Both pages in the double-spread from Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth are dreams and share surreal themes. Visually they are completely different, however, thematically they can be seen to link due to sharing ideas of anxiety and abandonment. The double-spread chosen is the end of the dream where Superman drops Jimmy’s house and the beginning of the dream about the small horse he is forced to shoot.
The first page is framed differently than any other page since the panels are situated inside a theatre with what seems like birds or mice watching the action take place. This has a metatextual theme surrounding it since it is drawing attention to the fact that it is a fictional narrative by creating two separate audiences – one inside the text, …show more content…
However, the closeness of the two and the position of it near his heart hints at a more complex relationship. Scott McCloud argues that ‘Our identities and awareness are invested in many inanimate objects … [that] can trigger transformations in the way others see us and in the way we see ourselves’ which makes it likely that Jimmy identifies with his horse. Jimmy’s defensive response towards the horse stating that ‘Paw he ain’t a rat he aint no rat… Amos’ a horse just like all the others… He just small, that’s all Paw he don’ mean no harm Paw he don’ mean no harm likin to dress fancy every oncet’ parallels his own life. There is an alienation of the horse because of his smallness which Jimmy can relate to since he has been characterised as small throughout this sequence. Jimmy’s attempt to justify the horse is an attempt to justify his own existence and if he can push confidence into this horse it will change how he views himself like McCloud argues. Therefore, the horse is a physical manifestation of how he views himself and is a method of cherishing the
The first page is framed differently than any other page since the panels are situated inside a theatre with what seems like birds or mice watching the action take place. This has a metatextual theme surrounding it since it is drawing attention to the fact that it is a fictional narrative by creating two separate audiences – one inside the text, …show more content…
However, the closeness of the two and the position of it near his heart hints at a more complex relationship. Scott McCloud argues that ‘Our identities and awareness are invested in many inanimate objects … [that] can trigger transformations in the way others see us and in the way we see ourselves’ which makes it likely that Jimmy identifies with his horse. Jimmy’s defensive response towards the horse stating that ‘Paw he ain’t a rat he aint no rat… Amos’ a horse just like all the others… He just small, that’s all Paw he don’ mean no harm Paw he don’ mean no harm likin to dress fancy every oncet’ parallels his own life. There is an alienation of the horse because of his smallness which Jimmy can relate to since he has been characterised as small throughout this sequence. Jimmy’s attempt to justify the horse is an attempt to justify his own existence and if he can push confidence into this horse it will change how he views himself like McCloud argues. Therefore, the horse is a physical manifestation of how he views himself and is a method of cherishing the