However, the 22 sections only have small buildings and factories; thus it creates a great contrast between the living environments of the two communities, which serves to emphasize the inequality in the fictional society. “I want everyone to image that the story happens in today’s world,” said Lynn, “and I want them to be able to connect with the story. When they looks at the skyscrapers in the big cities and compare them to the small and worn down houses in the poor village, I want them to understand that inequality also happens in today’s society.”

Some characteristics of Emerson resonate with Lauren Olamina, the protagonist of Octavia Butler’s novel, Parable of Sower. Lauren attempts to read all different kinds of books, including books about how to distinguish and use herbs, to learn survival skills, and Emerson wants to learn combat skills and usage of herbs when she confront the Aryans during her rescue. Both of them are brave and intelligent. In addition, both of them both have some superpowers that are also their disabilities. Lauren has hyper-empathy which supposedly should help her understand and connect with others, yet she has to kill people before she feels their pains, in order to prevent herself from feeling the enormous pains that those people are bearing. As for Emerson, although she sacrifices herself to save others, Emerson does not get supports or helps from the Aliens because of the black wings she has; the black wings help her when she confronts with and fight against the Aryans, but it also kills her when she faces the judgments from society.

Criticisms

The graphic novel has received some negative feedbacks from the critics. One of the problems that the critics have noted is that the structures of the world are not sophisticated enough, and the characters in the story are simply “black and white,” with the Aryans—the bad guys—oppressing the Aliens—the victims. Some also points out that the counter narrative of the story is not yet well-developed, and they believe that the counter narrative seems to be a reverse of the master narrative. Some also criticizes Lynn’s novel for reverse-racism. Rather than defending the view of the “Aliens,” it seems to attack the “Aryans” and dehumanizes everything that they do.  

References

Blondell, Ruby. Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford University Press, 2013.

Bock, Gisela. "Racism and sexism in Nazi Germany: Motherhood, compulsory sterilization, and the state." Signs (1983): 400-421.

Burkert, Walter. Structure and history in Greek mythology and ritual. No. 47. Univ of California Press, 1982.

Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Open Road Media, 2012.

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, eyes, memory. Vintage, 1994.

Epstein, Catherine A. Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich in Power. Penguin, 2006.

Korfmann, Manfred. "Was there a Trojan war?." Archaeology 57.3 (2004): 36-41.

Peukert, Detlev. Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, opposition, and racism in everyday life. Yale University Press, 1987.

Reich, Greater German. "Nazi Germany." World War II (1939).

Schweller, Randall L. Maxwell's demon and the golden apple: global discord in the new millennium. JHU Press, 2014.

Sheehan, Thomas. "Heidegger and the Nazis." The New York Review of Books35.10 (1988): 38-47.

Wilson, Emily. "An Invented Woman The many meanings of Helen of Troy." NEW REPUBLIC 245.8 (2014): 56-59.

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“i ask how much. he says for free.

fine.

nothing in life is free. the best things in life are free. there is no such thing as a free lunch.”

(Leanne Simpson, “indinawemaaganidog/all of my relatives”)

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Reflect

For Lilo, she thinks and behaves differently from other children. She is kind and is willing to feed the fish in the ocean with her own sandwich, yet she is the problem child in school for she will beat and bite her classmate when she is mad at them; when she is choosing what pet to adopt, she chooses Stitch, which everyone is afraid of and would try to avoid. She sees the world differently than others, and she is unwilling to change herself for others. Her unyielding personality is similar to Stitch. When Stitch is born, he is accused of being the wicked and is sentenced to death. However, he is not submissive to the law. He uses tricks to break free from the jail and escape to Earth. He is rebellious and aggressive against the changes that others try to impose on him. He is unwilling to change.

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1.       Research on-line

a.       Queen Liliuokalani: she was the only queen regnant, or female monarch, of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and she became the last monarch of Hawaii when the kingdom was overthrown in January of 1893, seeking for annexation to the United States.

b.      Area 51: it is a detachment of Edwards Air Force Base, part of the U.S. Air Force facility, and it is assumed to be used to develop and test experimental aircraft and weapons systems.

c.       Nishnaabeg Nation: it is a nation in Ontario, including the Odawa, Ojibwa and Algoquin First Nation, and people in the nation usually speak similar Anishinaabe languages.

d.      Mississauga Ojibwe: it is a distinct tribe of the Anishinaabe people (Native Americans) in Ontario, and it is closely related to Ojibwe.

