Blankets Response Paper

Response Paper Blankets

The page I chose to analyze the parent son relationship was right at the beginning on page 15 in blankets. This is where his dad came upstairs to separate the boys by making one of them sleep in the cubby hole. I am first going to start with the most overall things that need to be pointed out and then from there I will work deeper and pick out little things in the illustration. A big idea that is blatantly obvious is the size of the dad compared to the boys. He is massive. Craig Thompson shows how powerless and inferior he saw himself to his dad as a kid. He illustrates his dad as a big guy but something just doesn’t seem right. I think Craig Thompson takes it one step further and not only does he see his dad as big and powerful he also sees him as sort of a monster. He really doesn’t give him the human features like he does in all his other characters. He looks bulky but not muscular, just big and scary looking. I think Craig purposefully didn’t make his dad look human because he did not see him as someone he wanted as a role model or grow up being like.
Another really easy to see thing is his dad’s face. He has no expression. Craig does not give his Dad a mouth or eyes. His face is just a stern and expressionless. Just by doing this it is obvious there was a huge disconnect from his dad being a regular father figure as a kid. He does not see his dad as a friend or someone he could talk to or do things with. His dad has no eyes and no mouth on purpose. He was just someone to punish them for doing things wrong. This is made evident in the book as you read on.
Something else I noticed was the way he drew his dad dragging and pulling the brother off of the bed. He even has one picture of his dad completely holding the son by the shirt in the air.   This is showing that his dad used a lot of physical force to get them to do stuff. He did not negotiate or tell them to do something. He just goes ahead and grabs and yanks them to do what he...