Ward’s
Vertigo is a very complex and intricately portrayed story done through 300
black and white images. The graphic novel takes place within the years of 1929
and 1935. These years were probably the darkest for the United States of
America. From late 1929 and until 1939 the Great Depression was occurring. In
Vertigo, the times and how they affected most of the American population is
shown through the lives of three individuals, The Girl, The Elderly Gentleman
and The Boy.
Early in
Vertigo, in 1929, while following the life of The Girl, she attends a public
speech which depicts a quick look into the history of the United States. The
history shows a boat traveling the ocean, men cutting down trees, a revolution
breaking out, the move out west, railroads being built, and finally the steel
building being built. The final image is the speaker showing off the buildings
and city as if that is all that America means. This trust and reliance on big
business is what became the downfall once the stock market crashed. The crash
in the market was shown in Vertigo during the end of 1929. The girl goes from
being happy with a boy, (who turns out to be The Boy) to being thrown into
shock and dismay from a big storm breaking through the fun.
With the
history of America being highlighted and represented by the big city, Vertigo
displays how that reliance backfired and affected all of America. When the
market crashed everything became hectic for the nation. The Girls father got
laid off and even so much as attempted suicide. The life of the girl is slowly
drained through each frame. More darkness enveloped her face and body. The
dream to become a violinist that she once had faded to the point that she went
into a pawn shop with her violin. The elderly gentleman, while always a lonely
man went from going to plays, museums and being mobile became bed ridden and
very ill, his once profitable company plummeted into the red. The Boy went from
happily married to The Girl to hopelessly searching for jobs all over the
country. Even going so far as stealing the clothes off a man who died in a car
accident in front of him. Overall the three stories all showed how the American
dream can so quickly fade into hopeless despair if the economy cannot hold up
those dreams.
While each life portrayed in Vertigo was a
separate section, they were all connected in their own ways. The Girl and The
Boy had a brief but powerful relationship and The Elderly Gentlemen was
responsible for letting go The Girls father and The Boy did a blood transfusion
with the Elderly Gentleman. The interconnection is supposed to show how all of
America got hurt by the depression, equally and unequally. The family life in
America according to Ward suffers and this is shown by the father blinding
himself and the girl and boy going from blissfully together and getting married
to not seeing one another for years. Big company was withering away as shown by
the Elderly Gentleman slowly becoming more and more evil, taking away jobs,
beating union members, even killing protesters all from his chair at home with
the five dollar phone bought at a pawn shop. Then the hopeless and dog eat dog
world of trying to find a job at the times was just shown by how The Boy
traveled across the country looking for anything possible.
What is interesting
about these relationships is the outcome of all three situations. The Elderly
Gentleman becomes more ruthless trying to bring profits up and it brings him
near death, until an emergency transfusion with the boy. The transfusion seems
to represent the rich feeding off of the common people to stay rich. Post
transfusion, The Boy is obviously weakened while the Elderly Gentleman is back
to life and his company is back up in profits. All while still being lonely and
stoic. However, the boy gets goes from thinking of murdering a man to saving a
life, having money and getting back with the Girl.
The ending
of Vertigo seems like Lynd Ward had a glimmer of hope for the coming years
post-depression. He seemed to know that despite the sudden decline in profits
the big companies would recover, no matter what they had to do, and also
believed that no matter how bleak life may be and how much one had to struggle,
eventually if you keep hope and have love, you might just make it through. Ward
composed the novel in 1937, therefore he was still in the late stages of the
depression, yet still had hope for the future. With the history of America
being built from nothing to being run by big business, life would be bleak once
economy crashes, as shown by the most part of the novel. However, with America
being built on nothing, going back down to "nothing" while a
detriment to society, gives hope to some because coming back up from nothing
has been done before and will be done then.
The main problem that I have with this essay is that it seems to be a summary of Vertigo. I even struggled to find the argument in this essay at first. The argument that I found is the following, "the times and how they affected most of the American population is shown through the lives of three individuals, The Girl, The Elderly Gentleman and The Boy." It is not a surprise to the common person that the majority of the population of the United States was negatively impacted by the Great Depression so your claim here is boring. You did provide enough evidence for this claim, but you did not use it in the correct way. As stated above, it seems that you just summarized events of the book. I do like how you brought attention to how the Girl slowly became drained and was enveloped in darkness. That is something that the common person would notice.
ReplyDeleteFor the future of this essay, I would work on creating a new hypothesis that is more specific to a certain detail in the history segment and then explain how that detail shows up in the remainder of the novel and why it is meaningful. I would also further analyze data in order to create a concrete argument and not just a paper based on a summary of a novel that we all read. The first paragraph that you wrote gives background information on the novel that we as a class already know. Because of this, it isn't necessary and should be removed.