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4. Sketch

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Reflect

As a girl growing up from China, I used to hold the same opinion as most people from Mainland China and was extremely against the act that Taiwan people refer themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, yet I overlooked the views of people from Taiwan. Taiwan in fact has the deep structure of colonialism. Originally, Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines until the Spanish settlement during 17th century; later, Chinese people from Han Dynasty started to migrate to China, and it was annexed by Qing Dynasty; it was later ceded to Japan; after Japan surrender, it was assumed to be under the control of The Republic of China, which is the government of Taiwan. Taiwan has a long history of being the colonies of some other countries, and colonialism is deeply rooted in its structure. Therefore, the sovereignty of Taiwan is in fact extremely hard to determine.

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Research

My home country is China, and one of the extremely controversial political issues is the sovereignty of Taiwan. While China claims that Taiwan has always been part of the territories of China, Taiwan government claims that Taiwan is an independent country instead of a state or province of China. 

“Taiwanese people, young ones especially, also resent the fact that the island is not recognized as a country in the United Nations because of Beijing's clout. Taiwan is not allowed to show its national flag or use its official title - Republic of China - or the name "Taiwan" in global events, such as the Olympics. And it can't join many international organizations.” (Sui, Cindy. “Why China is Land of Opportunity for Young Taiwanese” BBC News. 26 June 2014. Web. 21 May 2015.)

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1.      Research on-line

a.       Handala: it is a character created by Naji al-Ali, and it is also the Palestinian defiance symbol; the character shows his back toward the audiences with his two hands clasping behind.

b.      Kufiyyat: it is a head covering that is used to protect a person from the hot sun and the dry sand as well as serves as a way of protection for one’s identity.

c.       Gaza and the West Bank: they are considered to be the Palestinian territories, yet they are inside of Israel control territories.

d.      Nakba: it is the displacement of Palestinian people due to the 1948 Palestine War.

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One page comic (Story 3)

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Introducing One Page Comic

1.      Snapshot 1.

I woke up early today. Well.. More like I did not really sleep last night. Because today is my BIRTHDAY! I am officially thirteen! I am an adult now. I can find a job in the factory, and I can work with Bea! Bea promised last night that she would get off from work early tonight to celebrate my birthday!

OMG! I cannot believe what I just saw in the mirror, the scary scars on my back (yes! The ones that I was born with) had some furry black things growing out — they are a pair of wings. I have a pair of wings! They are black and soft! They are so pretty…

I can FLY now! With this pair of wings! I just tried it out in the living room… Although I am not flying that high yet, if I practice more, I can for sure MASTER it!

2.      Snapshot 2.

Emerson is again in her room, reading her favorite book of all – the Greek mythology. The first time she read the book was when she was in class, with other children from the section. They learned about how the Aryans were the decedents of the God while they were the insignificant humans or even worse the evil demons. Although everyone says so, Emerson does not really believe in that, but she never tells anyone about this type of thoughts; she knows, they might put herself and Bea in danger. She loves reading, especially reading the story about the Golden Apple and Eris. She would read it over and over when she has time. Unlike most children, who admire Zeus and Aphrodite, Emerson loves Eris. She admires her intelligence and her power, despite Eris is considered as the goddess of Chaos.

3.      Short Story.

It was a cold night, yet Emerson did not feel the coldness at all during that night; her heart was hurting, aching, and being torn part, as the armed soldiers stormed in her house and swept away all the books in her book shelf, including her favorite — the Greek Mythology. She stood there helplessly, staring blankly at the empty book shelf, at the place where her favorite book used to be… Not long after the search and seizure, Emerson saw through the window that a fire was started at the Town Center of the section. She rushes out of her house and ran toward the bright, burning redness… In the Town Center, beyond the crowds of scared faces, she saw the red, burning flame devouring a big pile of books. Tears started to fall down her face, yet something has deeply rooted in her mind…

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one-panel comic

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BLACK WINGS

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Midterm Part II

Part II: Characters and Setting

Major characters:

1.      Emerson: the protagonist of the story; a girl whom people think unlucky because her mother died after giving birth to her, and she has a weird scar on her back, where later grows a pair of wings; brave, powerful, and intelligent.

2.      Beatrice (also known as Bea): a woman whom people think is odd and weird; the only person who is willing to take care of Emerson; always cheerful and caring.

