Category A. Prompt B
One of the novel’s main motifs is friendship. The characters
even have a catchphrase they say to show the audience that: “Friendship to the
Max”. Towards the end of chapter one is where we first hear one of the girls
say this phrase. The girls are explaining to the head of the camp why their
camp counselor is upset with them, and in the second to last frame on the text
we read, “So Jo and I woke up all of our friends because FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX
obviously and we went after it and then there were foxes and here we are”.
Another indicator that this motif is central to the plot of the book is the
fact that the girls are always together. They never separate or divide
themselves into teams. The novel’s obvious reference to the American Girl Scout
organization, further cements the motif to the reader that this will be a
friendship inspired book. Girl Scouts are known for going camping and using teamwork
to sell the most cookies. These events girls scouts are known for are meant to
help them bond as friends and teach them valuable life lessons. This motif of
friendship complicates the reading of the passage because it feels like this
theme is overdone and it made me suspicious as a reader that their friendship
would be tested. To my surprise though their friendship wasn’t tested directly.
They did prove their incredible friendship with their amazing feats, like
defeating the river monster and convincing the yeti’s to help them. I guess, we’ll
see more tests of their friendships in later volumes of the story.
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteYou are right in your closing lines that female friendship is one of themes of the comic series. While it is perhaps overdone, we might want to question why that may be. One possible explanation is that anti-feminist narratives tend to pit adolescent girls against each other (competing for boys usually). So, if a text is setting out to be feminist, they may emphasize the strength of women united rather than divided. Keep in mind that a motif is a symbol that is repeated throughout a text, so since friendship is an abstract concept that is important to the overall story, it is more of a theme than a motif.