Gender and Marriage in Graceling

Category A, Prompt D

Throughout the text, a predominant source of fear and frustration for Katsa is being owned. This fear is founded in her relationship with her Uncle, who has for years held control over her actions and treated her as a tool for his desires, but it becomes a more complex issue when it comes to the other relationships in Katsa’s life, particularly those romantic ones. The passage I chose takes place over chapter 20, in which Katsa has fully realized her feelings for Po, and he has offered to be with her in whatever way she is comfortable. In the passage Katsa describes that “If she took Po as her husband, she would be making promises about a future she couldn’t yet see. For once she became his wife, she would be his wife forever. And, no matter how much freedom Po gave her, she would always know that it was a gift. Her freedom would not be her own; it would be Po’s to give or to withhold. That he never would withhold it made no difference.” This is the clearest example of her feelings about marriage and where her fears stem from.
Although it is not something brought to extreme focus in the novel, it is clear that in this world that Katsa lives in, women are beholden to men. Katsa’s Grace can be directly translated to mean that she is literally able to survive without a man in a place where it appears that ordinarily the security of a woman’s future is directly related to her marital status.It is no coincidence that Katsa and Po’s relationship is so often described and discussed in terms of consent. Po is constantly assuring her that he does not need her to change, that he would not control her. Katsa fear though is based in the belief that part of being with someone is giving up a bit of yourself even if the end you have only give up your happiness, as Po mentions. Consent is again mentioned in the moment it matters most, when they are together, Katsa saying “that this one time she would consent to hurt, and bleed, at his touch” and again it is tied to the idea of voluntarily giving something away, in this instance her virginity. Afterwards Katsa remarks “I have not lost myself”, a reaffirmation that although she is now involved with a man, she is still her own person and in control of herself.

Anagrams and Hidden Meanings in Lumberjanes

Vasili Birlidis
Category A, prompt C

Comic books are not known for their dialogue or written word, but Lumberjanes is unique in that it features several passages of longform writing as bookends for each issue (or in the trade paperback we read, "chapter"). However, the most obvious and essential literary device occurs within the illustrated adventure itself in Chapter Three: in trying to escape the ancient underground temple, the Lumberjanes encounter a wall of anagrams. Molly realizes that the foxes' warning from Chapter One - "beware the kitten holy" - is not a metaphor or pun, but an anagram for "in the tower by the lake."

Being a comic book aimed at younger audiences, Lumberjanes features a couple semi-educational sequences (especially in Chapter Three), including one about the Fibonacci sequence and this one on anagrams. It gently introduces the topic to readers while making it integral to the plot and therefore necessary. The anagram "in the tower by the lake" directly sets up all of Chapter Four, where the Lumberjanes escape from an all-boys' camp to explore the lighthouse tower.

Anagrams are an arrangement of letters that hide a true meaning. This concept of something veiling something else represents Lumberjanes' first volume as a whole. The Lumberjanes program name evokes a female lumberjack, aptly describing how Lumberjanes is a critique of both Girl Scouts USA and Boy Scouts of America's divided gender roles. Molly performs CPR on Mal after she almost drowns, saving her life but also thinly veiling what could be a lesbian kiss that might otherwise harm the book's sales nationwide early into the series' run (note the two characters' blushing). The replacing of "girls" with "hardcore lady-types" is humorous but also responds to the idea that girl is lingustically a lesser term for women, and "lady-types" may be a way of acknowledging transwomen and non-binary persons.

Lumberjanes packs a lot of visual satire and double meanings into its pages, but so far it has also exhibited careful use of the English language in a way that is often overlooked.

The Use of Epigraph’s in Lumberjanes

In Lumberjanes, the field manual chapter page before each new section of the graphic novel, describes and foreshadows the content of that section. For example, the first chapter is the “Up all Night” badge for which a Lumberjane must “have enjoyed the first wind of a new day with the moon above her head and without sleep, energetically explored the new possibility of viewing the world under the moon”. While the description of the badge that the manual provides does describe what the girls end up doing by the end of the chapter, in mentioning that a Lumberjane must learn “how to work against the unnatural and supernatural forces that a Lumberjane is bound to confront”, it is the brief quote below the name of the corresponding badge that is most telling of the adventure to come.

The first epigraph reads “Learn what goes bump in the night”, and accordingly it is the sound of the wolves that first sees all the girls together and launches their “all night” adventure. In the second section the epigraph reads “Because drowning is a scary way to go” and in the section Mal literally does drown and it is CPR (kind of but not really) that ends up saving her life.The manual reads the the “Naval Gauging Badge” requires that a Lumberjane, among other things, know how to “row, pole, scull, and steer a boat; also bring a boat properly alongside and make fast”, as well as “the importance of a life preserver, CPR, and the basic understanding of how to respond to emergency situations” skills which the girls use to rescue each other (although Ripley truly displays the best emergency response of all in her causal saving of Mal’s life). This use of this literary device in accompaniment with the field manual is present in each section and more often than not, an exact description of the events to come can be found on that manual page, although how those events come to pass is not nearly as predictable.

The Foreshadowing of the Lumberjane's Pledge

I solemnly swear to do my best every day. And in all that I do. To be brave and strong. To be truthful and compassionate. To be interesting and interested. To respect nature. To pay attention and question the world around me. To think of others first. To always help and protect my friends. Then there’s a line about God or whatever, and to make the world a better place for Lumberjane Scouts and for everyone else.

One of this series motifs is the concept of bonding and friendship, and according to the text of the Lumberjane’s Scout Pledge this friendship will soon be put to the test. Unfortunately, we were only tasked with reading Volume 1 of the Lumberjanes comic, so I am not sure how my prediction will turn out. According to the Lumberjane’s Pledge, a Lumberjane Scout must “think of others first” and “always help and protect my friends.” Now, considering friendship and bonding is one of the central motifs in this series, I believe it is an obvious assumption that eventually a circumstance will arise that will test the groups bonds with each other. As in any good comic series, any form of pledge or code of honor will inevitably be tested. That is how good drama is created and how the stakes can be raised higher than if they were simply put through dangerous situation after dangerous situation. The Lumberjane’s bond must be tested if any real character building is to occur. The Lumberjane’s must “be truthful and compassionate.” This truthful statement in particular could be tested. Maybe one of the group wishes to hide a secret from the others. In fact, this has already occurred more than once. In the beginning of the series Jo took one of the amulets that was dropped by the three eyed fox upon its defeat. Again in the first issue, it is implied that Ripley stole the glowing crystal from Rosie’s bathroom. Neither girl has informed the group of their theft, which could lead to trouble down the road. Jo picked up the same kind of amulet that the boy’s camp wears, and the ones that are implied to have forced the werewolf-esque change onto them. Who is to say that Jo will not undergo a similar transformation and attack her fellow Lumberjanes? Though these issues are not solved in the first volume, the motif of friendship clearly lends an eerie and dooming quality to the Lumberjane’s pledge if you dig deep enough.