I Kill Giants Character Analysis Essay

As human beings, we constantly have different moods, and these are always changing. Sometimes we are happy, angry, defensive, morbid, depressed, etc. We express these changes in mood through behavior, body language, and overall attitudes that are for the most part easy to map by the people who are around you. Similarly, for Barbara in the graphic novel I Kill Giants, she is illustrated by JM Ken Nimura to have, in almost every panel of the book, either some different animal ears or a quirky hat that suits the personality crafted by Joe Kelly perfectly. Some might say this was just an unrelated artistic choice, but it means so much more than that-- with each change in the ears, it reflects how Barbara reacts to the events of the story. The first true introduction we have to Barbara Thorson is a full body panel of her standing confidently, with large floppy rabbit ears (Kelly & Nimura, Ch 1). This may have seemed confusing at first, but after hearing her converse with the other characters in that scene, it seems to represent her quick wits, her intellectual nature, and confidence. There is one other time in the story where the rabbit ears resurface, and that is when she is fighting the titan near the end. This example is …show more content…
In her argument with Karen about hitting Mrs. Molle, and the scene that follows Barbara’s head wear are small pointed horns. These two scenes are the only place in the book we see these ears, but in the second scene we see Barbara hurting herself. This is a very dark point for Barbara, and these horns reflect her behavior in a way that she is giving herself physical pain, to help ease the emotional turmoil brought up by Karen mentioning what we assume to be the illness of their mother (Ch 4). The significance of the “devil” horns portray the sadistic act against herself, which is a troubling way that Barbara chooses to handle her mother’s