Setting:  

The story takes place in a fictional world, named Idealland, and it is based on the history of the Holocaust in Germany during World War II. In this world, people are categorized into two groups: one is called the Aryans, who are considered as the ones with pure and superior blood; the other is called the Defects, who are considered as the imperfects and the inferiors. The Aryans are rich and mostly live in the center of the city, or the capital, where the weather and the environment are the best for living. The Defects are everyone else, and they are treated as slaves. They are divided into different sections, where they work as labor forces and perform different tasks for the Aryans; they have to live within their sections and have to follow numerous rules. The Aryans think they are comparable to the powerful gods and goddesses while the Defeats are the ignorant humans with evil spirits. The Aryans teach children in school stories about the Greek gods and imposes the ideas of their supremacy. No one really knows when this system started, and no one has ever questioned this system. However, the Aryans become more and more tyrannical: they force the Defects to work longer time yet give them less food, and they also capture innocent Defects and sent to them to experiment labs, where they performs experiment on the Defects…

Plot:  

In a section of Idealland, a baby girl named Emerson was born with a scar on her back, yet the mother died. People consider the baby bad luck and try to avoid the baby, except an old woman named Beatrice, who adopts Emerson and takes care of her. Since Emerson is little, she wonders why the Aryans and the Defects are viewed and treated differently. When Emerson turns 13, a pair of black wings grows out of her back, yet Bea tells her to hide the wings so that others will not treat her as a monster. As Emerson grows up in the section, she witnesses the tyranny of the Aryans.  One day, Emerson finds that Bea is captured by the army of the Aryan, so she sneaks into the capital and distracts the guards by playing a trick which she derives from the story of the Golden Apple. As she attempts to rescue Bea and people from the prison cells, she is captured by the army because she tries to protect a little girl, Rae. The Aryans decides to burn and kill her as a punishment; people from the sections see her black wings and think she is a monster who deserves to die, yet Rae cries for her death sentence… The plot is counternarrative because it exposes the cruelty and tyranny of the Aryans as well as the unjust slavery-like social system It criticizes the structure of racism, sexism, and colonization. It does not simply display victimhood or heroism; instead, it attempts to show the process of a gradual change in people’s views and the emergency of doubt toward the unjust system.

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Midterm Part I

Part I: Reflective Essay

           Throughout history, the deep structures of inequality, such as colonialism, sexism, and racism, have deeply embedded in most cultures and societies. Some of the structures of inequality even exist in legends and mythologies.  

The Deep Structures in Germany during WWII

Many structures of inequality, such as external and internal colonialism, racism, and sexism, are clearly manifested in the Nazi society. During WWII, Germany, under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, turned into a fascist, imperial nation. Through battles and invasions, it conquered most of Europe, including Poland, Belgium, and Ukraine, and such act of conquest is form of the external colonialism, where “The Nazi imposed a racial order on territorial space allegedly inhabited by primitive peoples” (Epstein 145). In both the original territory of Germany and the lands it conquered, the Nazi Party set up concentration camps, where they imprisoned and enslaved the non-Aryan people, targeting mainly the Jewish people. The concentration camps are representation of the internal colonies, where human resources are exploited as labor forces and slaves. Other than external and internal Colonialism, the structure of racism is revealed in the Nazi Party’s belief that Germen are the superior race while all the others are the inferiors. In order to better impose this belief, they even emphasizes this racist belief in their educational system, exposing them to little kids. Moreover, Sexism is also a big structure of Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party were against feminist movement and were supportive of the ideal that “world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home” (Evans 331). They wanted women to focus on their own family and be submissive to their husband, enforcing the power of men over women.

In a society with so many deep structures of inequality, I decided to adopt the three main deep structures of Nazi Germany –colonialism, racism, and sexism—and use it as the foundation for my setting. The colonialism and racism elements are the deep-rooted structures in the society of my world. The belief that one group of people are superior to the others leads to the slavery-like section system, where the supposedly inferior races have to work for the superior people. Also, words like “Aryan” are taken from the actual historical context and are used to describe the people in my society. Furthermore, the fictional world is named “Idealland” because this society would be the ideal society in Hitler’s belief of master race, yet the society is in fact all messed up and is full of injustice and inequality; thus, it serves as a satire to the racist belief of the ideal world.

Eris—the “evil” woman—and sexism in Greek mythologies

The structures of inequality also lie in legends and mythologies. The story about Eris and the Golden Apple is an example of sexism in Greek mythologies. The story talks about: Eris, “the goddess of discord,” is not invited to Zeus’s banquet, yet she somehow shows up with a golden apple upon which inscribed “KALLISTI, meaning ‘For the Fairest’,” and the golden apple stirs up “a vanity-driven dispute among the goddess that eventually  led to the Trojan War” (Schweller 10). Therefore, Eris is usually blamed for provoking the Trojan War.

