Reading Response No. 4

Getting Ready to Read:
Consider why some children use stick figures when drawing pictures of themselves. Is it possible that stick figures show the development of a child in relation to his own self-awareness?
I do not think that children draw stick figures of themselves due to self-awarness. If a child is small enough, a stick figure is the easiest way to draw people, therefore, that is the way a child draws people. Usually, children do not develop the skills to draw people in detail.


Try to recall what your favorite cartoon was or still is. Do you relate to a character and find yourself connecting? What features do you think help you connect?
I will admit that my favorite cartoon to this day is Spongebob Squarepants. As a child, the character I related to most was the tomboy squirrel (the somehow is able to live underwater) Sandy. I felt that if it was okay for Sandy to be a tomboy, then it was okay for me as well. Now that I think about it, that show is kind of rediculous, and it would be hard to relate to much of anything in it, but that's what I got from that character.

Reading Response:
In his article "Vocabulary of Comics," McCloud tries to educate his audience about the interaction between icons and the connections that humans have to them. He argues that humans' self-awarness can be compared to cartoons. As if the way we see ourselves can be as simple as a cartoon sketch of a person, which is why our minds automatically see faces when we see two cirlces and a line arranged in the right way. This is because, as humans, we easily see oursleves in things such as cartoons or different icons.

Questions for Disscussion and Journaling:

1.      Why does McCloud use the comic book format to convey his ideas to the reader? How would his points have suffered if expressed them only through writing?

McCloud uses the comic book format to convey his ideas to the reader by showing how humans respond to icons rather than trying to tell them. The fact that he uses pictures for this piece gets his point across better than it would with just text. His point would have suffered had he used just text because he couldn't make the point about the narrorator being a blank slate and a part of the audience. It also would have been hard to explain any of his points without using the pictures.

2.    McCloud suggests that if the narrator looked more realistic, and less like a cartoon, you would be more preoccupied with him as the messenger and less with message at hand. Is this true? Are cartoon characters, overall, a “blank slate” that we fill with our own identity? Why or why not?

I don't think that if the narrorator had been more detailed that I would have been more focused on the drawing than the message. However, that does not mean that others would focus on the message rather than the narrorator; this could just depend on the person. Since humans do connect with cartoons and icons so much, characters could be blank slates that we fill with our own identity. This is why we can relate to characters so well.

 

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.      Why does McCloud contend that we are more likely to see ourselves in generic, cartoonish images that do not accurately resemble human faces? Contrary to McCloud’s argument, have you ever looked at a photograph or realistic portrait of a person and identified with the subject?

McCloud says that we are more likely to see ourselves in generic cartoons rather than detailed cartoons is simple. When one sees a cartoon face that resembles a human face exactly, if one does not look like this, then they are less likely to identify with it because the two do not look alike. However, if a cartoon face is more generic and does not resemble a particualr human face, one is more likely to identify with it becuase it is easier to see themselves in it.

2.   Why do you think some adults “grow out” of watching cartoons, or at least say that they do, when it is clear that they encounter icons or cartoons every day?

Adults say that they have outgrown cartoons due to the social stigma that cartoons ar efor children. Cartoons also usually explore situations that children or young adults experience, or childish themes. However, this does not mean that they stop indentifying with cartoons; making it clear that everyone sees icons and cartoons everyday.

 

In my opinion, this article gave good insight to the complicated subject of self-awarness. The concept is new to me, so I liked the fact that it was "to the point" for most of the article. However, I'm still figuring out how this connects to academic writing.