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Analysis Of ' Animal Subjects Of The Graphic Novel '

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This type of blurred segregation creates a category of “otherness,” meaning they are not treated equally to humans and forced into a whole different box for themselves. According to Michael Chaney in “Animal Subjects of the Graphic Novel”: Its appearance almost always accompanies the strategic and parodic veiling of the human. The illustrative style of such comics has much to do with the way this process of defamiliarization works, and we must not forget that the primary mode of representation in them is never simply language—with its conceptual relations between signifer and signified—but pictures, which bear an indexical or perceptual relation to the things they represent. (130) This would mean that even though animals may be given human …show more content…

This movie features no prominent human characters, other than the brief glimpse of Bambi’s mom’s killer. Switch over the Bolt, a 2008 Disney film starring a puppy and his human companion, Miley Cryus, on a T.V. show, attempting to deal with their overeager agents and T.V. villains. Clearly, there is a contrast between these movies. Bambi was regarded for surviving the forest as a deer, with no human interaction, while Bolt’s entire life was circled around his human companion. This is an obvious shift in the societal view of a heroic animal: surviving nature vs. depending on a human. But once again, there are different standards for domesticated dogs in animation, which helps to emphasis the stereotypical actions provided in the previous set. Lori Oswald discusses this point in her essay, claiming: “The heroic dog usually shows no fear or desire to flee from a dangerous wild animal. The dog hero always values human life—at least its beloved master’s or mistress’s life—above its own. It is the dog’s duty and function to protect humans, even if it must die doing so” (Oswald 138). Once again, dogs are held to unrealistic standards. This could be due to the fact that humans usually view themselves above all other creatures. Chaney touches on this subject in his essay, saying that “the animal-human hybridizations … tend to assume a self-conscious air about their visual infractions against the serious (anthropomorphic), wryly combining the animal and the human

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