However, in fact, the story diminishes and even neglects Eris’s intelligence and power. She is powerful, and that is why Zeus does not invite her, for his fear that she will destroy the party. Suppose Eris is weak and powerless, Zeus will definitely invite her to the part and not worry about her because he can control her and prevent her from doing anything unpleasant. Since Eris is in fact not invited, that shows how powerful she is. Moreover, she intelligent because she is capable of creating a dispute/war between goddesses with just a golden apple; she understands the potential power of vanity, and she is smart enough to use this characteristics of the gods and goddesses to pull a trick on them. Although she is strong and smart, people do not see her that way because the story purposely portrays her as the “evil” one.

In many Greek mythologies, most women are depicted as weak, vulnerable, and even have no agency, such as Pandora. Even goddesses, such as Atalanta, would still be defeated by gods or men. As for the woman with great power, they are described as the “evil” ones who cause disputes and chaos, and Eris is one of them. In my graphic novel, I attempted to overturn the image that woman is either vulnerable or evil, and I wanted to show that woman can also be heroic and do the same things that men can do. Thus, female characters play an important role in the story. The protagonist, Emerson, is brave, strong, and smart, and she is the first person who questions the system and performs defiant acts against the messed up system. Emerson is the representation of Eris; although she is seen as evil and monstrous by many people because of her black wings, she is in fact a heroine, who is willing to sacrifice herself to save others. Beatrice, the old lady that is preserved to be odd, is in fact kind, caring, and cheerful. Rae, the little girl whom Emerson saves, can overlook the strangeness of Emerson and see the heroic side of Emerson.

Some characteristics of Emerson resonate with Lauren Olamina, the protagonist of Octavia Butler’s novel, Parable of Sower. Both Emerson and Lauren are brave and smart. While Emerson is smart in applying the golden apple story to distract the army, Lauren attempts to read all different kinds of books to learn survival skills. They both understands how messed up their societies are while other people are ignorant about it or do not want to think about it. They both have some superpowers that are also their disabilities. Although she is willing to sacrifice herself to save others, Emerson did not get supports or helps from the Defects because of the black wings she has. As for Lauren, she has hyperempathy which supposedly should help her understand and connect with others, yet she has to kill people before she feels their pains, in order to prevent herself from feeling the enormous pains that those people are bearing.

The Everyday Life in a World

“As soon as the sun set, lamps were lit all over our quarter. The smaller children sat playing marbles near whatever light they could find. The older boys huddled in small groups near the school yard fence as they chatted over their books. The girls formed circles around their grandmothers' feet, learning to sew” (Danticat 9).

This passage depicts the typical everyday life of the Haitians in Danticat’s world. She depicts in details the street view during sunset, which includes the street lamps turning on, children playing games, girls learning how to sew. Because of the details that Danticat uses to describes her world—the peaceful and relaxing environment, it makes the story more vivid and appealing. In order to create a seemingly authentic scene, details will be very important: the more details a scene has, the richer and more appealing it would be.

For the choice of visual culture, I chose to use modern day fashion when designed outfits for the characters. The protagonist would wear a sleeveless shirt, long jeans, and boots, and they are in black, which means the same color as her wings. She is not wearing a dress or a colorful outfit because it would be inconvenient when she is flying or when she executes her plan for rescue. The world “Idealand” will be composed of: 1. the capital, which is filled with skyscrapers and advanced facilities and is in the center of the land, surrounding by water; 2. the lands for the Defects which are separated into sections and are just short buildings and factories.

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Near future sketch

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A present day border city is Shenzhen, China; although it is not a border city between China and other countries, but it is an important border city between mainland China and Hong Kong.

One technology that will be important in the future of that border city is the railway; Shenzhen is one of the biggest migrant cities in China, and it is also one of the most important transportation cites, therefore, it requires a good transportation system, which means that technological advancement in transportation system is going to be important in the future.

One socioeconomic policy that will be important is the inequality and discrimination for migrant workers. Although China has made minimum income mandatory in the Labour Law, migrant workers could seldom receive the very low monthly minimum income except when they work a large amount of overtime; discrimination against woman migrants is even more severe.

One ecological condition that will also be important in the future is the waste of paper. Many disposable paper cups and other paper products are used in everyday life, and people do not care much about recycling; therefore, they are environmentally insensitive, which could bring huge damages to the environment in the future.

If I reincarnated as a poor migrant in the future Shenzhen, I will be very excited and hopeful when I first arrived in the city with the high-speed railway; however, I will suffer a lot from discrimination against migrant workers, especially female migrants, and thus it will be really hard for me to find a work. I might later get a really low-paid job and live in a place where it is closed to the landfill, and then I will see how pollution and the failure of recycling has caused huge damages to the environment.