A Panel from Blankets

The panels that I chose to write about were the panels on page 168. In this part of the story Craig is asking his mother if he can take some time off of school to go visit Raina. Up until this point his mother had a fairly negative opinion of the whole idea, but once Craig tells her that Raina's parents are Christian, then everything is good to go, and there are no longer any issues. You can see his face brighten, and her frown turn into a smile. It is obvious that Craig knew that as long as his mother knew they were Christian, then he had a fighting chance to go see her.

Now, in my opinion, the mother seems a little naive about the circumstances. She is choosing to believe that just because Raina's parents are Christian that Craig and Raina will not be together and there will be no problems with sleeping arrangements. The role of religion is a reoccurring factor throughout the first half of the book. Not only is it made clear that his mother is religious, but his Pastor asks Craig if he plans on going into the ministry, and urges Craig to do so. Like Jeanette, I believe that Craig is struggling to find where he 'belongs'. I also feel that all of the religion that he has been bombarded with will somehow influence his decisions on what he wants to do with his life later on. 

Another set of panels is on page 61. In this set of panels he is in Sunday school, and his teacher is talking about hell, and Craig is imagining the night his brother was put in the cubby hole. That night seems to run parallel to the way the Sunday school teacher is depicting hell to be. This worried me a little for Craig's sake. As such a young child, I wouldn't think that that was normal, or even right to teach children in that way. Visually it is intimidating because the background is black and all of this negative energy is being remembered. Another set of interesting panels is on pages 201-208. In this scene Craig gets in trouble for drawing pictures of naked women on the bus, and is made to feel guilty by his parents because he has disappointed God. With all of these negative forces around him, its no wonder why Craig is hesitant on whether he want to join the ministry or not. I think that religion runs parallel to a good chunk of the text so far, and is interesting to note the similar struggles that Craig and Jeanette seem to share.