Assignment 3.4.Pt.1-Feedback Focus Areas

Mohammad Ashkanani

Professor: Rachael Sullivan

English 101

24 October 2011

Critical Interpretive Essay: “A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge”

by

Josh Neufeld

           

My attempt in draft form to personally interpret Josh Neufeld’s “A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge” began with the emphasis placed on my introduction.  This was because in my introduction, I attempted to make my readers understand the reasonings I felt why Neufeld’s had from the beginning of his comic, immediately engulfed the reader in a visual scenario of dire degradation on the level of a poverty stricken Third World country. 

These initial shocking depictions quickly gave way by page 218 to an even more alarming larger pictorial portrayal of mass hysteria. This mass hysteria was visually on a level that was extremely frightening even for a comic.  It was here that I did my best to express to the reader as clearly as I could explain my controlling purpose in all of this unbelievably happening to Americans in America. 

I felt this was one of the main factors that mattered to Neufeld, as I was also greatly incensed by it as well, and I did my best to respond to what I felt mattered most in Neufeld’s argument visually and verbally expressed in this most both shocking and heartbreaking comic.

I went on to attempt to critically interpret Neufeld’s main message conveyed through his comic by means of interjecting and adding where I felt appropriate and associative, in-text citations voiced by Neufeld’s main characters, in which he seemed to give more voice to than the many other voiceless but nonetheless, memorable tragic character victims.  It was a number of these verbal expressions of emotions ranging from intense anger to desperateness that cemented in worded definition the seemingly unexplainable human horror that Neufeld terrifyingly depicted in equally frightening accuracy of detail.

Hence I tried to comprehensively integrate Neufeld’s visual depictions, limited worded dialogue to define his purpose, context, medium and intended audience.  Although it has dawned on me after reading and writing about this assigned-subject comic, that Neufeld really needed no verbal wording in this comic whatsoever.  For it was Neufeld’s pure mastery of cartoon illustration that made abundantly clear the depth of grave seriousness of human suffering depicted in it.  This I feel was this comic’s true message that Neufeld was successful in visually conveying to the reader to bring about greater attention and resolution that this type of needless tragedy should never happen again and possibly a greater realization, that we are our brother’s keeper.

 

Works Cited

Neufeld, Josh. “A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge.”  First Year Composition Reader.  Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011.