Sacco's Lens

Safe Area Gorazde was one of the most stunning and difficult novels I’ve ever read. Sacco’s immaculate art emphasized the already jaw-dropping narrative, and oftentimes made it hard to stomach- to accept that any of this happened outside the world of these imaginative, and yet realistic drawings. Sacco inserts himself in the story as an outsider. Not only is he from a foreign country with the special privilege of escape from Gorazde, but also he looks different from the other characters. To me, his appearance was more comic –like than the other characters. I think Sacco did this intentionally to separate himself from the narratives of the other characters. Perhaps he would have completely removed himself from the story had he not played such a large role in gathering the survivors’ tales. With a less realistic appearance in the graphic novel, Sacco shows that he does not consider himself worthy of the realism in other characters; that is, he has not suffered through the awful trials. Sacco is self-conscious of his role as visitor. We’ve discussed in class how people who have a talent for telling stories have a duty to communicate the stories of others that need to be told. This novel is the greatest example of this, so far, I think. Bosnia’s war contained so much tragedy and horrendous human behavior. At one instance, the story begs to be told so humanity can prevent similar events in the future while there is a strong desire to forget it all and move forward. On pages 160 and 161, Sacco specifically asks if the Muslims and other victims live again in peace with the Serbs. The summary of the pages seems to be that the events can never be forgotten, and yet there is not a strong willingness to forgive… and so remains the threat of reprisals and never-ending conflict.

Sacco tells the story so well, especially in his portrayal of human faces. I could see the deep sadness and pure exhaustion in the eyes of the characters and felt for their every experience, even though I had known very little about the Bosnian war before I started to read. In fact, I knew only the figures-of death tolls and who caused the conflict and how the United States reacted. Reading this graphic novel made me feel like I visited the country and traveled with Joe Sacco to see the devastation. His role as narrator makes the story more personal, as if Sacco invited the reader on this journey with him. He makes jokes to the reader in the boxes of narration out of sight of the characters within the story, as if we’ve earned the special privilege of personal anecdotes from Sacco. Sometimes Sacco is talking in word bubbles while narrating alongside in larger word boxes. This shows his style self-conscious story telling. He accepts the lighthearted nature of the people in Gorazde all too easily, and admits that he has accepted it all too easily. Sacco comments on the behavior of journalists including him, who drop in at the end of a conflict and encounter tragic experiences through others. They can enjoy the relative safety of a post-conflict region while feeling important to the people and to the world as a conduit of essential news. However, Sacco and his joking nature disappear during the extremely graphic parts of the story, in which the survivors completely take over their narrative. In some sections, the narrative of the survivors occupies word bubbles as well as text boxes, as Sacco allows them to take over his narrative style and the narrative itself. Just as intentionally as Sacco put himself into the story, he takes himself out. In this way he acknowledges the importance of the characters instead of the journalists. Just as the Blue Road is an unreliable route to the outside world, Sacco is not a completely flawless storyteller. The way out of Gorazde is never easy. Residents of the town must trust Sacco and other outsiders to bring things as inconsequential as blue jeans back to them, but they must also trust the journalists to export their stories. If not an actual survivor, the narrator of any tragedy is so important because they are telling the story from their lens. They did not experience the tragedy firsthand, and yet they will spread news of the experiences through the world. Sacco does this in a self-conscious manner that works, inviting his own attitudes as extraneous pieces of narration while the truly impactful pieces of the story lie in the hands of those people have survived the Bosnian war.