AOB 2 - Structure

When considering the narrative of any graphic novel, you must take several things into consideration such as, The narratives purpose, The Narrative hook and The framing devices used within.

Maus has an open narrative and does, to some extent follow Todorov’s theory as the story starts calmly, has peaks of disruption and destruction and eventually returns to a calm moment but this trend continues throughout the entire comic.
This also follows for Freytag’s pyramid theory as the story does increase in drama and suspense, reaching a climatic point then slowly drawing to a close (conclusion). The framing device used in Maus is the relationship between the father and the son, the father telling the son about his life during the Nazi occupation of europe and his survival in nazi concentration camps. This form uses flashbacks of the fathers capture wrapped around moments from the present day of the father-son relationship, rather similar to some film narratives such as The Shining and some telivision programs such as CSI.
The narrative hook within Maus is obviously the holocaust and this is a sensitive subject even today after 65 years, as many innocent people were needlessly persecuted and killed.

Persepolis has an closed narrative as the young girl divides up her precious possessions, packs her bags and head to the airport as her parents want her to go to France, far away from the violence and turmoil within Iran. Persepolis also does follow the Toderov theory as the story starts by introducing the main characters and telling the read about them, then the story gets disrupted because the girl cant be who she wants to be, she has no freedom and then eventually the equlibrium is restored as the girls parents send her to france, granting her her freedom and liberty she longs for.Persepolis is also a graphic novel which employes the use of binary opposites, somethings similar to the ying and yang symbols you may haveseen throughout your lifetime, the binary opposites being the government of the state enforcing law and the large groups of protesters who are trying to change the contry in some way. persepolis is written in the 1st person perception and the narrative hook in the story is to see weather the girl achieves her dream of freedom.

Palestine has a closed narrative as it is written from the perspective of a journalist visiting the war torn country who eventually leaves, but the story is ended in such a way so that he could return. The story is about the journalist's life in the country and comprised of his findings so it is non-fiction and features a man trying to survive after, being welcomed by many but also receiving much scepticism over how he could help the situation, possibly a narrative hook perhaps because the reader would want to find out how the conflict would end, making them read on through the comic.