A Gutter In Joe Sacco's Palestine

Where there are no words to guide a story, it is up to the imagination of the reader to build a bridge between the lines. According to Scott McCloud, the gutter, termed as “the space between the panels,” is an area where a reader finds closure (66,). From the fragmented parts shown by the author, the reader creates a conceivable order to relate the images and form a whole, unified by a central idea. This concept of closure occurs at various degrees, depending on a basis established by the author. The pattern manifests itself through different panel-to-panel transitions: moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, and non-sequitar (74,). In the graphic novel, Palestine, Joe Sacco uses many instances …show more content…
However, to understand what happens in the gutter, it is important for the reader to absorb and process information that the author conveys in the first frame before comparing it to the next. In the first frame a dark frame extends out to the edges of the panel, and a view of the streets fills the center of the frame, with children looking at the reader with solemn and distressed faces (148). From studying previous panels, the reader would know that Joe is traveling in a white van. To apply the idea to the present frame, the reader must obtain additional parts to form the whole idea. Sacco repeatedly illustrates Joe as having a round head with shortcut hair, abnormally large lips, a pronounced nose, and wearing circular spectacles. With the logic that lack of light shining on a subject would make it appear dark, the reader commits closure that the shadow of the figure is in fact Joe and he is present inside the van and looking at the children. Though the black stencil of the van merges with that of Joe’s figure, prior experiences of being inside a vehicle allow the reader to acknowledge that the beams of the van extend behind Joe’s head and the spaces in between make up windows. After rendering the concept in their minds, readers can conclude that though portions of the children’s bodies are obscured by the van’s silhouette, they continue to exist as a whole behind the van. The reader also commits closure in order to …show more content…
According to McCloud, this type of transition is termed as subject to subject because the images in the panels are linked by a deeper concept that the reader must deduce (71). Apart from general displacement of time and space, the gutter encapsulates another type of shift; in addition to zooming in on Joe’s face, the second panel reveals a larger view of the streets, and the buildings in the background grow in height (148). The reader finds closure when he or she attributes the shift in the frame of reference to the author’s underlying purpose for the transition. The reader grasps the author’s motif by deciphering and integrating judgements made from closure. The third panel showcases some fatigued Israeli soldiers passing by the van and the frame of reference further shifts to the open window. By committing closure, the reader will realize the pattern of events that transpire in the first gutter resurface in the second, unifying the set of three panels. By compiling the assumptions, the reader can conclude that Sacco’s rationale for the transitions is to communicate a deeper figurative meaning: the pattern of the unvarying silhouette in presence of turmoil represents a reporter’s stoic expression to the hardships endured by the refugees and soldiers,