The
graphic novel that will be reviewed is called Boys Don’t Cry by Jacqueline Saville, Mark Pexton and Andrew
Woods. This free pdf online graphic novel
is from a site called Ostragoth and the link is http://www.ostragoth.co.uk/ebooks/BoysDon%27tCry_ebook.pdf
. This graphic novel is about a young
teenage boy named Hunter. He recently
lost his mom due to a cliff accident. In
the beginning of the novel, Hunter is mainly with his friends. The author emphasizes that Hunter is quite
anti-social around his peers. Although
his friends know he doesn’t say or do much, none of them go as far as to asking
him what’s wrong or why he doesn’t speak.
His main three friends just seem to brush it off. One day Hunter leaves school early to meet
his sister, Catherine, at the train station who was gone away for school. He was very excited to see her. Later that night Hunter has a dream about his
mother, one of many that he has throughout the novel. Every time he dreams of his mother, her back
is to her and when she turns around her face depicts that of a demonic
skeleton. He also dreams of a horse and
it is a horse that his mother gave him years before her passing. Throughout the story, Hunter keeps the horse
with him wherever he goes. During this
particular dream he wakes up and runs to his sister’s room. She is quite upset that he has woken her up
at four in the morning and tells him to get out. He then leaves his house afraid of falling
back sleep. He wonders to his old
neighbourhood where he crosses path with the home of his sister’s friend,
Georgina. His memories of her are very
comforting to him as he was quite fond of her.
At home, Hunter’s father wakes up and it is early morning now. He is worried that Hunter is not home and
Catherine tells her father about what had happened during the night. His father breaks down and the narrator
begins to tell the reader about Hunter’s mother and her battle with
depression. Hunter still on the streets,
decides that he is going to visit Georgina.
He finally makes it to her school but he is very tired and
exhausted. She opens the door for him
and he falls into her arms. She is very
confused and afraid something was wrong.
Hunter explains he just needed her or needed somebody and begins to
cry. In the end the narrator states that
he drifts into a dreamless sleep.
A
main theme in this graphic novel was mental health and stigma. Hunter was suffering from depression after
his mother passed away. In the novel he
had friends but none of them bothered to ask him what was wrong or how he was
feeling. The author clearly points this
out in the story where he states that none of his friends would even bother to
ask him or even really acknowledges his presence. The novel really starts to get into the
actually mental health issue of depression when talking about Hunter’s
mother. Hunter’s father describes how
his mother seemed less and less happy on the days leading up to her death. Hunter never really shows his emotion through
the whole book until the end when he goes to see Georgina. The social stigma that everyone has put on
him leads him to a final breaking point.
The reader sees in the end that all he really wanted was someone to talk
to. Even in the title, it is a clear
representation of social stigma that “boys don’t cry”. Another theme in this graphic novel is the
use of symbolism. The horse that Hunter’s
mother gives to him as a child, Hunter keeps with him wherever he goes. It even follows him into his dreams where it
is depicted that Hunter is riding the horse.
The horse really symbolizes Hunter in a way that he is trying to be
free. He is trying to break through his
depression but doesn’t know where to go.
He has two dreams in the novel that both involve the horse. The first dream is of just the horse and it
encounters a lady. He thinks that it is
his mother and as he calls out to the figure it turns around. He then realizes it is a demon-looking
skeleton face and that it is not in fact his mother. Another interesting aspect of the characters
is that throughout the whole story, Hunter’s character has no face. All the other character’s faces are depicted
as human faces but Hunter has no face. He
has no visible human features on his face.
This represents his struggle of finding himself. Since his mother died, he became isolated and
distant from reality. He tried to come
back but had no one to reach out to, to help him.
The
most obvious visual storytelling is that the novel is formatted in black and
white. The black and white drawing of
the characters left a lot of room for interpretation. A lot of the panels were drawn in such a way
that it was hard to understand what it was trying to depict. This was confusing for the reader at
first. But as one continued reading it
started to all come together. The author
formatted the novel in a sequence of the writing story and then the visual
story. So whilst reading the received
information, the perceived information would follow. This allowed for the gaps to be filled in by
the reader. The only use of colour in
the novel was the colour of purple by a flower that appeared in scenes where
Hunter was having dreams. This
represented figuratively his dreams. He
ultimately wanted to break free some his depression but couldn’t find a way
how. He found a way at the end of the
novel when he goes to see Georgina.
Overall
this graphic novel was an easy and in-depth read. The use of descriptive writing from the
author helps project and portray Hunter’s character. The simple way that this novel depicts the growing
concern of depression is interesting. It
is clearly the main theme of the graphic novel.
Readers interested in becoming aware of what it’s like to live with
depression should grab this easy and quick read.
Sherina Ramlogan
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